Takeaways and Player Grades: ‘Not at their best’ Riverhounds falter in 2-1 loss to Charleston to end unbeaten streak

File Photo courtesy Ed Thompson

The opportunity was there for the taking.

The Riverhounds opened up its showdown match with second place Charleston on the right foot, getting an early, 11th minute goal from Danny Griffin.

But for the second time this year, the Hounds could not shut down the top scoring team in the Championship — and as a result, once again came up short against a topflight opponent this season.

Charleston scored late in the first half (in stoppage time actually), then found an opportune moment in the 55th minute to take the full three points, walking away from Pittsburgh as the Old Guard Shield holders and further cementing their place as one of the top two teams in the conference.

While the Hounds were clearly hoping that this could be a statement win, it was Charleston  (14-4-2, 44 points), bouncing back from a humbling 4-1 loss at Louisville City last week, who felt like they made the big statement by winning in Pittsburgh for the first time since 2018.

“I’m just proud of all the boys, all 19 guys who were here put it in for a shift,” Battery coach Ben Pirmann said.

“They did a great job. The staff did a great job. It’s a huge win, it’s a statement. Pittsburgh had gone nine in a row without a loss. If you look at their form at home over the last two or three years, they just don’t lose games.”

On the opposite side, the Riverhounds (7-7-6, 27 points), playing before the largest regular season crowd (6,115) in team history, saw its nine-match unbeaten streak come to a halt, while they remain in fifth place.

As he usually does, Head Coach Bob Lilley didn’t mince his words after the match, pointing out that his team’s failure to seize the moment and put the hammer down harder in the first half, gave one of the best teams in the league an opening to wrestle away the full three points.

They took their moment,” Lilley said.

“We couldn’t get it back.  We gave ourselves some chances, but we couldn’t get any home.”

Hounds Personnel, Tactics and Formation

While personnel didn’t change from last week as far as the Starting unit, Bob Lilley made a change in formation, moving Beto Ydrach, who’s featured as center back most of the season, up to the middle of the attacking midfield line, with Bertin Jacquesson on the right and Robbie Mertz on the left, while Augi Williams operated as the high, target forward.

Danny Griffin and Jackson Walti anchored the central midfield, while Guillaume Vacter and Sean Suber worked at center backs, with the usual suspects, Perrin Barnes and Luke Biasi as the outside backs.

The Hounds brought in a pair of subs in the 69th minute, as newcomer Chase Boone made his first appearance, replacing Jacquesson, while Charles Ahl took Mertz’s place in the attacking midfield and Bradley Sample also came on for Ydrach, who covered more ground than usual.

Match Takeaways

Carving Out Early Lead on Counter

While the Hounds mostly conceded the ball in the first ten minutes, goalkeeper Eric Dick’s solid save to deny Rubio Rubin from close range — sparked one of the Hounds’ best counter-attacking sequences of the season.

From being one inch away from falling behind in the opening 10 minutes, the Hounds went the length of the field to turn the tables quickly.

The team’s captain, Danny Griffin, began the attack with a long diagonal ball, played right to the foot of Robbie Mertz in stride more than 50 yards away.

Mertz slowed play down, then played it into the space out wide for Luke Biasi.

The Hounds’ outside back, changed course, instead of going to the endline, turned his body, then sent a right footed bending cross connected with the head of Beto Ydrach near the far post.

Following up his initial pass, Griffin alertly stayed with the play, ending the 80-plus yard run into the center of the box, where he ran onto Ydrach’s centering header, sending his shot off the right post.

Griffin’s attempt pinged off the right post, but the Hounds’ captain quickly found his way to the ball to put it in back of the net, beating Charleston’s goalkeeper (and one-time Hound) Luis Zamudio.

It was Griffin’s fifth goal, putting him ahead of Robbie Mertz and Augustine Williams for the team lead.

