USL Feature (taken from www.uslsoccer.com)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

PITTSBURGH RIVERHOUNDS

Coach: Justin Evans
2010 Season: Semifinals, USL-2

The Lowdown – After a preceding pair of disappointing seasons that saw them miss the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds appeared to lay the foundation for a strong run of success in the 2010 USL-2 season. Making the playoffs for the first time since 2006, the Riverhounds were led by a strong defense and an impressive home record that saw them lose only twice in the league at Chartiers Valley Stadium.

Key Departures – The Riverhounds had close to a perfect offseason, keeping the core of their squad together. According to Coach Justin Evans, no player of major significance has moved on, giving the club a chance to build on the success it found a season ago.

Key Returnees – At the center of that group is the defensive duo of 2010 USL-2 Goalkeeper of the Year Hunter Gilstrap and 2010 USL-2 Defender of the Year Shintaro Harada. After giving up 20 goals in 20 games a season ago, the Riverhounds could have the ability to lower that figure to less than a goal a game this season.

Key Additions – The signing of Thabiso “Boyzzz” Khumalo is likely to add some additional scoring punch for the Riverhounds, and Khumalo could form a strong partnership with 2010 USL-2 Rookie of the Year Jeremy Deighton, who scored five goals in 13 games a season ago. Khumalo’s experience with D.C. United should pay dividends for the Riverhounds.

The Coach’s Opinion – “We are out to win the championship every single year. We are very hopeful that we have done enough in the off season to prepare ourselves to win the championship, as I expect so are the other teams at this point. It is going to be an exciting USL PRO summer of soccer.” – Justin Evans

If it all goes to plan – The Riverhounds certainly appear to be if not the favorite to win the National Division then certainly the co-favorite alongside the Rochester Rhinos. Pittsburgh does have a tricky start to the season with four of its first five games on the road, including a tasty rematch of last season’s USL-2 semifinal against Richmond to open, but if it can get through that passage in good shape a division title could be there for the taking.

released by the Riverhounds Director of Public Relations

Pittsburgh, PA – October 22, 2010- The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are proud to announce their participation in USL PRO for the 2011 Season. United Soccer Leagues will combine teams from the its First and Second Divisions to form USL PRO, the strongest professional soccer league in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean outside of Major League Soccer.

It's been a very busy week for USL CEO Alec Papadakis. Owners meetings took place in Tampa and a major announcement was released: Designed to help ensure the long-term stability of professional soccer in North America, United Soccer Leagues announced the merger of its First and Second Divisions into a single league property for 2011 - USL PRO.

There are a gaggle of complex scenarios that could see the Hounds make or miss the playoffs. The results of this weekend's games should go a long way to settle a few variables. However, there is one simple thing that we can do to secure a spot in the postseason: Win. The Riverhounds host the league leading Battery this Saturday night at 7pm. The front office has asked everyone to wear white to create the Hounds first "white out". The Riverhounds will be honoring their academy kids before the game and holding raffles for prizes throughout the evening. Tickets are only $5 for at the gate!

Hunter Gilstrap has been excellent all season. It's really no surprise to see him once again honored on the USL's second division team of the week after posting another shutout vs Real Maryland. Nathan Salsi got the start at his preferred CB position last week with Shintaro out of the lineup and didn't disappoint by playing solid defense and slotting home a corner. Jeremy Deighton had another strong game last week. The kid is really using his size well and scored a fantastic goal. He took a long ball off his chest, shielded his defender and rifled a left-footed volley into the back of the net.

It's been a bit of an up and down year for our neighbors to the east. Off the pitch, they were able to take full control over their stadium and entered into an official partnership with new MLS club Philadelphia. Taking control of the stadium will no doubt increase revenue streams and give them the flexibility to host additional events. The relationship with Philly was supposed to increase Harrisburg's viability and legitimacy and provide them with talent to compete in the USL's second division. However, the realities of whoring themselves out has had a detrimental effect on the team's 2010 campaign.

In the aftermath of the Riverhounds stunning 3-1 road victory in Richmond, three of the boys were named to the USL2 Team of the Week.

taken from a recent article posted by Inside Minnesota Soccer

The USL also lost some teams in USL-2 this past year. Charleston dropped from USL-1 to USL-2 but that still is only 6 teams active for this season. FIFA normally requires 8 teams to run a league. I am hearing that you are working hard on an expansion of USL-2 (D-3). Can you give us any insights into that and where will these teams be coming from?

HOLT: USL-2 is the only USSF-sanctioned DIII Men’s Professional League and the longest-standing active American professional soccer league. No different than USL-1, the main characteristics for USL-2 include a high level of on-field competition, teams positioned to achieve profitability through the support of the USL office/structure, and a connection with our fans in all markets. Although it typically doesn’t get the same spotlight as USL-1, USL-2 is a very important league within our structure and the one which has the most immediate growth opportunity.

