The Riverhounds suffered their third loss of the season Saturday, and it looked awfully familiar.
In the 13th minute of the game, former Riverhound Tyler Pasher received a pass on the right wing in open space and made a quick move past Pittsburgh keeper Tomas Gomez in the box to score his USL Championship leading eighth goal of the season and give Indy a 1-0 victory.
The Golden Boot leader CAN'T ? be ? stopped ?#INDvPIT | @Typash pic.twitter.com/6I8zD4Nl7v
— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) August 15, 2020
When Indy Eleven (6-2-1) beat Pittsburgh (4-3) earlier this year at Highmark Stadium, Pasher was the one who delivered the game-winning goal in the 97th minute after only attempting two shots throughout the game.
The Riverhounds controlled 55.8% of the possession at Lucas Oil Stadium and tallied four shots on goal compared to Indy’s two. They also won the total shots battle as they tallied seven.
“I don’t think we had a good start,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “We couldn’t get enough pressure. We did a lot of chasing in the first half. We knew they’d be dangerous on the counter, which is how they scored the goal. I think we started the second half well, got the penalty. Sometimes you’re not going to convert, but we had 40 minutes a man up. I don’t think we put enough pressure on Indy.
“I liked the response at the beginning of the second half, but once we got the man up we needed to be more creative. I think we had a chance to turn the game in the second half, and we weren’t able to take advantage of it.”
One of their closest chances came in the 50th minute when Indy Eleven midfielder Ayoze was given a red card after committing a foul inside of the penalty area. Robbie Mertz stepped to the line for the penalty kick, but Indy goalkeeper Evan Newton made the save to keep his team ahead.
The Riverhounds will return to action at Loudoun United FC (1-3-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
FULL TIME:@IndyEleven 1@RiverhoundsSC 0#INDvPIT | https://t.co/X8VqeQpqIh pic.twitter.com/A0uanPhJGt
— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) August 16, 2020
