Riverhounds Notebook: Extended postseason run of home cooking is nice, but scoring goals would be nicer

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC wrapped up a pretty routine week of training entering uncharted territory, getting ready to host the USL Championship Eastern Conference Final for the first time in club history.

In fact, for the last four weeks, the Hounds haven’t had to be to be concerned about sleeping in strange beds, having to adjust routines or alter their schedules all that much.

Heading into the club’s first-ever appearance in the USL Championship Eastern Conference Final, the Hounds are enjoying an extended run of home cooking.

“It’s very nice,” Rob Vincent, Riverhounds acting Head Coach, said.

“Travel can be a lot on the body. Changing time zones, all that stuff kind of plays in.  Not quite at 100 percent when you’re on the road. It’s been a routine, every week.  Sleep in our own beds. Train on our own field. Doing want we want to do in our own time,”

Pittsburgh Soccer Now has been gearing up for what plans to be an unprecedented night for Pittsburgh soccer.

Among content this week ahead of the Conference Final has included:

• Mark Goodman took a deeper dive into the Hounds’ opponent: Preview: Rhode Island hope to keep defying the odds
• Check out full interviews with Rob Vincent and Danny Griffin following Thursday’s training session at AHN Montour, at the bottom of this post from PSN’s YouTube Channel and you can also catch clips on PSN Instagram.
• On the latest Sounding Off on Soccer Podcast — before I brought on Steel City FC’s Nolan Hutter — provied a good opportunity to address the Riverhounds’ missing ingredient needed to keep this postseason run going (which I also dive into below)
• Additionally — I joined the Raising Anchor Podcast in previewing the match and providing more in-depth perspective on the Hounds ahead of the fourth meeting between the two sides this season.

It’s Shaping Up for a Record Crowd at Highmark (Update — it’s officially a sell-aht)

To start things off — it looks like the Riverhounds had no trouble selling tickets for Saturday’s match.

Friends are foes for the night

Being that this the fourth match between the teams this year, there’s a lot of familiarity between the two sides.

Add to the storyline that three former Riverhounds are on the Rhode Island FC roster — Albert Dikwa, Marc Ybarra and Dani Rovira — Saturday’s match will be contested between some very close friends.

This year, Ybarra and Rovira have been role players for Rhode Island, while Dikwa remains integral to Rhode Island.

After Dikwa scored both goals in RIFC’s 2-0 win at North Carolina last week and the Riverhounds escaped another penalty kick shootout, the two players who came to Pittsburgh in 2020 and became close friends, Dikwa and Danny Griffin.

Even after Dikwa left for Rhode Island, they’ve remained very close.

“We talked that night,” Griffin acknowledged.

“He’s in the family group chat, with all my aunts, uncles, cousins. We talk on a constant basis.”

Mark Goodman pointed out in his preview, the Cameroonian led RIFC in goals in 2024 with 10; but in 2025 he’s had a quieter year, with just 3 goals and 4 assists to his name. From March to July he was the defacto starting striker for Coach Khano Smith. But with just two goals over that stretch, he was benched in favor of JJ Williams. Dikwa, shockingly, roared to life in RIFC’s last game, grabbing the go-ahead goal in the 82nd minute with a perfect back-post header off a set piece; and then chipping in an empty net goal off of a recovery in Extra Time to seal the deal just minutes later.

Ybarra played for Pittsburgh in 2022 and 2023 before moving on to Rhode Island where in his first year he played nearly every minute. This season he was out with injury for all of May and June and has been mostly an off-the-bench option since. Rovira has just 88 minutes all year for RIFC.

Goal Scoring Potion Needed

The Hounds have advanced in the postseason thanks mostly to lights out defending, controlling play in most matches and coming through in heart-pounding penalty kick shootouts.

But scoring goals in the run of play has been another story.

Still, acting Head Coach Rob Vincent believes that it’s not a coincidence or luck that has pulled the players through with two penalty kick wins in the first two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“I think it’s a by-product of how we’re playing right now,” Vincent said.

“We’re trying to keep teams pinned back for long stretches.  Kind of feels like teams are sitting in a lot. I don’t think it’s designed. I don’t think any team is thinking of going 120 (minutes) without conceding. We’re playing well. We’re sustaining attack. We’re trying to keep them pinned in as long as we can. We have to keep trying to create chances — and hopefully one will fall in.”

If you go back to the last regular season match against Phoenix Rising, also played at Highmark Stadium, the Riverhounds have gone over 350 minutes played without scoring a goal.

This is something not lost on Vincent who acknowledged that this is not how they want to win.

“It’s not ideal to keep going 120, but credit to the guys. They kept going. They kept attacking. Playing on the front foot. We felt like we didn’t need to make too many substitutions. The guys were doing what they needed to do.”

This is the one, simple missing ingredient that the Hounds will likely need to advance further in the tournament — score goals.

From a historical standpoint, there’s never been a team that has advanced this far without at least scoring a goal.

It may also be shocking to learn (there’s a hint of sarcasm in there) — that one of two teams which scored the least number of goals on route to a USL Championship Final were none other than Bob Lilley’s Rochester Rhinos squad in 2015.  The other Cup winner scoring five goals in its Cup winning run was Orange County SC (in 2021 — and that team also had a Hounds connection — as for what it’s worth — Hounds current president, Jeff Garner, was the OCSC SC president at the time)

Here’s a look at the last 10 USL Cup winners and how many goals they scored in their respective postseason runs along with regular season output (goals scored, goals per game and goal differential):

• 2024 – Colorado Springs – 8
• 2023 – Phoenix – 9
• 2022 – San Antonio FC – 8
• 2021 – Orange County – 5
• 2019 — Real Monarchs – 13
• 2018 — Louisville City FC – 12
• 2017 — Louisville City FC – 7
• 2016 — NY Red Bulls II – 13
• 2015 — Rochester Rhinos – 5

In modern U.S. pro soccer history, there have been some improbable winners, but one scoring no goals — is unprecedented.

It’s practically impossible to find any teams that have won a Championship without scoring even a modest number of goals.

Interviews from Thursday’s Training Session (Rob Vincent & Danny Griffin)