Riverhounds prepare to deal with New York's intense pressure in rubber match

The Riverhounds are in the middle of one of their best weeks of the season and they are looking to finish strong when they head to New Jersey on Saturday to face off with New York Red Bulls II.

Last Friday, the Black and Gold got an important 3-0 win over Hartford Athletic, then they got the same result against Loudoun United on Tuesday for their second clean sheet in a row. A win Saturday could put the Riverhounds in perfect position as they gear up for the playoffs.

“It’s going to be a big challenge, but if we can win this game it will put us in a really solid position in our division and it will get us closer to a higher seed at playoff time,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “The more games we win here down the stretch, the more opportunity we will have to play multiple games at home. It’s a big game for us.”

Pittsburgh (7-3-1) and New York (3-6-0) have met two times this season and split the series. The Red Bulls snuck away with a 2-1 win on their home turf in July, but the Riverhounds bounced back two weeks later with a 4-1 win over the Red Bulls at Highmark Stadium.

Heading into the rubber match, the Riverhounds are looking to win the series with their third straight victory, while the Red Bulls are 1-4 since beating Pittsburgh. Lilley knows their record doesn’t paint a proper picture.

“They’ve had a few losses where they were clearly the better team, and they got in a bit of a funk where they lost four games on the trot and dug a little bit of a hole for themselves,” Lilley said. “I sense they are coming out of that. So, in the short season, they are going to be desperate, and there’s going to be an urgency to their game that we may have not of seen from anyone so far this year.”

The Red Bulls are known for putting an immense amount of pressure on their opponents with quick and fast forwards; Lilley knows his team must work the ball around the field and find open lanes for passes.

During their meeting at Highmark Stadium, the Riverhounds did just that and got behind the Red Bulls on multiple occasions. After midfielder Robbie Mertz scored on a penalty kick in the first five minutes, the Riverhounds added three more goals in the second half before Red Bulls forward Dantouma Toure scored in the 93rd minute.

So, when it comes to Saturday’s matchup, the Riverhounds know they need to be on the ball and not get overwhelmed by New York’s pressure on their back line.

“If this game gets stretched out and becomes a game about running, it’s going to make it very difficult for us,” Lilley said. “So, we need to take care of the ball, defend well as a group and work our way into this game. If we do there’s a good mentality in the group, and I think good things can happen if we don’t get overwhelmed by their pressure because I think they are going to be flying right out of the gate.”

The Riverhounds will have to do it without star captain Kenardo Forbes, as well. On Thursday, Lilley announced Forbes would be out for at least four to eight weeks after suffering a quad injury against Hartford Athletic last Friday. But the Riverhounds have plenty of talent to fill in the hole left by Forbes, and Lilley is confident with how they have been playing since Forbes’ injury.

“The players know that he was a big piece, but we have a lot of good players, and in the past couple of years we’ve had guys who have missed games and we made it work,” Lilley said. “It’s a big challenge but it’s the cliché, next man up, and there are different ways where we can shift guys around and we have guys who have played a lot of minutes.”

The two teams will meet at 5 p.m. Saturday at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J.