First Half Stoppage Time Goal Changes Complexion of Match

The Battery stayed on the front foot for most of the first half, holding a decided edge in the number of passes (96 to 33) through the first half hour.

Lilley’s tactics to add another midfielder forced Charleston’s back line and midfield to play mostly through the wider channels to bring the ball forward.  Unlike most opponents at Highmark, the Battery mostly avoided being punished by the Hounds high press. While Pittsburgh typically is comfortable with conceding possession, they still want to make opponents uncomfortable playing it out of the back and through the midfield.

Charleston didn’t have much trouble getting it forward and keeping the ball in the final third for longer stretches, holding a significant edge in passes in the final third (50 to 20) than Pittsburgh had through the 28th minute.

The Hounds sat deep and for the most part, defended well for most of the first half.

A blocked bicycle kick attempt by Rubio Rubín in the 15th minute was the only shot registered after Griffin’s opener.

With the Hounds sitting back, seemingly passive in hunting for another goal, they weren’t able to force their will on the match and disrupt Charleston enough.

“We scored and sat back,” Lilley said.

With a team as potent as the Battery, it was just a matter of time before they created a quality chance.

“We didn’t look like we were fighting for the second goal. From the time we scored, after, we didn’t do much in the game.  At 35 minutes, I’m saying, this hasn’t been (explicative) good but get to halftime. We get to 40 minutes, then 45 minutes.  We don’t have players thinking, ‘get to halftime, get to halftime’,” Lilley explained.

Charleston finally seized its moment in the first minute of stoppage time.

With one less center back along the back line, Hounds defending was put to the test and exposed when Rubin made a run behind Hounds’ defender Guilluame Vacter to get to the back post, getting on the end of a clever short, looping cross from the left side of the box from MD Myers.

Following Charleston’s goal, the Hounds provided a response, nearly putting one right back, as Williams made a solid, but not exceptional enough effort with a few defenders around him, turned and fired an extremely well-hit ball but the one-time Hound, Zamudio, was there for the quick reaction save.

It was Charleston who capitalized on a quality chance, while Williams sent an excellent shot with a lot of pace, but didn’t beat the keeper from close range.

Second Half Could’ve Gone Either Way

The second half began and then played out much the same way as the first half, with the Battery taking a leg up in terms of possession and pressure on its attacking side of the field, forcing the Hounds to chase the game a bit more.

The best chance Pittsburgh had early in the second half came when Griffin had some space, but some hesitation and solid positioning in the box forced a shot that was blocked.

A nervy moment occurred for Hounds’ Eric Dick when Jeremy Kelly’s sharp through ball sailed between both Hounds center backs and nearly into goal, was the veteran keeper scrambled to make sure the ball didn’t sneak inside the post.

That was nothing compared to the next let down.

The Battery, owning nearly 70 percent of the ball for the first 50-plus minutes, took advantage when Hounds Dick came off his line to attempt to get to a ball that was headed toward Myers’ foot on the right edge of the six.

With numerous Hounds defenders caught watching the paint dry, the deflected ball came to an unmarked Arturo Rodriguez.

The Battery midfielder was more than happy to slot home his shot into the open goal area to give the Battery at 2-1 lead in the 55th minute.

The Hounds pushed for the equalizer, with a few solid opportunities.

Lilley brought on Ahl, Sample and the newcomer, Boone to give the Hounds a lift, especially as they needed fresh legs if most opportunities were going to come on the counter.  Pittsburgh actually tilted the play towards its end for the good part of the final 20 minutes.

While Jacquesson struggled in his 69-minute shift (no shots, 21 touches with only two coming in opposition box, 3/11 duels), Boone provided some punch, creating a chance by firing a low, hard pass across goal from the left soon after coming into the match.

Williams lunged to get a touch at the back post, but he couldn’t make a clean connection, and Zamudio scrambled across goal to make the save and keep the loose ball from trickling over the line.

It wasn’t enough.

