The entire season has been about this upcoming stretch of playoff matches. Louisville City positioned themselves well in the regular season to earn that first-round bye. The Rowdies, Memphis 901, and Pittsburgh Riverhounds all advanced. Tampa and Memphis will face each other in the second round while LouCity enters the mix with a match against Pittsburgh. The winners of these matches will face off in the Eastern Conference Finals.
LouCity is 8-4-5 (W-L-D) all-time against the Riverhounds. Louisville got the win at home earlier this season while the Riverhounds drew Morados in the second meeting. The last meeting between these two sides outside of this regular season was actually in the 2020 playoffs. It was a match in which LouCity earned the win at home. Hopefully, it is something that will be repeated this season. PIT ended the regular season with 1.5 goals for per match (11th) and 1.1 goals against (9th), per FotMob. Their offense produced 4.5 shots on target per match (11th) and the league’s 4th most big chances (72). On the defensive side, they produced the 6th most clean sheets of all teams (11).
Players to watch include Russell Cicerone, Kenardo Forbes, and Daniel Griffin. Having played previously for both St Louis and Cincy, LouCity fans are well acquainted with Cicerone. Now in his second season with Pittsburgh, he leads his squad with 13 goals and six assists. He has also created the 3rd most big chances for his team. Forbes has been a staple on the Riverhounds and is a USL legend. He has a team-high player rating of 7.46 and leads in assists with 10. He also has produced the most chances (73) and big chances (17). And finally, there is Griffin. The midfielder, who has the 2nd highest player rating (7.35), is a quiet contributor much like our Tyler Gibson. He leads in accurate passes per match with 41.9.
While the last meeting between the two sides was an uncomfortable one for City fans, FiveThirtyEight is giving the home team the comfortable edge with a 70% chance to win. While it won’t be an easy task, Louisville’s recuperation time, in contrast to PIT’s 120+ min affair in Birmingham, does play in favor of the boys in purple. LouCity did get in a friendly with John Hackworth’s St Louis City 2 team so there shouldn’t be a lot of rust with the squad. LOUvPIT should be a thrilling match! Vamos Morados!
Parting Thoughts
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