USL Championship Playoff Race Update: If Riverhounds win season finale, they’re in playoffs

Photo courtesy Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

On Saturday, the Riverhounds SC took care of business in its last road match of the season, defeating Loudoun United FC, in a showdown of two teams battling for remaining playoff spots in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference.

With the win, the Riverhounds (11W-10L-12D, 45 points) assured themselves of another non-losing record under the direction of Head Coach Bob Lilley, in his seventh season and more importantly, in very good position to clinch of playoff spot with one match remaining, at home against Western Conference’s last place side, El Paso.

Shortly after the match we provided both a match report and addition reaction from Riverhounds SC Head Coach Bob Lilley, forward Edward Kizza and defender Sean Suber.

Post Match Buzz: Riverhounds ‘feeling it’ after boosting playoff chances with 2-0 win at Loudoun

 

UPDATE (10/24/2024) — Hartford Athletic and Tampa Bay Rowdies played to a draw on Wednesday night, setting the stage for the final Saturday of the regular season.

The 2-2 draw secured Tampa Bay’s spot in the postseason and kept the Athletic behind the Riverhounds, with one match to go.  This result also secured Rhode Island FC’s spot in the postseason.

While the Hounds still need to win, they’re in even more comfortable position as a result, and they’re also now within striking distance of moving higher up in the table (if you can believe that) if they take the full three points.  In a best case scenario, the Hounds win, coupled with Rhode Island and Tampa Bay losses, would catapult them up to 5th place. But Hounds fans shouldn’t get their hopes up too high, as Rhode Island faces last place The Miami FC.

Here are the standings heading into Saturday’s action.

 

For what it’s worth, if it comes down to tiebreakers, here’s how the Hounds have fared this season in Head-to-Head results / Goal Differential against teams they’re battling:

• North Carolina: – 0 (2 matches – 1-1 aggregate)
• Birmingham Legion FC:  +3 (2 matches – 4-1 aggregate)
• Loudoun United FC:  +2 (2 matches – 3-1)
• Hartford Athletic:  0 (2 matches – 3-3 aggregate)
• Rhode Island FC:  +2 (2 matches – 2-0 aggregate)
• Tampa Bay Rowdies:  -1 (2 matches – 1-2 aggregate)

There are a lot of potential scenarios and ways that things could go, but the bottom line for Pittsburgh, is that if they win, they will be in.

In the case of a three-way tie alongside Rhode Island FC and North Carolina FC, the Hounds don’t have the head-to-head tiebreakers over both of its rivals, Pittsburgh and North Carolina drew twice, but they have the best points-per-game mark against in-conference opponents of the three – 1.5 ppg, compared to Rhode Island’s 1.41ppg and North Carolina’s 1.27ppg – which would put them on top of the trio in any three-way scenario.

The Hounds are clearly aware that El Paso has already proven it’s ready to be a spoiler during this run-in despite being mathematically eliminated and is likely to want to go through the final game of their campaign in a positive manner, which means the Hounds are going to need to be sharp to get the result they need.

Hounds Captain Danny Griffin spoke about this on Sounding Off on Soccer Podcast this week.

Sounding Off on Soccer Podcast: Riverhounds’ Danny Griffin on getting to the finish line

Look for more coverage this week to come, as the Hounds prepare for this final, crucial match as they strive to reach the playoffs for the seventh straight season under Lilley.

Saturday’s USL CHampionship Finale

Also includes best possible result(s) for Hounds next to each match. 

Tiebreakers will be achieved by the following criteria, in order of importance:

1. Head-to-Head Points Earned in Regular Season League Games*
2. Goal Differential in Head-to-Head matches.
3. PPG vs. in-Conference Opponents in Regular Season League Games**
4. Total Wins in Regular Season League Games
5. Goal Differential in Regular Season League Games
6. Goals Scored in Regular Season League Games
7. Points earned against top four Conference finishers (except that if the number of such Games is unequal, then points will be divided by the number Games played against the top four Conference finishers to arrive at a common basis for comparison)
8. Number of disciplinary points (i.e., fewest disciplinary points).
9. Lottery conducted by the League.

* If Head-to-Head is Not Applicable, Skip Directly to Tiebreaker No. 4 as Goal Differential and PPG in-Conference would not be applicable either if the teams did not compete head-to-head.

** For the USL Championship Final, Tiebreaker No. 3 is Not Applicable.  If the teams are level on head-to-head and GD, skip directly to No. 4.