Lilley said after the match that his team was not at their best in those moments when they had chances from close range.

Another quality chance came for Pittsburgh in the 83rd minute, emanating from a Charles Ahl cross, that connected with Bradley Sample, who’s header hit the bar, but bounced down and out.

That proved to be a fitting sequence for how this match would go for the Hounds and how they’ve fared against the top teams in the Eastern Conference this season.

Stuck in Fifth: Hounds Struggles Continue vs Top Four Teams in Eastern Conference

The Hounds remain three points out of fourth place in the Eastern Conference Standings.

Pittsburgh (7-7-6, 27 points) are still seeking a signature win against a topflight team in the Conference, now posting a 0W-4L-3D record against the top four (Louisville, Charleston, Loudoun and North Carolina).

In addition, the Hounds ended its four-match homestand which they have to look at as a lost opportunity to build points and make their move into the top four, with just one win (1W-1L-2D).

The Hounds have one match remaining against teams in the top four (against top-running Louisville City FC at home on September 13).

Much like the previous two seasons, a strong finish can put them in position for a top four spot, even though they lose the tiebreakers to Loudoun and North Carolina.

However, it’s not going to be easy.

With 10 matches remaining, six will be on the road.

The Hounds’ next three matches are on the road (at Birmingham, at Tampa Bay and at Oakland) and when they return to Highmark, they’ll have to face the top team in the Eastern Conference, Louisville City FC.

Pittsburgh has not been a good road team this season (1W-3L-5D), but they’re going to have to start posting road results or fall in danger of getting surpassed in the standings as they head down the homestretch of the season.

 Hounds Player Grades

Starting XI

1	Eric Dick	GK — 5 – Three saves, including a really good one early on that led to counter goal. Was left exposed on the second goal but looked like both Dick and Sean Suber were going for the ball and there may have been a miscommunication
3	Perrin Barnes	DF — 5.5 – created chance, 54 touches, 7 passes into final third and five clearances
13	Luke Biasi	DF – 6.5 — very active — 70 touches including ball in that led to goal. Had 13 passes into final third and won 10/10 duels!
23	Guillaume Vacter	DF — 5 — on first goal, though positioning wasn’t terrible, got beat to ball by Rubin
5	Sean Suber	DF –5 — mix up on the goal with Dick was noted above; 5/5 winning duels, 8 clearances, 11 defensive contributions and 7 passes into final third
16	Beto Ydrach	DF – 6 — doesn’t get credit for assist but did create that chance in his attacking MF debut
14	Robbie Mertz	MF – 5.5 – won 6/9 duels, created one chance, three passes into final third but zero shots.
42	Jackson Walti	MF – 5 –  only 34 touches, four defensive contributions, 78% passing, won 1/7 duels,
10	Bertin Jacquesson	MF — 4 – second straight subpar performance.  With Chase Boone in the mix, Bertin needs to put more of an imprint in his time on field or may be seeing less playing time.
2	Danny Griffin (C)	MF – 7 – played aggressively from box-to-box; attempted five shots in the match inluding the two on the goal sequence, won possession five times and had three interceptions in addition to winning 5 of 7 duels.
9	Augi Williams 12‎‘‎	F – 5.5 – still sitting on four goals though his effort was an improvement over last week when he had to be pulled at halftime. Had three shots — two forced saves, Came back a bunch of times for balls to keep a few possessions alive, drew three fouls (committed two) but Lilley felt his chances were ‘wasteful’.

Bench

31	Randolph	DNP
6	Broughton   ‎	DNP
8	Etou‎	76′ — been an effective in role as second half sub
17	Larsen  ‎	76′ — most minutes in league match for big fella
18	Garcia‎	DNP
15	Bradley Sample	76′ — clearly key part of the central MF rotation
14	Charles Ahl ‎	46′ – 6 – two chances created but didn’t generate or get on the end of any shots/chances
	‎Jason Bourgey	89′