Controversy surrounds Riverhounds playoff opener vs. Hartford Athletic

The chill in the air as November dawns caps off a rather hot two months of soccer by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, who finished on a 5-2-1 run, good enough to earn a home playoff tilt.

A 30-match regular season culminated last Saturday in a draw with visiting Phoenix Rising of the Western Division of the USL Championship.

Coupled with a Louisville win over Hartford Athletic, the local 11 found themselves the beneficiary of a tiebreaker over Hartford and hence, will host a first-round playoff game Saturday night against their Connecticut rivals on the banks of the Mon.

But it wasn’t just the play of the ‘Hounds that had some heat. Events over the past 40 days have caused this rather mundane contest between the fourth and fifth seeds in the Eastern Conference to be a case of must-see TV.

For a variety of reasons.

And the two main headlines are hot, hot, hot, starting with the rematch of a game contested Sept. 20 that featured a 10-minute melee in stoppage time.

Normally, one would think a game contested between two division rivals fighting for points and playoff seeding could lead to a skirmish or two in stoppage time. But this story comes with the caveat that Hartford midfielder Marlon Hairston accused Riverhounds team captain Danny Griffin of using a racial slur in extra time during a 2-1 Pittsburgh win.

After the players were separated, Hairston spoke his mind to the match official Greg Dopka, who didn’t give the eight-year MLS veteran what he wanted, so he left the pitch. Hartford manager Brendan Burke then ordered his entire club to the locker room. The match was eventually labeled a Hounds win due to “abandonment.”

Things escalated over the next several days, with both teams and the players involved either denying or further pushing the narrative that a racial slur was used. Griffin took a polygraph, and the USL investigated the incident. Determining the allegations were unsubstantiated, Griffin received no disciplinary action from the league.

Hairston commented on Instagram, writing, “First off, we could have done that (polygraph) together, but the league said NO. So instead, you claim to do one anyways. I don’t even know you bro, and despite that I’ve been helping you save face. But you’re not about to play the victim here. You know exactly what you said. And not only did you say it, but you didn’t deny it after I confronted you.”

According to a Riverhounds staff member, neither player has spoken to each other since the game and incident in question. The tension should be high come Saturday at Highmark.

Meanwhile, just 23 days ago in an announcement made via an X post, the Riverhounds put Bob Lilley, the club’s winningest manager, on “administrative leave” the night before a critical conference match against the Indy 11. Since then, nobody has spoken about what prompted the move by team owner Tuffy Shallenberger.

In the void, Rob Vincent has been at the helm, guiding the team to five goals and a 2-0-1 mark in three games. He will be on the bench Saturday, his first playoff game as “acting manager” of the club. Lilley, who has spent 24 seasons as a manager for numerous outdoor clubs, has 405 career wins, of which 131 have come in the Steel City.

With all the drama surrounding the players, teams and home manager, a ticket to the contest may only require the edge of your seat to justify the cost of admission. The game starts at 6:30 pm and can be seen on SportsNet Pittsburgh and ESPN+.