Riverhounds Notebook: Center back corps maintain club’s stout defensive standard

Photo courtesy Ed Thompson

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC are starting to find their groove in league play, after struggling for much of the first half of the season, but Head Coach Bob Lilley and the players know that it’s a long season ahead.

Coming off an excellent performance to dispatch Detroit, 2-0, on Saturday, the Hounds want to keep their momentum going.

They’re back on the road for short trip to Indianapolis, to take on a team they always have tight, intense battles against, Indy Eleven.  In Indy, the Hounds face an opponent that hasn’t won in the league since their third match of the season, but the Eleven are no easy-beats, having drawn 50 percent of their matches — 5 out of 10 — so a result on the road will be a positive.

The Hounds (4W-5L-2D) currently sit sixth in the league table with 14 points, three points ahead of Indy, who are in ninth, with 11 points.

Heading into this match, they don’t have any players listed on the injury or inactives report, so Lilley and his staff will have a full allotment of players to choose from for lineup selections.

Center back rotation maintains stout defensive standards

Late in last week’s match, the Hounds had a bit of a letdown in defending.

No, that lapse wasn’t giving up a goal.

That lapse was allowing one shot.

The team held Detroit to only one shot and expected goals (xG) number of 0.02. Both of those numbers tied the lowest allowed by the Hounds since the USL began using Opta stats tracking in 2017.

So, during an early part of the season when the club has struggled to get its attack into gear, the team’s defending has been outstanding.

If you want to point to one area where the Hounds have had the most stability this season, it could be at the center back position.

Keeping in mind that the primary role of center backs is to keep the ball away from goal as much as possible — this group has been doing some splendid work, especially in the past two weeks and in most home matches.

For the season, Pittsburgh has only allowed 35 shots on target all season in league play.  Twice this season, they didn’t give up a single shot on frame (home opener vs Hartford and last week vs Detroit).

Opponent	Shots	Shots on Target	H/A
NC	6	2	A
SA	12	3	A
HFD	9	0	H
BHM	11	2	H
CHS	19	7	A
LDN	10	2	A
DET (Jager Cup)	9	3	A
NC	12	4	H
LOU	13	4	A
COS	9	3	A
RI	15	6	A
RI (Jager  Cup)	6	3	H
DET	1	0	H

** Did not include US Open Cup matches

The Hounds have built around a rotation of center backs that include Sean Suber, Beto Ydrach, Guillherme Vactor, Illal Osumanu and Max Broughton competing for playing time, but working well as a group.

If you look around the USL Championship, often times, there’s usually at least one veteran among the group of center backs.  The Hounds have also had a history, even under Lilley of having one or two players on the back line who have lots of pro level experience (look no further than Joe Farrell, Hugh Roberts, Joe Greenspan, Todd Pratzner, Ray Lee, Jelani Peters). Of the current group, Osumanu would be the veteran, at 28 years of age.  However, as far as the rotation and minutes played, Suber and Ydrach have logged the most time on the pitch, while Osumanu has shared minutes with the rookie, Vactor.

Since officially signing with the club in April, Vactor, who starred at UConn, has made the most of his playing time.  The Frenchman has been a constant in the group and has performed very well, with the highest FobMob.com (7.65) rating among the defenders in the group in league play.

Another interesting note to point out about the backgrounds and make-up of the Hounds’ center back group — is that instead of testing the market for veteran central defenders at this level or players who may have had MLS or other higher level experiences, Lilley and his coaching staff opt to pick out players who have excelled and played for successful programs on the collegiate level in recent years.  The current group may include players who are recently out of college, but they’re hardened, battle-tested and in their mid-20’s, giving the Hounds coaching staff plenty of confidence that they are mature and can pick up the essentials of the team’s system, throwing them right into the mix.  In fact, not sure if it’s a mere coincidence, but all but Osumanu are 24 years old.

