Riverhounds Notebook: Pair of ‘six-pointers’ in play against Loudoun, Detroit City FC

Slightly out of their usual routine, the Riverhounds are hoping to take advantage of the extra time between home games to stretch their training and preparation between home league matches, having last played on Friday and next match being on a Sunday, as a pair of potential ‘six pointers’ are looming.

The Hounds are climbing in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference standings, entering into the top five, having won its last three home league matches, including a 1-0 victory in last Friday’s July 4 showdown with Western Conference leaders, New Mexico United.

In addition, Pittsburgh is looking to sweep all four matches in its current homestand, if you count the club’s June 28 Jagermeister Cup Group Stage Play win vs Westchester SC. 

Hoping to build upon that momentum, Pittsburgh (6W-6L-2D, 20 points) now prepares for back-to-back contests against teams in similar positions who they’re hoping to surpass in the Eastern Conference standings.

First, the Hounds host Loudoun United FC (8W-5L-2D, 26 points) on Sunday evening (5 p.m. kickoff).

Following Sunday’s match, the Hounds will then travel after a shorter week of training that concludes with a Friday kickoff at Hamtramck, MI, to take on Detroit City FC (5W-5L-5D, 20 points), for the third time this year.

The Hounds injury report remains the same as it was last week, with Aidan O’Toole (knee), out, and Illal Osumanu (hamstring), listed as questionable.

Bob Lilley’s club won’t settle for anything less than four to six points in these next two matches, but they won’t be easy points to come by.

Any sort of drop in intensity or attention to detail, and Lilley’s squad will have a much tougher climb up in the standings if things don’t go well in the next two matches.

“I don’t think we have the luxury right now or any team in this league has the luxury to drop their intensity for any minutes because I think if you do, it won’t always cost you, but it can, as every team is capable of turning a game,” Lilley said after the Hounds’ 2-1 win vs Tampa Bay a few weeks back.

“You just have to win these head-to-head matchups.”

Loudoun’s Legit

Sunday’s match vs Loudoun United FC at Highmark Stadium should be a very good litmus test for both squads.

For much of last season, then again at the start of this season, the Hounds have been in a very unfamiliar place — playing second fiddle to the boys in Red and White from Northern Virginia coached by one of the longest tenured gaffers in the Championship, Ryan Martin.

The series between the two geographically close conference foes, which dates back to 2019, has been pretty one-sided.

How dominant have the Hounds been in this series?

Pittsburgh is 7-2-0 in seven trips to Segra Field– and 13w-2l-2d all time head-to-head,

Possibly, a real rivalry may finally be starting to brew.

Last year, it seemed as if there may have been a shift, as Loudoun spent most of the season ahead of the Hounds in the standings and above the playoff line.  In their first match at Highmark Stadium, the Hounds took a 1-0 lead but couldn’t shake Loudoun’s persistence — giving up a second half goal and settling for a 1-1 draw.

Down the season’s final stretch in 2024, Pittsburgh closed strong, including a crucial win vs Loudoun at Segra Field in the penultimate match of 2024 with Bertin Jacquesson and Edward Kizza each scoring in a 2-0 result in a match where both team’s postseason chances were on the line.

When the teams last saw each other this year, Loudoun finally got an elusive win against Pittsburgh early this season on April 21, earning a decisive 2-1 decision vs a Hounds squad that was reduced to 10 men in the late stages.

Takeaways and Player Grades: Legit Loudoun United FC release Riverhounds’ tight grip

Despite the loss, Bob Lilley and the players are spending time in video sessions this week looking back at the previous match with Loudoun where Pittsburgh did some good things and improved since in the areas that hampered them early in the season.

While the Hounds had more of the ball — 60 percent in the half, including 73 percent in the opening 15 minutes — but once again they were struggling to break down their opponents in the final third.

There were numerous times when they had the ball on the edge of the 18, but the next pass turned into a dud.

As the Hounds meddled in that first match — they were playing with fire — doing so against one of the league’s top scoring outfits this season.

It was Loudoun who struck first, against the run of play.

After clearing a Hounds corner kick, the hosts worked the ball down the left side to Zach Ryan, who struck a cross to the back post from the goal line.

The pass was perfectly placed for Wesley Leggett to rise and head the ball into the net, scoring on Loudoun’s first shot of the game in the 33rd minute.

Even as the Hounds countered in a back-and-forth second half with Jorge Garcia’s first and only goal in league play this season (Garcia also scored a banger in Open Cup at Philadelphia), Loudoun shut the door on the Hounds when the league’s top scorer Abdellatif Aboukoura stayed hot with a clever game-winner worthy of a rising, talented finisher who’s tied for the league’s goal-scoring lead.

Following that match and only until a recent run of form where they’ve teetered, Loudoun has been the better team this season.

Loudoun’s last five matches may be a little concerning to Head Coach Ryan Martin and his troops.

Since an impressive seven-point swing in early June against the two top teams in the East (3-1 win vs Louisville City and 1-1 draw vs Charleston) along with 3-2 win vs Detroit City FC, Loudoun have cooled off in league play, losing twice by three goals (losing 3-0 to Hartford, then 4-1 to Louisville City) then settling for a nil-nil draw vs Orange County SC last week.

