Preview: Riverhounds SC vs Charleston Battery

Photo courtesy Ed Thompson

USL Championship Atlantic Division & Old Guard Shield

Riverhounds SC vs Charleston Battery

Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021 |  7 p.m. |  Highmark Stadium
TV: 22 The Point  Streaming: ESPN+
Live Statistics: USL Championship Match Center
Updates: PSN Coverage Twitter at @Soccer_Rabbi and #PITvCHS

 

Gameday Updates 

Look for lineups and major game highlights/updates to be posted here around kickoff as Mark Goodman will be providing on-site coverage from Highmark Stadium.

Gameday!

It's been 742 days since our @OldGuardShield foes have been to Highmark Stadium. Do your civic duty and help us welcome them back to the 412.#UNLEASH

— Steel Army (@SteelArmy) September 25, 2021

PSN Riverhounds SC Coverage 

PSN 1-on-1: Riverhounds SC Midfielder Danny Griffin

Analysis & Player Grades: Hounds rookies provide late spark at Charleston

Preview: Our Old Friends, the Charleston Battery

Riverhounds’ Game Notes / Preview 

USL Championship’s longest-running active rivalry resumes with the third of four matches this season between Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and the Charleston Battery.

The Hounds (14-7-5) are still trying to keep pace with the Tampa Bay Rowdies atop the Atlantic Division, but they must also keep racking up points in their final six games to hold off Miami and surging Charlotte to hold on to the second spot and a home playoff game. Charleston (8-9-6), meanwhile, sits 10 points outside of the final playoff spot but with games in hand on both Miami and Charlotte that could set up a tight race if the Battery can turn things around.

Charleston is winless in its past five games, going 0-2-3, and their offense has struggled in that stretch. The Battery has just four goals in its last five matches, and only one of those — a Robbie Crawford strike against Atlanta — came in the run of play, with the others coming from a corner kick and two free kicks.

The Hounds, meanwhile, were shut out for the sixth time this season — and the third time by Charlotte — in a 1-0 loss on the road at the Independence last Saturday. The team hopes it can find its scoring touch back home, where the Hounds put five goals past Loudoun on Sept. 11, led by a pair from captain Kenardo Forbes.

The Hounds and Battery have battled since 1999, and Charleston holds a 13-8-14 lead in the all-time series. The Hounds are 2-0-2 in clubs’ the last four meetings, including a 1-1 draw on July 7 and a 3-2 win Aug. 6 this season, both of which were on the road.

Coincidentally, the match falls almost exactly 20 years after the only playoff meeting between the Hounds and the Battery in their long history. The Hounds defeated the Battery in both legs of their USL A-League first round playoff, 2-1 and 3-1, on Sept. 20 and 22, 2001. The Hounds would lose 4-2 on aggregate in the quarterfinals that season to the Rochester Raging Rhinos.