Riverhounds’ Arturo Ordóñez, Albert Dikwa and Kenardo Forbes selected to the 2023 USL Championship All-League teams

Photo courtesy Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

Three Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC players — Arturo Ordóñez, Albert Dikwa and Kenardo Forbes — were selected to the 2023 USL Championship All-League teams announced this afternoon by the league.

Ordóñez and Dikwa were both chosen as First Team selections for the first All-League honor in each of their careers. Forbes was named to the Second Team for a third consecutive season, which is a Championship-record seventh All-League honor overall in his decorated career.

Ordóñez, 26, a second-year pro from Spain by way of the University of Pittsburgh, was once again the keystone of the Riverhounds’ defense, which led the USL Championships with 15 shutouts in 2023. He led the team in minutes played with 2,868, and he exceeded the 100-clearance mark for the second year in a row, finishing with a team-leading 120. He also ranked in the league’s top three for both aerial duels won (106) and interceptions (63). His all-around game took another leap forward in 2023 by scoring five goals, the most ever by a center back in Hounds history.

Dikwa took his career to new heights in 2023 by scoring 20 goals in the regular season to win the USL Championship Golden Boot. The scoring continued the upward trajectory for the 25-year-old striker from Cameroon, who had 12 league goals in his first five pro seasons before scoring 11 in 2022 and blowing past that total this season. Adding his game-winning goal against the Columbus Crew in the U.S. Open Cup, Dikwa has moved to second in Riverhounds’ history with 37 goals in his four years with the club.

Forbes, the Hounds’ captain and pivot man in the midfield, showed he can still play with the best by becoming the first player in Championship history to log consecutive 10-assist seasons. The former Jamaican international remains the all-time assists leader for both the league (65) and the Hounds (54), and at 35 years old, he is one of just three players over the age of 30 picked this year for All-League recognition. Forbes has been an All-League player all six seasons with Pittsburgh, including First Team honors in 2019 and 2020.

With three players selected, the Hounds were second behind only Sacramento Republic FC’s four for the most players on the two teams. It is just the third time in the modern Championship era (since 2011) that the Hounds have had three or more All-League honorees.

Two recent former Riverhounds, goalkeeper Danny Vitiello (Sacramento) and forward Russell Cicerone (Sacramento) were also voted to the First, and Second Teams, respectively.

An offseason arrival at Republic FC after two outstanding seasons in Pittsburgh, Cicerone posted the club’s first individual double-digit regular season of goals since 2019 with 15 tallies while also adding four assists. The 28-year-old posted a shooting accuracy rate of 64.6 percent while also recording 41 chances created.

In his second season in Sacramento, Vitiello earned the second Championship Golden Glove of his career with a 0.83 goals-against average while recording 11 shutouts and a save percentage of 76.2 percent, the highest mark among regular starters this season.

The USL Championship All-League teams are selected each year through a voting process that includes votes by every teams’ technical staff and the league’s national media panel of voters — including Pittsburgh Soccer Now‘s John Krysinsky.

The complete All-League teams are posted below: