It was going to take a lot to top the excitement, unpredictability and chaos that took place on the field in the first weekend of the USL Championship playoffs.
In total, three of the four No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference were upset by lower seeds, including No. 8 seed Detroit City FC defeating No. 1 seed Louisville City FC, which paved the way for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC to host Detroit City this week in the Eastern Conference Semifinal Round.
However, in the past 24 hours, USL Championship clubs have fired managers (not that surprising this time of year) and one franchise, North Carolina FC — with its team still in the playoff tournament, announced this will be its last in the league at the end of the season.
The USL has positioned itself to take a run at starting up a Division I, top-tier entity that would rival Major League Soccer, which would also bring the promotion-relegation model into the American pro soccer stratosphere. However, the ambitious USL (made up of multiple tiers including USL Championship, USL League One and USL League Two, plus Super League and USL W League) — is experiencing some continuing growing pains as its organizations are still trying to figure things out.
The United Soccer League (USL) is very serious about moving ahead — as this week they announced the has hiring of the Premier League’s chief football officer Tony Scholes as it prepares to launch its new Division One league with promotion and relegation.
Still, it wasn’t just that a coach and sporting director was fired this week, but a coach and sporting director for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, who raised the Championship trophy less than a year ago.
If anything, for all of its growth and expansion, United States professional soccer landscape remains more capricious than ever.
The USL has made it very clear, that it is very determined to carve out its place on the American soccer landscape.
Rather than get into all of those particulars, it is important to note that the Riverhounds, even in a time of uncertainty within its own club, have leaned upon organizational stability.
Winning is very important, but what’s even more important is building a culture of success along with financial and organizational stability for long-term sustainability.
And that’s where, if you look at the Riverhounds organization, when they’ve come to a crossroads with a pivotal moment as the franchise’s most tenured and successful Head Coach, Bob Lilley has been placed on administrative leave, they moved efficiently and adjusted accordingly.
When this news broke, my thoughts wandered to a moment when attending one of the team’s training sessions earlier this year at the club’s Montour Run Soccer Complex (another impressive sign of the club’s long-term growth and stability) — as a conversation came up with a club official about contingency plans already that were in place, not if, but when Lilley would not be there or would step away.
It’s been clear that the club has been showing more signs of staying on a steady course with its operations and strategic direction.
Club President Jeff Garner has been steering the business side of things positively. Since Garner’s arrival in 2022, the Hounds have made headway with match attendance, bumping up from just under 4,000 fans per game in 2022, to an average of 5,000 or more fans since.
Then came a couple significant changes with team personnel at the start of the 2024 campaign.
First, the team’s longtime assistant coach, Dan Visser, who served under both Dave Brandt from 2016-17 and Lilley from 2018-23, was promoted to the role as Sporting Director.
Sounding Off on Soccer Podcast: Riverhounds SC Dan Visser on his new role as Sporting Director
“The investment in this position shows (owner) Tuffy Shallenberger’s clear intent to keep pushing this project forward and to double-down on our recent success in Pittsburgh,” Visser said at the time.
In this role, Visser spent a portion of the past 22 months working in tandem with Lilley, guiding the pro team’s scouting and player recruitment efforts. Visser has also worked directly with the Riverhounds Academy as the club continues to build a direct pathway for its players to rise through the development program to the professional level, both with the Hounds’ First Team and to opportunities in the global soccer market.
Additionally, with the emergence of Pittsburgh Riveters SC as a USL W League club and through its highly successful inaugural campaign, Visser has also stepped in, providing support and direction for Head Coach Scott Gibson and his staff.
The second change in personnel was adding club legend Rob Vincent to the pro team’s coaching staff.
Suddenly, for reasons that have understandably been kept tightly wrapped within the club hierarchy, Lilley was placed on administrative leave with three weeks remaining in the season.
While things were hectic in the first 24 hours, the organization felt confident in elevating Vincent into the role as acting Head Coach.
If any person currently involved with the Riverhounds first team knows about, has experienced, lived and understands adversity that has come with the ups and downs of one the league’s most historic franchises during its more turbulent years, it would be Rob Vincent.
Adversity-hardened Rob Vincent keeps Riverhounds focused on day-to-day tasks at hand
Visser has also stepped into a more active role with the team in the short term, as he’s been part of the brain trust working closely with the coaching staff again, as they have been working, in Vincent’s words ‘collaboratively’ in steering things forward since the first, turbulent 24 hours.
“After we got together, we had a group video chat with the players. I told them (other coaches) I am not going to be able to do it all myself,” Vincent admitted.
It’s no secret that the club, under the watch of Bob Lilley, an ultra-successful coach who has never had a losing season nor missed qualifying for the postseason, has been the clear-cut, authoritative figure for team. Lilley’s style has always been hands-on with the day-to-day oversight of the team from personnel decisions to tactics and everything in between.
