Defense helps Riverhounds emerge as USL Championship contender

If you take a look at the defensive categories in the USL Championship record book, teams coached by Bob Lilley are all over it.

Since taking the reins of the Rochester Rhinos in 2010, the Fort Monmouth, N.J. native has left a defensive mark on the USL Championship.

His 2015 Rochester Rhinos team holds top marks for fewest goals conceded and most shutouts in a season. He also won Coach of the Year honors and a USL Cup during that season. But that’s just the beginning of the defensive footprint he’s created in the league.

Lilley took over the Riverhounds in 2018 and brought that defensive mindset with him. Since then, the Riverhounds have been one of the best defensive teams in the league.

Just last year, the Black and Gold put together the second-longest shutout streak in USL Championship history at 698 minutes. In 2018, the Riverhounds also put together a shutout streak of 575 minutes that is the sixth-longest streak in USL Championship history.

“I think defending is effort, it’s collective effort, and I think when people come here (Pittsburgh), they know we are going to be hard to beat,” Lilley said. “It’s just kind of a core philosophy for us that we are going to make it as difficult as we can. There are teams that have created good chances against us and scored goals against us, but recently we haven’t made a lot of mistakes.”

In recent weeks, the Riverhounds have been at it again and could possibly punch another shutout streak into the record book. Heading into Saturday’s matchup with Hartford Athletic, they haven’t allowed a goal since the 57th minute of their matchup with St. Louis FC on Aug. 23.

The streak has lasted a total of 483 minutes, which is the 11th longest shutout streak in USL Championship history. They’ve defeated Hartford and Loudoun United twice and also beat New York Red Bulls II, while outscoring the three teams 15-0.

“They aren’t just getting shutouts, they are limiting quality chances, they are hard to break down, they cover for each other and they are able to make plays,” Lilley said about his defenders. “I think even early in the Loudoun game we were under a lot of pressure and those guys held the fort for the first 20-25 minutes until we played ourselves into the game.”

When it comes to seeing a Bob Lilley defensive game plan in action, Riverhounds midfielder Ryan James is a player that’s had a front row ticket since 2016.

The 5-foot-8 midfielder from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada played for Lilley’s Rochester Rhinos teams in 2016 and ‘17. They didn’t have quite the defensive success as in 2015 when they only allowed 15 goals and recorded 17 shutouts, which are both USL Championship records, but the defensive philosophy Lilley put into place was apparent.

“It definitely comes to a point, where you’re almost not thinking defensively,” James said about how much Lilley stresses defense. “You know where you’re supposed to be when the ball is in a certain area and he just goes over it, game in and game out. He’s always going over it. It’s almost programmed into you. It’s almost like a mindless movement when we’re moving collectively.”

Having a defensive philosophy is just the beginning for Lilley though. The longtime coach believes a lot of his teams’ defensive success can be attributed to the players he has on the field.

“I don’t think there’s a magic system,” Lilley said. “We have wrinkles of how we do things and how we defend certain opponents a certain way, tactically, and I think a lot of teams try different ideas. But I think it comes down to the players taking pride in their defending, and I think we have a group here that does that and that’s carried over with guys being here all three years.”

Just last year, the Riverhounds had a back line that consisted of James and Jordan Dover as wingbacks, while Joe Greenspan, Thomas Vancaeyezeele and Tobi Adewole played center back and Kyle Morton was in the net.

The team put together a shutout streak that spanned seven games. They also recorded 18 clean sheets and allowed 32 goals, which was the second lowest total in the league. Although Dover, James and Vancaeyezeele are the only defenders returning from last year’s team, James can see the similarities.

“I think it comes down to a core group of players who are willing to live and work for each other,” James said. “That’s an important thing when you find a good group that is not only willing to go forward, but you see a lot of guys putting in the extra work to press back and make an extra run defensively that isn’t normally seen with some other teams.”

It didn’t happen right away for the Riverhounds this year. Before the 58th minute of their matchup with St. Louis, the Riverhounds had conceded eight goals in 2020. But they had gone through some injuries, were still adding pieces and given the delay to begin the season, they were still gaining a sense of how each other liked to play.

But, since that St. Louis game, the Riverhounds have started to gain a better familiarity for each other and the pieces are starting to align.

“It takes time for people to vibe together, find out the positives and negatives of each other’s games and see how you can connect on the field and during a game,” James said. “I think communication is a big part of that and we’ve done a good job of doing that with one another. Telling each other where we want the ball or how we like to defend.”

The Riverhounds defensive success, also comes down to playing together as a team. Although a lot rides on the defenders, Tomas Gomez and, most recently, Danny Vitiello have stepped up between the pipes making key saves, but the forwards have also been a key part of it.

Since Lilley’s arrival in Pittsburgh, the defensive effort by the Riverhounds has been evident and it’s been a key piece of their climb up the Eastern Conference standings.

Now, the Riverhounds are looking to continue their defensive success as they close out the regular season over the next two weeks. In order to do so, James says the team has to continue to stay focused on the goal at hand.

“We just need to do what we’ve always done and the results will come,” James said.