A year after covid cancellation, Riverhounds get another crack at Birmingham

Sometimes the soccer gods give a second opportunity.

A year after having to bow out of the USL Championship playoffs due to covid cases within the team, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds have the exact same matchup in the first round at Birmingham Legion FC they would’ve had last season.

The match is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday at Protective Stadium in Alabama.

The Hounds split with Birmingham in the regular season, winning 1-0 at Highmark Stadium on a goal by Danny Griffin on May 7 and losing 2-1 on the road last month. They led 1-0 at halftime after a goal by Albert Dikwa, but Birmingham got goals from Enzo Martinez and Sadik Balarabe to secure three points.

“We’re playing better now than when we played them last time,” Hounds winger Russell Cicerone said. “We’ve seen them a couple times and know their tendencies. Obviously, they’ve become much better throughout the year. They are a high-level team. A lot of it comes down to work ethic and doing the little things right. If we go in there and continue to play how we have been the last few games, I think we can find a lot of success.”

The Hounds are coming off their strongest performance of the season, a 3-1 win over Oakland Roots in the regular season finale. Hounds coach Bob Lilley said he could see the team building toward Saturday’s result in the last few matches and in training. Now they’ll look to take the momentum built with them to Birmingham.

“We were breaking down their midfield line, and our attacking moments and energy were top notch,” Lilley said about the Oakland game. “That’s when we are at our best. We’ve been working hard on this for the past month. You saw it during the last Birmingham game. They were on us early, but we started playing through the lines and eventually got the goal. That game got away from us, but I think we took a step forward from there each of our last three games.”

Birmingham qualified for the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. The Hounds topped the Legion, 7-0, in the 2019 quarterfinals.

Martinez leads the team in goals (15) and assists (8). Marlon has nine goals, Prosper Kasim has scored eight and Juan Agudelo has netted seven. Birmingham has a plus-19 goal differential compared to the Hounds’ plus-12.

“Everyone has good players at this point, so you have to find that little extra to tilt the game in your favor,” Lilley said. “That’s really difficult to do on the road. At the end of the day, Birmingham is likely going to get good moments. They have quality players and are good in transition. We have to do a good job defending so hopefully they only get five quality chances instead of 15. And then we have to be sharp enough offensively that we get 15 instead of five. That’s the crux of it.”

Cicerone leads the Hounds with 13 goals and Dikwa has 12. They have scored half the team’s goals.

The Hounds are 7-6-4 on the road, but five of those six losses came before July. The only road setback after July was in Birmingham.

They’ll look to flip that result to start a playoff run.

“We’ve worked hard to get where we are,” Hounds defender Toby Sims said. “Of course, we’d like to be higher up the table and play a home playoff game for our fans. It didn’t work out that way, but we know we can go down to Birmingham and beat them. It’s all about confidence and belief at this point, because we have the talent to do it.”