Riverhounds looking to shake the Louisville monkey off its back as postseason push intensifies

The Riverhounds SC are gearing up for the final stretch that will define the 2025 campaign as the club has seven matches remaining in this year’s more slightly condensed 30-game schedule.

This week, the Hounds face a big test — taking on a club that’s had its number over the years — the league’s current front-runners, Louisville City FC on Saturday at Highmark Stadium (7 p.m.).

Coming off a long trip to the West Coast, having played on Sunday, the Hounds worked with a shorter week to prepare but at this point in the season, any additional rest can be helpful.

For the Riverhounds, the season will come down to the last seven matches as the race to finish higher up in the standing and to solidify postseason positioning is heating up.

With that in mind, points are at an absolute premium for the Riverhounds (8W-8L-7D, 31 points), who sit in seventh, but can jump as high as fifth place and/or in fourth (level on points), if things go their way on Saturday.

Building Confidence at the Right Time

Sunday’s win came when the Hounds badly needed a result.

Now, Pittsburgh returns home for a match against the league’s top team with a bit more confidence, especially with striker Augi Williams coming off a Player of the Week honored performance in which he netted his first brace of the season.

As the club’s featured target forward this season, it’s been a slow build-up for Williams in terms of production.  While Williams has put in the minutes (third on the team with 1,849 minutes behind only Danny Griffin and Sean Suber), he’s starting to pick up some steam as becomes more reliable with his conversion rate and as he’s being provided more service and opportunities, he also continues to climb in the USL Championship’s all-time scoring charts.

Saturday’s opponents, Louisville City FC, are so far ahead in the standings that they’ve already clinched a spot in the postseason.

While the Hounds have not posted a win against a top four team in the Eastern Conference this season (0W-4L-3D vs Louisville, Charleston, Loudoun United and North Carolina), one of their best performances came on the road in a scoreless draw at Louisville.

That’s something that Head Coach Bob Lilley mentioned few times when his team underperformed, pointing out they can play at a high level against the league’s best, as they went toe-to-toe with LouCityFC early in the season.

High-Level Coaching Match-Up

Coming off Sunday’s win, Lilley is pushing the group to stay at the high level, emphasizing the importance taking advantage of their persistent high press and scoring chances because against top-flight club that has played well at Highmark Stadium, those chances may not come around that much in a 90-minute span.

“I’m happy with how we jumped out in the game (on Sunday),” Lilley said.

“I do think we had some really good play in stretches, and it’s something to build on for next week, but we have to stay aggressive.”

Louisville City FC Head Coach Danny Cruz has become accustomed to the battles with the Hounds, even with his club’s success in the series, and especially at Highmark Stadium, he acknowledges that Saturday’s contest will be difficult.

“They’re well organized,” Cruz stated earlier this week after training.

“We’ve worked a lot this week on making sure we’re putting ourselves in a good position to obviously score goals. At the same time, we have to make sure we limit transition against a team that’s very good at that.”

The veteran coach, who boasts a 3W-1L-4D (including the 2023 playoff Penalty Kick shootout result) record vs Bob Lilley and the Riverhounds, in head-to-head matches, always enjoys the challenge of playing in Pittsburgh and going up against Lilley.

“We’re excited about it. We know it’s going to be a good environment. It always is when we go down there. It’s going to be a bit of a fight as well,” Cruz said.

“Bob Lilley, I mean, his record speaks for itself, and his reputation speaks for itself. They will be organized. Extremely organized, extremely hardworking. That has been constant his entire career. Those aren’t teams that that you enjoy going up against because you know, every single time you’re going to have a fight, you’re going to have a group um that is going to be difficult to break down. And we know that that’s going to be the case this weekend, but hopefully we’ve gone through the right things to put ourselves in the position, as I said at the beginning, to score goals.”

Louisville City FC’s right at home on the Mon

Louisville City FC plays its home matches at sparkling Lynn Family Stadium, which sits along the Ohio River.

When they take their annual trek 387 miles east, precisely one mile past the Head of the Ohio — which flows into the Monongahela River, the Purple and Gold have conquered Highmark Stadium to the tune of a 6W-0L-5D record against the Riverhounds. (For good measure, LouCityFC have another win, in US Open Cup, at Highmark against Tartan Devils Oak Avalon, in the 2017 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup).

That’s right — in 11 tries since 2015 — the Hounds have never beaten Louisville at Highmark Stadium.

That also includes 2019 USL Championship Eastern Conference semifinal, which Louisville pulled out in extra time.

LouCityFC social media team had some fun with this earlier in the week, pointing to the club’s previous successes in Pittsburgh and at Highmark Stadium.

Bottom line here — the Hounds will need to put together a complete, 90-minute effort if they want to earn a statement win on Saturday at Highmark.

Look for more coverage to come on Saturday from Highmark Stadium!  

More from Danny Cruz’s Interview

https://youtu.be/BDkEBBe6s5g