Ydrach (Akron), Vactor (UConn) and Broughton (WVU) are first-year pros, while Osumanu (Marshall), and Suber (Charlotte), each had some previous pro experience on MLS Next Pro and USL League One clubs, earning their way on Pittsburgh’s roster via invitational combines in recent years.

The cruel truth is, while other field players get a lot of the glory when the team’s winning, the spotlight often shines on center backs in the most nefarious moments each season.

A year ago, Suber’s costly misplayed ball late against Monterey Bay, cost the Hounds a late goal in stoppage time and a crucial point when the team was sitting below the playoff line.

In this season’s opener, Ydrach slipped up, leading to North Carolina’s lone goal in a 1-1 draw.

In each case, Lilley never hesitated, sticking with these players he put a lot of stock in from the moment he saw them on tape and in many cases, when seeing them in combines and when on trial with the club.

“There’s so many guys that have stepped up this year, including Gee (Guillaume Vacter), Beto (Ydrach) and guys have played enough minutes now where you know we’re everyone knows their jobs,” Lilley told Pittsburgh Soccer Now a few weeks ago.

“We’ll need everyone.  The guys off the bench — a lot of times is settled in the last 30 minutes of the game, not the first 30, so we’re just trying to make sure everyone is ready and keep putting out good performances — and the results will follow.”

Suber is one of three field players on the club (along with Danny Griffin and Jackson Walti) who has played every minute of the league season, with 990 minutes.  Ydrach (784 minutes) has primarily only missed out when he was on International Duty with Puerto Rico’s National Team, which caused him to miss the last two matches.

In addition, Lilley’s always valued and utilized players who are versatile and can contribute in playing multiple positions. For a good part of the past few years, Luke Biasi has become one of those guys.  When Ydrach was out last week, Biasi, who’s been used more in the wing back spot more this season, slid back to center back spot for the match.

With last week’s result, goalkeeper Dick recorded his 20th clean sheet as a member of the Hounds, tying Jahmali Waite for third-most in team history.

Here’s something to also ponder, in the first four seasons of Bob Lilley’s tenure (2018-21), the Hounds had a different primary keeper each season.  Since Waite’s emergence in the 2022 campaign, the Hounds have kept their primary starting keepers around a bit longer than one season, as Waite was there in 2022 and 2023.  Now, Dick has been a stabilizing force between the pipes.

In Lilley’s system, you cannot discount the importance of high line players in keeping pressure on opponents’ back lines and efforts to play the ball out of the back.  While Augustine Williams has not scored a lot of goals this season, he’s logged big minutes (902) and has been the primary top man for the unit, along with Griffin and Mertz.

Hounds face Edward Kizza for first time since he left Pittsburgh

The Riverhounds’ leading goal scorer a year ago, Edward Kizza, moved on, signing with Indy Eleven in the off season.  Kizza not only spent two full seasons, plus another half season on loan with the Hounds, but also starred at Pitt from 2017-19.  

This year, the native of Uganda, has played in 10 games with the Eleven with 6 starts, scoring a pair of goals and adding an assist. 

Edward Kizza announces he will not return to Riverhounds

The departure of Kizza, who scored a team high 12 goals in his final season with the Riverhounds, left Lilley and his staff with the task of starting over completely at the forward position, with the Hounds not opting to pick up 2025 contract options for other forwards Kazaiah Sterling and Babacar Diene.

Heading into the season, it looked a lot like the Hounds would be able to get a lot of production from the forward position, but thus far, marquee signing Augustine Williams is off a cold start, with just one goal, while Bertin Jacquesson, Kizza former teammate at Pitt and last year with the Hounds, hasn’t been able to get going either (without a goal).

Kizza came to the Riverhounds organization in 2022 at midseason, on loan from New England Revolution.

While he didn’t have an immediate impact in that regular season, Kizza came off the bench to score one of the most dramatic goals in Hounds’ postseason history — getting the equalizer at Birmingham in the 2022 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal.  Kizza would also score in Extra Time, then hit the clincher in the penalty kick shootout to help the Hounds advance.

