Riverhounds fall to Louisville City FC, 1-0

May 21, 2017 | By Rachael McKriger

The three-game USL winning streak held by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds is gone.

The Riverhounds fell to Louisville City FC on Saturday night at Highmark Stadium. After two tedious away matches in the span of a week, the Riverhounds returned home.

“It was an odd week for us,” head coach Dave Brandt said after the match. “The travel to Ottawa, the travel to Chicago – kind of a split group, but enough first team guys made the trip. You get back Thursday morning at 7:30 and you’re like ‘man, we’ve got Louisville City on Saturday.’ I just think it took a while for us to get our rhythm.”

The Riverhounds made plenty of changes to their lineup after their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup loss against Chicago United FC.

Keasel Broome was removed from goal and Trey Mitchell resumed his place in net. On defense, the Riverhounds started Connor Maloney, the recent Columbus Crew SC loanee. Also joining him was Lalas Abubakar, also of the Crew. Abubakar joined the Hounds earlier in the season for their match against the Charleston Battery.

Despite a revamped defense, the Riverhounds were not able to halt Louisville City FC from finding the back of Mitchell’s net. In the 7’ minute, Luke Spencer scored off an assist from Brian Ownby. Ownby started the counterattack after Maloney gave up a ball in the midfield.

However, despite the slip up, centerback Joe Greenspan is happy with the acquisition of Maloney and Abubakar.

“I think they’re both fantastic players and they deserve to play at this level,” Greenspan said. “They’ve come into the group and done well. They’ve only been here yesterday, and today, so it’s always tough. I go back to my first couple days with the team and the result against Saint Louis. It’s hard to get integrated into the team immediately, right off the bat.”

Abubakar had the lone yellow card for the Riverhounds in the 41’ minute. For Louisville, two yellow cards – and a single red card – were shown to their side. Mark-Anthony Kaye was shown the first yellow in the 45’ minute, followed by Paco Craig in the 75’ minute.

Late in the 87’ minute, Paolo DelPiccolo was shown a red card for a harsh foul on Romeo Parkes, who entered the match in the 63’ minute to relieve Jack Thompson in the midfield.

However, with 10 men on the pitch for Louisville late in the match, the Riverhounds were not able to find the equalizer.

“Kevin [Kerr] had a chance or two,” Brandt said. “Corey [Hertzog] had a bunch of chances and I think he and I are both scratching our heads, and the rest of our team. Almost always, one or two of those go in and he had some really good looks.”

The Riverhounds will travel to the middle of Pennsylvania on Wednesday to face the Harrisburg City Islanders at FNB Field. The match will count as part of the Keystone Derby, in which the Riverhounds lead with one win out of three matches. The match will kick off at 6:30 p.m.

Follow Rachael on twitter at @RachaelMcKriger