The Pulse of Pittsburgh Soccer (10/10/2023): Road to the USL Championship to run through Highmark Stadium; Pitt women are (finally) ranked again plus it’s crunch time for WPIAL soccer teams

Photo courtesy Pitt Athletics

We’re ready for another week of Pittsburgh soccer in what is easily our busiest time of the year.

The Riverhounds reached another historical milestone achievement this season, but there’s also a lot going on.  As always, scroll below to see the full Pittsburgh Soccer Schedule for the next seven days.

We thank you for your continued support of our site.  Look for more exclusive content to come, so now would be a great time to become a Pittsburgh Soccer Now subscriber if you haven’t already signed up.

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Road to the (USL) Championship Runs Through Pittsburgh  

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC closed the deal in clinching the Players Shield for the most points this season when beating a very good Tampa Bay Rowdies squad on the road, 2-0.  The result prompted Riverhounds’ owner Tuffy Shallenberger to proclaim, “THE ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP RUNS THROUGH PITTSBURGH!”

From a content perspective, we are very grateful for Amedeo Eichberg’s contributions over the weekend, as he was on site for the match at Al Lang Stadium.  It was great to catch up with Amadeo on the Sounding Off on Soccer podcast, as he shared his experience from covering this historical match in Pittsburgh soccer history.

In addition, it was time to bring back Takeaways/Players Grades — providing a deep dive into the Hounds’ historical win.

Takeaways/Player Grades: Determined Riverhounds stay a step ahead, lock down Rowdies to clinch Players Shield

We intend to step up our game, and bring even more Riverhounds’ content, with live coverage at every match for the remainder of the season, and special reports from Training Sessions, features and more interviews.

This weekend we’ll welcome an old friend back to the team, Matt Gajtka, who, from the start, has been a significant contributor to PSN and also was the play-by-play voice of the Riverhounds’ broadcasts for a number of years, will be making the trip to Detroit, from his home in Michigan, to cover the last regular season match between the Hounds and Detroit City FC.

Welcome Matthew Baldwin

We are also excited to introducing a new member to the team, Matthew Baldwin, who will be making a few stops at Riverhounds’ practices this week, and next.

Matthew (Twitter: @MattRhys63), is a sports journalist from London, England with Bachelor’s Degree from University of East London, and Masters from Staffordshire University, but he’s new to Pittsburgh since June.  In his experiences, he’s written articles for The Guardian and ThatsTV Manchester, and much more while interviewing a plethora of sporting personalities.

What a great time to add Matthew to our roster of contributors, as we’re fully immersed in Riverhounds’, College and High School soccer seasons.  Look forward to sharing Matthew’s work with Pittsburgh Soccer fans and followers — and those beyond.

Pitt Women’s Soccer (Finally) Ranked Again

Pitt’s women’s soccer team, which picked up a pair of impressive wins vs ranked ACC opponents, beating Duke, 2-1, and Wake Forest, 4-1, at home this past weekend, are finally getting National Recognition.

After starting the season ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, on Tuesday, they were back in the USC poll, at No. 17, while they also earned top rankings in both Top Drawer Soccer and College Soccer News.

Hey, just checking back in 👋

🔵 No. 17 – @UnitedCoaches
🟡 No. 11 – @TopDrawerSoccer
🔵 No. 15 – College Soccer News #H2P pic.twitter.com/IrrbhEafL2

— Pitt Women's Soccer (@Pitt_WSOC) October 10, 2023

The Panthers are now 11-2-1 overall, and 4-1-1 in ACC, where they currently sit in fourth place behind the ‘Big Three’ that includes last season’s National Champions, Florida State, the most successful program in NCAA history, North Carolina, and Notre Dame, who they played to a 1-1 draw earlier this season.

The next step for Pitt is a road challenge at Syracuse, in an afternoon match on Saturday.

“They’ve been down this year, but it’s not an easy place to play,” Waldrum said to PSN’s Rachael Kriger after the Wake Forest win.

“They were up twice on Florida State, at home.  They were ahead of Wake (Forest).  They’re pretty good at home, even though they’ve been off to a rough stretch. It’s a game we expect to get something out of it, so we have to go into it with the right mindset.”

WPIAL Soccer In Final Week of Regular Season 

It really is crunch time in the high school soccer season around these parts.

One week from today, the WPIAL will be announcing the Boys and Girls playoff brackets and seedings.  We’ve been keeping up with everything, including daily scoreboard posts and this week we included the standings prior to boys and girls section matches on Monday and Tuesday, along with the Playoff Seeding Projections (for the boys — we’ll share the Girls Projections later this week).

WPIAL Boys Soccer Standings / Update on Races for Section Titles and Playoff Spots (10/9/2023)

Look for lots of coverage and analysis leading up to and on bracket reveal day, plus we’ll also have reaction and interviews with coaches after the brackets are released.  We’ll be covering the playoffs throughout the last couple weeks of October and early November.

One interesting note, the WPIAL is keeping the dates open ended for the High School Finals this season to run from Wednesday, November 1 through Saturday, November 4.  In the past, the Finals have been played Thursday through Saturday, with two games each weeknight, and four matches on Saturday.  With the potential that the Riverhounds could be playing in the USL Championship Eastern Conference Final on November 4, the WPIAL will likely only play two or three matches at Highmark Stadium on Saturday.  If you recall, in 2019, the Hounds hosted the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday, November 2 vs Louisville City FC, and earlier that day, three WPIAL Finals matches were also played at Highmark Stadium.

PITTSBURGH SOCCER SCHEDULE (10/11/2023 – 10/17/2023)

Tues Oct 10	WPIAL Boys Section play
Wed Oct 11	WPIAL Girls Section play
	Duq M	6:00 PM	A	St. Bonaventure	Olean, NY
Oct 12 (Thu)	RMU W	7:00 PM	A	Cleveland State	Cleveland, OH
	Duq W	7:00 PM	H	G. Washing	Rooney Field
	WPIAL Boys Section play
Oct 13 (Fri)	Pitt M	7:00 PM	A	Virginia	Charlottesville, VA
Sat Oct 14	Pitt W	1:00 PM	A	Syracuse	Syracuse, NY
	RMU M	1:00 PM	A	Green Bay	Green Bay, WI
	Duq M	7:00 PM	H	G. Washington	Rooney Field
	HOUNDS	4:00 PM	A	Detroit City FC	Hamtramrick, MI
	WPIAL (Boys & Girls)
Oct 15 (Sun)	RMU W	1:00 PM	H	Northern Kentucky	North Athletic Complex
	Duq W	1:00 PM	H	LaSalle	Rooney Field
Mon Oct 16	WPIAL Boys and Girls Section play / Non Section
Tues Oct 17	Duq M	7:00 PM	A	PITT	Ambrose Urbanic Field
	Pitt M	7:00 PM	A	Duquesne	Ambrose Urbanic Field
	WPIAL Boys & Girls Section / Non-Section play
	RMU M	7:00 PM	A	Wake Forest	Winston-Salem, NC