In the process of his tenure, Lilley molded the Riverhounds from a franchise that struggled to sustain success for any period of time from its inception in 1999 through Lilley’s hire in late 2017 — to one that is a legitimate championship contender almost every season.
While Lilley’s set a very high bar, the club has been steadfast in establishing building blocks to ensure long-term success.
The Hounds may not one of the top teams in the USL Championship in revenue or with payroll, still, Shallenberger continues to pour everything he can into the franchise, strategically moving forward with incremental growth while fielding a competitive roster. Under Lilley’s direction, and with success, has also brought high expectations.
The last two seasons, the team started slowly. At one point in 2023, reaching the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings before an impressive turn-around and finish that saw the team post one loss in its last 15 matches.
The slow starts along with the club’s postseason failures, caused a small, but vocal group of Riverhounds’ most loyal supporters to grow weary and impatient with Lilley. There were fans heckling the coach, bringing signs to games and a few who were behind the bench at Highmark Stadium during games chanting “Fire Lilley”.
Look, on some level, fan angst comes with the territory when it comes to professional sports.
Still, what’s perplexing about this is that here’s a man who’s been more responsible than anyone, possibly except the man that hired him, Tuffy Shallenberger, for providing organizational stability for the club, and some fans were calling for him to be fired and taking to social media to make their case.
This has only led to creating a more acrimonious and potentially toxic situation permeating within the team’s fan base. There’s animosity where there should not have been between the Head Coach and members of the supporters group.
When supporters are siding with players over a coach, that’s doesn’t make for a healthy environment for a pro soccer club.
And yet, Lilley, the team and the players focused on the task at hand on the field.
Regardless of the circumstances of Lilley’s leave, the club has navigated the situation in a very professional manner and taken a businesslike approach.
With the composed, even-keel leadership of Vincent and Visser leading the way, the Hounds have stayed the course on the field. The final three regular season matches — the Hounds picked up wins against Indy Eleven, at Monterey Bay and a regular season-ending draw vs Phoenix.
Vincent emphasized the importance of not shaking things up too much.
On the field, the team continues to execute and play upon the principles, and the blueprint of a Bob Lilley coached team. Vincent and the staff have certainly added their own wrinkles along the way.
If it means anything, Lilley expressed plenty of faith in Vincent. The gaffer ironically joked at the last home match he coached, when his voice was too weak following 1-0 win vs Las Vegas, that the media contingent there for the post-match press conference were better off with Vincent at the microphone that night.
When the Hounds stepped foot on the playoff stage on Saturday night — again it was a steady-at-the-wheel approach for Vincent and the coaching staff that guided the team in a match that had its share of obstacles and challenges. For one thing, in an emotionally charged third meeting of the season between the two teams, and the first since controversy that engulfed the end of previous match in which Hartford’s Marlon Hairston accused Riverhounds MF Danny Griffin of using a racial slur. Following a league investigation, Griffin was cleared.
Hartford came out flying on all cylinders, had an early goal waved off and put the Hounds on their heels.
Vincent admitted there were nerves all around.
“They really flew out the traps. We looked really nervous. We were making some poor decision. We turned a lot of balls over really cheaply. Defensively we were a step late. I was sitting there on the bench, hoping we would get through that spell,” Vincent added.
“They were smelling blood and putting balls forward.”
With veteran players including Danny Griffin, Robbie Mertz and goalkeeper Eric Dick leading the way, the Hounds eventually settled down and took control of the match.
There’s no doubt that somewhere Lilley also had to be smiling, watching the Hounds put forth a gritty, resourceful performance to get over the finish line in its playoff win on Saturday, eliminating Hartford Athletic FC, playing outstanding defense against a high scoring team and surviving and advancing to the next round, even without scoring a goal in the run of play.
There are some things that certainly tilt in favor of the Hounds as they approach their next playoff match vs Detroit.
The top two seeds are out of the tournament.
Scoring is way down in the playoffs (see below) — which potentially plays right into how this team was built.
Still there are plenty of land mines and a long way to go, but there’s potential for a golden opportunity that this team will look to seize.
And yet, this current Hounds team is still capable of playing better soccer.
After years of frustrations in the postseason, there’s no doubt that veterans and young players alike will be chomping at the bits to reward the fan base and take the club where it has not gone before — past the Conference Semifinal Round and into the Conference Final and potentially the Cup Final.
Two things can be true at the same time.
They would not in this position without Bob Lilley.
The organizational stability the club has established has ensured they’re in this current position.
The Riverhounds organization is very determined to be considered one of the franchises to be part of USL’s jump to Division I in the coming years, but by no means are they a lock, even with the proposed expanded stadium.
As the USL Championship experienced topsy-turvy few days– both on the field — Riverhounds fans should be grateful that for the most part of the past eight years, the club has been a steady model of consistency, consistently posting winning seasons and are getting their foot in the door of the USL Championship playoffs.
Once again, they have their foot in the door.
Maybe this is the time they finally knock it down completely.
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