We will be expanding USL-2 to form a Western Conference for 2011, which will be comprised of some current PDL teams and expansion teams. At this base level of professional soccer maintaining regional competition and controlling expenses is imperative so there will not be teams traveling coast-to-coast with any regularity except for the post-season. Most USL-2 teams operate on a low to mid six-figure budget and are heavily reliant on local sponsorship, ticket sales, and camp revenue to cover expenses. The current roster of teams for 2010 includes amongst the best operated organizations in the USL system including the likes of the Charleston Battery, Charlotte Eagles and Richmond Kickers and boasts an average of 12 years of USL pro league participation. We believe that this regional competition format model is ideal for lower division professional soccer and that the next 3-5 years will represent a renaissance period for USL-2.

The USL website is running a feature which lists out the top-25 most influential players in the history of the USL's second division. They've named our skipper as the 11th most influential player!

It looks as if a few teams are making some moves which indicate that there will be 2nd division league play in 2010. The defending USL-2 champion Richmond Kickers have posted open tryouts in January and Crystal Palace Baltimore have announced the signing of Brazilian playmaker Neto.

It appears that the USL1 Shitty Stars are up for sale! According to a source, team executive director Aaron Tredway claims to have held discussions with two prospective buyers. The price tag is estimated to be close to $400,000, including a $75,000 payment due the league. The deadline for USL1 franchises to renew is today, September 1st. If the Cleveland City Stars are unable to find a buyer, they are likely to move back down into the USL's second division for the 2010 season.

Okay, it's along shot for sure, but here is what needs to go down:

First and foremost, we need all 6 points from our last two games. We're currently sitting on 19 points and that would leave us with 25. That's a big improvement over last season's 18 points!

Real Maryland, 23 pts, can only tie one of their two remaining games. They play at home vs Bermuda and then close out in Wilmington. We need a strong performance from the Pigs! If Real ties both games they also have 25 points.

Crystal Palace, 22 pts, plays at Harrisburg tonight. If they lose or tie and we best them next week, we'll leapfrog them in the standings.

Western Ass, 20 pts, host Harrisburg on Wednesday and close out on the road vs the Eagles. I can see them dropping both, but for us to pass them they can only win one of those games, preferably vs Citah.

We could potentially tie the Eagles with 25 points if we beat them this weekend and then they drop their last game vs Ass (not likely).

As far as tiebreakers in the USL2 go, here are the scenarios concerning the Hounds:

First tiebreaker is league wins. So, we'd own the tiebreaker over the Eagles with 7 wins to their 6. Real could also finish with 7 wins and 25 points. The next tiebreaker would be goal differential. We both sit at -8 so if they tie both and we win both, we trump them. If Crystal Palace end up with 25 points, they'd have an advantage with their -3 goal differential going into the last game of the season vs the Hounds...so, we'd really have to pound them!

Confused yet? It's actually not that difficult. We just worry about ourselves and let the soccer gods sort it all out in the end...

player notes: T-Bone is out with an injury. Sean Bucknor is probable at best. Zewe is nursing a bad ankle as well which could require off-season surgery. Look for Jason Kutney to move from fullback to the wing.

So as promised I will review the Harrisburg as I remember it. For me it really started with trying to get as many people to take the trip across the state as possible. What at one point looked like an army of 20 or so going to the state capital to watch the hounds take on the City Islanders, dwindled down to around 5 just days before the trip. Keep in mind this was a wednesday night game so work was the main reason many of us couldn't make it, but that isn't an excuse. The Army should always come before work, just ask Keystone. Anyways the 5 grew to about 12 just before the trip and it was exciting to know the army would have a strong voice in Harrisburg.


When game day arrived Myself Yan and Maria make the long car trip to Harrisburg without many bumps along the way. When we arrived at the bar however, it was clear that MJ, Beef Espo and Keystone had wasted no time in starting the pre-game.

After a few drinks the rest of us were just about ready to take over Harrisburg as well. Then in true Steel Army fashion, Tim limps in on crutches just hours after having surgery on his leg. Naturally he is quickly given a seat and a pint, taking his rightful place as a Steel Army Legend.

As we crossed the bridge and made our way to the stadium, I was very impressed with the size of the crowd that was filling into the gates. Although Harrisburg has no orginized support the soccer moms and soccer kids come out in full force. Other stadium highlights have to include; mocking a girl who decided to wear a Leeds United shirt, drinking Troeggs for 3 dollars, and recieving dirty looks from half of Alabama... err I mean Harrisburg. It was during halftime that BEEF and Espo discovered that nobody was stopping them from taking the USL 2 Trophy, which was sitting on the edge of the snack shack.

