Riverhounds' playoff hopes take hit in draw with Birmingham
To get to the 48 points coach Bob Lilley has forecasted as a benchmark to get into the postseason, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds needed four wins and a draw in their last five games.
Well, the Hounds used up that draw early by squandering a lead.
A second-half goal by Birmingham Legion's Stefano Pinho answered Edward Kizza's tally in the first half in a 1-1 tie Saturday night at Highmark Stadium.
Now the Hounds (8-10-12) will have to run the table in their final four games in October to hit 48 points. Lilley acknowledged that their playoff hopes are dangling by a thread.
"It was as close to a must-win as you can get," Lilley said. "Mathematically, we're not out of it, but we had three home games to take nine points and probably needed to do that.
"When the season's over, if we don't make the playoffs, which is more than likely at this point, it's going to be a tough offseason, because I don't think we'll be a ton of points out of it. But some of the lessons you have to learn aren't as pleasant as others."
The Hounds are tied with North Carolina for 10th in the USL Championship Eastern Conference standings and are two points behind Loudoun for the final playoff spot. Hartford, is one point behind Loudoun in ninth.
Hartford, Loudoun and North Carolina all have a game in hand on the Hounds.
Birmingham (12-12-6) is six points ahead of the Hounds and in sixth place.
"We could've brought Birmingham to three points from us and that's only one more win and we have the tiebreaker," Lilley said. "We let them off the hook. We gave two more points back to everyone around us. That's not a good way to catch teams, getting a point."
Birmingham's goal came in the 79th minute. It started off with a pass through the midfield to Pinho, who was sprung into open space. Pinho dribbled down into the box, took Hounds defender Sean Suber one on one in the box and placed a shot into the top left corner of the net.
"On the goal, they played the ball into a high target, a one-timer in behind, and Suber got caught ball-watching," Lilley said. "Pinho's not faster than Suber, but (Suber's) caught watching so Pinho's in behind. Suber's quick enough that he recovers, but he gets dribbled to the inside, shoots, uses him as a screen and it's 1-1."
It was the latest example of the Hounds squandering a lead in the second half. They also did it in their last game at Tampa, where a 1-0 lead became a 2-1 loss.
"Our ability to manage the 90 minutes this year has not been good enough in general," Lilley said. "It's certainly been better the back half of the year compared to the beginning, but not significantly. We've given away just as many points in the back half. At the beginning of the year, we were playing poorly and now we're playing well, but in terms of managing the game, we haven't matured enough with this group. That's on the staff. The players. Everyone."
Kizza's goal came in the 22nd minute on a header off a free kick that was whipped in from the left side of the box by Robbie Mertz.
Kizza continued to be a thorn in the side for Birmingham. He scored twice as a sub in the Hounds' playoff victory against the Legion in 2022 and had two goals in the win at Birmingham on Aug. 24.
But it wasn't enough to hold up this time.
The Hounds will begin their final four-game stretch where they'll probably need perfection to have a chance next Saturday at last place Miami FC.
"We've shown that we can play with anybody and beat anybody on any given night. We just have to put the final product out for the full 90 minutes," Hounds keeper Eric Dick said. "The effort's there. The guys crushed it and work their butts off, but we just have to find another gear. I know everyone wants to give more because everyone's unhappy right now."
