As the leaves begin to turn, many teams hopes of making the USL Championship’s postseason are doing much of the same.

That includes the Pittsburgh Riverhounds who, as of late, have turned to falling short in the win department —including a 2-0 loss to Louisville FC on Saturday night — and have seen their chances of making the playoffs take a turn for the worse.

At the start of summer, the local 11 had a favorable home schedule and, as expected, took advantage of it, securing a 5-1-3 record at Highmark Stadium. It helped the team climb as high as fifth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Pittsburgh has recently floundered into the seventh playoff spot, as both the Hartford Athletic and Detroit City FC are now ahead of them.

If the Riverhounds were going to make up any ground on a picture-perfect Saturday on their home pitch, a much needed three points would have to come at the hands of the league’s top time in Louisville FC.

Despite playing an even first half in front of a sedated crowd of 5,152 and owning a 2 to 1 shot advantage over the course of the contest (14-7), the visitors used a second-half goal in the 50th minute and then a dagger late to secure a 2-0 win.

The loss kept the Riverhounds (8-9-7) locked into the seventh playoff spot. But Rhode Island beat the Indy 11 by a 1-0 count and is now just one point behind them in the playoff race. The only positive is Pittsburgh owns the tiebreaker, having swept the season series.

An ugly defeat in front of a tame crowd, one that is usually loud, set the tone for the match. The play in the first half was balanced, but there was little action until the early stage of the second half when Louisville (17-1-6) struck first in the 50th when FC midfielder Kevon Lamber poked home a header off a deflected shot at the top of the 18-yard box, beating Hounds keeper Erik Dick for the game’s first goal, his third of the season. Hounds defenders claimed offsides, but to no avail.

Hounds manager Bob Lilley was not pleased with how his team reacted to start play in the second half that led to the game’s first strike.

“The goal to start the second half, Erik (Dick) should be clearing his lines,” he said. “Their players didn’t drop off. Their attack stayed high to get Erik to play long. We invited pressure. We didn’t clear our lines. They ended up with a free kick. Robbie got a yellow. After the free kick was a corner kick and they scored.”

The Hounds kept the pressure on, launching multiple second-half attacks, only to be denied by Louisville netminder Damian Las, who recorded four saves and his seventh clean sheet of 2025.

Adrien Perez notched his second goal of the season for the visitors in the 87th minute, securing the road victory, the team’s 10th on the year.

Lilley said more aggression is needed to keep this team in games where they fall behind.

“If we’re going to win down the stretch, the ability to get numbers and attack the box, whether its Louisville or whoever,” Lilley said. “A lot of teams have big, strong solid defenders. For me, that’s got to be something we do. Tonight, there were goals, had we been more aggressive from the get-go, even down 1-0. There was enough opportunity to get that goal back.”

The Riverhounds still sit four points ahead of eighth-place Rhode Island, which won Saturday. This sets up a rather important match in Connecticut next Saturday when the Hounds visit the Hartford Athletic, a team they beat 1-0 in late March in Pittsburgh. Game time is 7 p.m.

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