Aboukoura has 11 on the season for the Northern Virginia side, and veteran playmaker Florian Valot has six assists for Loudoun, but they will be without their running mate up top, Zach Ryan, who is suspended for the match after being sent off in Loudoun’s last match, a scoreless draw with Orange County back on July 3.

Could last year’s script repeat itself as we near the halfway mark of the campaign?

The Hounds are certainly hoping for that to be the case.

Player to Watch?  Ahl In — Rookie midfielder gets nod in past two league matches

Despite the improved play in the final third, the Hounds still remain near the bottom of the league in many key attacking stats:

• 0.9 goals per match and total goals (12)
• Have to hand to to the Hounds’ — at least they’re consistent, as they’re all level in offensive/defensive plus-minus — currently giving up the same number of goals as they score: 0.9 goals per match (surrendering 12 goals)
• Now, in a few categories that Lilley (and many other coaches value), the Hounds are trending upward:
  • Expected goals per match 1.27 (1.47 home – 1.06 away) has also slightly improved, with a distinct difference between home and away contests
  • 18 Big Chances (Big Chances Missed – 11)
  • 2.9 Shots on Target per match

For Hounds fans — it’s more about what have they done lately.  And, what they’ve done lately — it’s been pretty good.

If you look at the most recent sample size of play vs the season as a whole — things are trending in a positive direction.  It’s also clear that the Hounds have especially forged its identity by really putting the hammer down on opponents who come to Highmark Stadium, as they have posted 7-2-0 record there in all competitions in 2025

In the last two USL Championship league matches, wins vs Tampa Bay and New Mexico, the Hounds have brought more attacking pressure than we’ve seen all season.

The stats back them up.

Looking at total shots — seven of 15 shots were on target vs Tampa while four of 18 landed on frame against New Mexico.  The Hounds generated nine corner opportunities against Tampa, then turned things up a notch for 21 corners against New Mexico.

Remember, at one point through its first 10 matches, Pittsburgh had not registered a single match with more than 10 shots taken.

Lilley has been tinkering with various starting lineups, trying to find the right fit to complement Robbie Mertz and Augi Williams at the top of the attack and fill in the midfield accordingly.  In the past two home matches, Lilley made one interesting adjustment to the starting eleven, as rookie Charles Ahl, who’s finally fully healthy, has been inserted into the starting group in back-to-back starts.

Ahl, first-year pro out of Stetson University, was the first new player addition to be announced to the Hounds’ 2025 roster.  The Winter Park, FL native was the 2024 Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year, leading the Hatters to an undefeated conference record and a share of the A-Sun regular-season title.

One thing that the Hounds had been lacking in volume and consistency across the entire attacking line for much of the early part of the season has been finding a steady compliment to Mertz’s ability to generate chances and make quality decisions in the attacking third.

After making an appearance off the bench in the Hounds’ season opener (37 minutes with a shot on target), Ahl suffered a nagging leg injury that kept him off the field and in rehab for much of March, April and early May.  Eventually, as Ahl started to get into match fitness, he made his first significant contribution in a 45-minute second half appearance at Indy, followed by the consecutive league starts at home, the attacking midfielder has worked well on the opposite side of Mertz.

While Mertz has been the Hounds leader and sits among the league’s best in Chances Created (with 27), Ahl has created four chances in his two starts.   Maybe even more than Mertz or even target forward Augi Williams, Ahl is a chance creator who is not afraid to take on defenders off the dribble, already winning 11 fouls, and generating six shots with half of those finishing on frame (3/6).

“Charles is a busy midfielder with the ability to break lines off the dribble and deliver the final pass,” Lilley remarked in the preseason.

In his first league start, against Tampa Bay, Ahl showed that he can be a ‘busy midfielder’ with seven passes into the final third won four of seven duels and had six recoveries.

The key to staying in the lineup with the Hounds is being effective and efficient in two-way play, and while Ahl may be a disrupter getting forward, he’s also shown he can get back into defensive positions and win balls back (with a total of 20 defensive recoveries).

This was one of the key factors to the Hounds’ team success in disrupting a New Mexico United squad that came to Highmark Stadium as one of the league’s most dynamic teams that is often comfortable playing it out of the back.  But, Williams, Ahl, Mertz, Danny Griffin and Jackson Walti made things very difficult for the visitors to get into any kind of rhythm on the Fourth of July.

Lilley, Mertz Earn Team of the Week Honors — and Mertz Has ‘Bobblehead’

Midfielder Robbie Mertz is back in the USL Championship’s weekly honors after claiming a spot in the Team of the Week for Week 17/18 alongside Hounds head coach Bob Lilley, who was named the league’s Coach of the Week.

Mertz provided the fireworks for the Hounds in their Fourth of July win over New Mexico United. The Pittsburgh native bagged the only goal of the match by pouncing on the rebound of a saved Augi Williams shot in the 73rd minute to give the Hounds their third consecutive win.

His contributions didn’t stop with the goal. For the match, Mertz finished with five chances created, he connected on 12 of his 13 passes (92.3 percent) in the attacking third, and he won 6 of 11 duels before coming out of the match in the 88th minute.

It is the second Team of the Week honor this season for Mertz, who was the Championship Player of the Week back in Week 14.

He is joined by Lilley, who earned the Coach of the Week honor for the first time in 2025 after his team knocked off the Western Conference leaders and jumped to fifth in the East with the shutout victory.

In addition, this Sunday’s match will feature an opportunity for fans to come away with a Mertz Bobblehead.