Thankfully the 'ammer and Magpie in BEEF and Espo didn't get the best of them and the cops were not needed. In the second half we broke out the more offensive songs such as "Oh Harrisburg is full of scum" and "Alabama in the Middle" naturally the locals weren't too happy with us but it was hard to tell as they weren't making any noise. After T-mac's header gave us the win, we stormed the field with Pittsburgh flags and Hound's blue and white, much to the shagrin of Islander fans, especially those who are looking to get some orginized support for the next year.

After the match we went back to the bar and drank with the players, in what I felt was a classy and honest way for them to show us how much they appreciated our support during the season.

Today it was announced that the Cleveland City stars would be promoting to the USL1. In the Hound's first year back the City Stars were clearly our biggest rival, they have a supporters group about the size of the Steel Army, they were our closest road trip, and they are from CLEVELAND! It was a natural fit, but so it ends after only one year. Cleveland clearly got the best of it on the field taking all 9 points partly due to a heart breaking last second goal in the opener. In the stands however I would say that there were no losers as I'm sure the Green Army enjoyed the back and forth road trips as much as we did. Probobly a bit more given the results. That said I don't know what upsets me more, The fact that we lost everyones favorite rivalry, the fact that it's one less road trip for next year, or the fact that the Steel Army is now the only supporters group in the northern part of the USL. Hopefully Harrisburg can get thier act together and get some real support, although signs look promising that that the two maryland clubs may have some orginized support next year.
As for the Green Army I don't know what I'd think if I were them, on one hand you get to go into a bigger and better league, and you will get to see a few away games on national TV, (ahem FSC) also you'd get a few more home games, but on the downside the only away game that is a drivable distance is Rochester, rather than having half the league within distance of a day trip as you do with the USL2. Also keep in mind that the majority of the Green Army's support is college or High School age, so Portland and Miami are most likely out of the question. On top of that I'm sure a few of the Green Army Bhoys will miss the banter and back and forth chanting that the rivalry created.
Speaking of missing rivalries it's unfortunate that the biggest supporters group rivalries in both the USL1 and USL2 will dissappear in the same season, as Seattle becomes part of the MLS leaving the 'ole Portland Timbers behind, Cleveland Pittsburgh had that honor in USL2 (DUH!!!) So where does this leave the USL2? It looks like the USL2 will go from being a 10 team league to a 9 team league with rumors of Indy joining the league sometime in the future to again push it to ten. The rivalry based scheduling from last season will have to be adjusted, also every American team in the league will qualify automatically for the US Open Cup. (If you remember the Hounds just made the tournament last year by avoiding a last place standing on the arbitrary day that the qualifying was to end.) If the Indianapolis rumors are true then the league will have ten teams again soon, but before you get too excited there were rumors of a canadian team in the USL2 a few months ago and I haven't heard anything of that since. If your a fan of the City stars I suppose it's a good day, if your a fan of the rivalry it's a sad one, and as for the Steel Army we still hate Cleveland City which is about the highest honor that we can bestow on another team.
I leave you with a song...

"And it's no nay never, no nay never no more, cause we'll play Cleveland Shitty, no nay never no more!!!!"

In what is to be a crucial game for both The Hounds and the Islanders, both teams will have more to worry about than just their opponents. Isolated thunderstorms are expected for Bridgeville starting at around 2 PM and continuing for the rest of the day. That means players fans and even reporters are going to have to adjust to the weather conditions, at Chartiers Valley Stadium. Of course the crowd will be a big obstacle for the visiting Islanders as well. Non stop noise is expected from the entire stadium but it has been especially loud behind the visiting bench. The Hounds will have to concentrate on the game itself despite needing a win from Wilmington over Western Mass, to stay within striking distance of the 6th and final playoff spot. Normally Harrisburg would be seen as heavy favorites coming into a match like this, the City Islanders have a firm hold on a playoff spot, are the defending champions and sit 11 points above the Riverhounds. Recent form however suggests otherwise, The Hounds are riding a 3 match home winning streak, and Boyzzz (3 goals in his last two games, as well as USL 2 player of the week) looks to be in top form. Then theres the Islanders who have jumped out to leads in each of their last two matches, only to see those leads slip away and result in just one point. The lose to Crystal Palace USA was especially heart breaking for Harrisburg as the Islanders not only held the lead just 6 minutes in but even after Palace equalized City would have one and two man advantages for the final 54 minues of the game. That advantage still wasn't enoguh to prevent a goal from giving the 9 man Palace side all three points. If the Hounds are to win they must slow down Harrisburg MF Mo Oduor who has been one of the few bright spots in the City lineup. Mo had 1 goal and one assist in Harrisburg's 2-2 draw with Western Mass this past Saturday. With niether team being able to settle for a point this should be a wide open and exciting game, hopefully the Hounds will come out on top. Kickoff is 7:05 Saturday and as always the best seats in the house will go unused as the Steel Army will be standing once again.