The Hounds would sign Kizza ahead of the 2023 season, where he settled into a role on the attacking line, playing mostly underneath Albert Dikwa (starting 19 of 29 matches, scoring four goals). In his second full season in 2024, while the Hounds struggled in the attack, Kizza was the most durable and consistent forward through the entire campaign, earning 31 starts in 33 matches.

If it’s any consolation to Hounds fans, Kizza, much like Dikwa before him, needed some time in Lilley system to become a more consistent goal scorer.

Last year, he finished the regular season on a tear, scoring a goal the last four of the Hounds’ matches — victories over Miami, Charleston, Loudoun and El Paso. The scoring outburst brought Kizza’s season total to a career-best 12 goals, and it helped propel the Hounds from 10th in the Eastern Conference to a seventh consecutive USL Championship Playoffs berth as the No. 7 seed.

Of course, Kizza’s journey to Pittsburgh came long before his recent tenure with the Riverhounds.

The Kampala, Uganda, native moved to the United States when he was 14. He spent his final three years of high school at Montverde Academy in Orlando, Fla. He was the 41st-ranked player nationally by TopDrawerSoccer coming out of his senior season.

Kizza drew the attention of Pitt men’s soccer coach Jay Vidovich, and Kizza committed to the Panthers in March 2017. He passed up offers from Clemson and Wake Forest but thought he could make a substantial impact with Pitt.

Sure enough, Kizza proved to be a key player in Pitt’s rise into becoming a National Contending program.

Kizza had four goals in 15 matches in his first season at Pitt in 2017, earning an ACC All-Freshman team selection. During his sophomore season, Kizza started in all 18 matches for the Panthers, scoring 15 goals.

He then scored 12 goals during his junior and final season with the Panthers, appearing in all 20 matches that season.  This was also Pitt’s first time advancing in both ACC tournament — as Kizza scored the golden goal to beat NC State in the first round — and in the NCAA tournament — where Kizza also scored to lead Pitt to its first NCAA tournament win in nearly 50 years.

Mertz, Barnes Earn USL Weekly Honors

From an attacking standpoint, new dad Robbie Mertz is coming off a vintage performance with a goal and an assist to earn his first-ever USL Championship Player of the Week honor.

Thanks to constant high press throughout the match against Detroit, with Mertz leading the way, the Hounds were able to find plenty of space working the ball from side to side, leading to the goals by Mertz and Perrin Barnes jumping into attack as a wing back.

Mertz was exceptional in the Hounds’ 2-0 victory over Detroit City FC on Saturday, a feat made more remarkable coming less than 48 hours after the birth of his first son late Thursday.

Takeaways and Player Grades: Mertz, Barnes combo plus hard dose of Lilleyball help Hounds rock Detroit to sleep

The milestones keep piling up for the Upper St. Clair native.

Mertz hit a pair of milestones with his 20th goal in a Riverhounds uniform while playing his 150th match in all competitions for the club.  Mertz now has eight career matches with multiple goal contributions.

Over the course of his 69 minutes on the field on Saturday, Mertz connected on 80 percent of his passes overall (24 of 30), and his accuracy was the exact same on passes in the attacking third of the field (12 of 15). He also led the team with seven total crosses and three chances created playing the attacking midfield role in the Hounds’ formation.

It is the first time Mertz has been named Player of the Week in his USL Championship career and the first time a Hounds player has won the honor in 2025. He won the honor with 54 percent of the vote by the USL National Media Panel, besting joint runners-up Kyle Edwards of Hartford and Dariusz Formella of Phoenix.

Barnes, meanwhile, is honored with his first Team of the Week placement after scoring his first professional goal on Saturday.

Playing a wing back/outside midfield role on the right side, the first-year Hound also won 7 of 10 duels for the ball, took possession three times, won three free kicks and created a pair of chances himself. He also struck the cross that led to Mertz’s goal, though the assist on the play went to Danny Griffin for his header to flick the ball onward to the back post.