USL Championship, Riverhounds SC release complete 2022 schedule

Start marking your 2022 calendars and making your plans Pittsburgh soccer fans.The USL Championship and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds have released the complete schedule for the upcoming season on Thursday.

Among the highlights of the 2022 schedule are four road trips to face Western Conference opponents — the first time the Hounds have hit the Mountain or Pacific time zones since 2014 — huge summer home games against Indy Eleven, Miami FC and the Eastern Conference champ Tampa Bay Rowdies, and a late-season visit from defending league champion Orange County SC.

Once again, all USL Championship matches will be streamed via ESPN+, with the exception of those airing live on ESPN or ESPN2

The Hounds will begin their 34-game league schedule on the road for the fifth consecutive year, as they travel to face Memphis 901 FC on March 12, part of the league’s opening weekend. It is the earliest start date for a season in team history, as the USL Championship schedule was arranged for the season to end prior to the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November.In addition to the regular season schedule, the club will also be participating in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup for the first time since 2019. entering the tournament in the second round in early April (April 5-7, TBA).The club releasing its preseason slate soon. Pittsburgh Soccer Now has confirmed that the Hounds will be taking on the University of Pittsburgh in a match that will most likely take place in late February.

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The home opener with Hartford pairs the Hounds with an opponent they have become quite familiar with since the Connecticut club joined the USL in 2019. The Hounds are 6-1-2 in nine matchups over the past three seasons, but their lone loss in the series, a 1-0 game late in the 2020 season, allowed Hartford to wrest the division title away from Pittsburgh.The teams last met to end the 2021 season, playing a 0-0 draw at Highmark Stadium on Oct. 30. That scoreless game was an outlier in the all-time series, in which the Hounds have scored at least three goals in six of the nine meetings.https://pittsburghsoccernow.com/2022/01/06/hounds-to-open-2022-season-at-memphis-home-opener-to-follow-vs-hartford-on-march-19/The team will begin preseason in early February.The Hounds return 10 players from last year’s team, plus have added USL Championship’s all-time leading scorer, Dane Kelly to the roster. Pittsburgh qualified for the playoffs with a 17-8-7 record in the fourth season under head coach Bob Lilley, however, they had to forfeit its first round match at Birmingham due to COVID-19 positive results within the club.

2022 USL Championship Schedule

all dates Saturday unless noted; all home games at Highmark Stadium

March 12	at Memphis 901 FC
March 19	Hartford Athletic
March 26	at Detroit City FC
April 2	Loudoun United FC
April 9	at FC Tulsa
April 16	at Las Vegas Lights FC
April 23	Atlanta United 2
April 30	at Louisville City FC
May 7	Birmingham Legion FC
May 14	El Paso Locomotive FC
May 21	at Tampa Bay Rowdies
May 28	at Miami FC
June 4	Detroit City FC
June 11	at Charleston Battery
June 18	at Rio Grande Valley FC
June 25	Tampa Bay Rowdies
July 1 (Fri.)	at New York Red Bulls II
July 6 (Wed.)	Indy Eleven
July 9	Miami FC
July 16	at New Mexico United
July 23	at Hartford Athletic
July 30	FC Tulsa
Aug. 6	at Indy Eleven
Aug. 13	Memphis 901 FC
Aug. 20	New York Red Bulls II
Aug. 27	at Atlanta United 2
Aug. 31 (Wed.)	Charleston Battery
Sept. 4 (Sun.)	at Loudoun United FC
Sept. 10	Louisville City FC
Sept. 14 (Wed.)	at Birmingham Legion FC
Sept. 24	Orange County SC
Oct. 1	San Antonio FC
Oct. 9 (Sun.)	at Sacramento Republic FC
Oct. 15	Oakland Roots SC