Pittsburgh Riverhounds coach Rob Vincent felt flummoxed by the lack of intensity his team showed Wednesday night at Highmark Stadium. All of the momentum he believed the Hounds had made during their first few matches was absent against Steel City FC.
The Riverhounds beat Steel City FC, 2-1, in front of a crowd of 4,827 to advance to the second round of the U.S. Open Cup, but Vincent felt they left a lot on the table.
The Riverhounds struggled to finish scoring chances, even after Steel City FC took a red card in the 86th minute.
“I think it’s a million miles away from where we need to be, honestly,” Vincent said. “Honestly, I’m a little bit lost for words right now. It was really, really poor. I just think from minute one, there was a lack of intensity.”
This was the first meeting between two Pittsburgh-area teams since the Harmarville Hurricanes beat Morgan Strasser (Bridgeville) in the 1957 quarterfinals. The Hounds improved to 16-6-1 all-time in U.S. Open Cup matches at home.
Pittsburgh will play another amateur team, the Virginia Dream, in the second round next Tuesday.
“Hopefully this can happen every year,” Steel City FC coach Dan Brower said. “It was a phenomenal night of football.”
Chaos created the Riverhounds’ first goal. A shove may have helped things along as well. Danny Griffin booted the ball over the body of a Steel City FC defender and to the near side of the goal. Griffin’s shot zoomed over a prone Steel City FC defender, who was knocked to the ground while the cross from Robby Mertz bounced around.
Brower said he didn’t think officiating impacted the result.
“That early goal put us behind the eight ball, but you know we missed the header and we could have gotten a little bit of luck with the referee, but the referee unit did a great job today,” Brower said. “It was a tough missed call for us. It was an uphill battle early, and we had to deal with the pressure.”
Charles Ahl doubled the Riverhounds lead in the 66th minute off an assist from Perrin Barnes. Ahl took a pass from just outside the box, and after a touch, hammered a shot into the upper corner of the net.
No Hounds players were made available for comment.
“We didn’t press them well enough,” Vincent said. “We gave them too much respect on the ball, too much time. The few times that we did press, we forced turnovers high up the field. It wasn’t as though they were breaking us down.”
Nick Graeca put the pressure on the Riverhounds late. After a foul was drawn in the box, Graeca converted a penalty to cut the deficit to one.
Pittsburgh was able to close things out to get the win.
Vincent said he needs to see more intensity moving forward.
“Tonight was an opportunity for some guys to step up who haven’t played a ton of minutes,” Vincent said. “Whether it’s game fitness or a fight to start in the 11, I don’t think anybody staked a claim for that.
“I have some really difficult decisions to make on who to drop and who’s going to start. It’s going to make some guys unhappy in terms of maybe not starting games they should.”