Riverhounds finally get victory vs. Charlotte

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds celebrated the Fourth of July weekend by finally beating Charlotte Independence.

After going winless in their first dozen tries against Charlotte, the Riverhounds broke through with a 1-0 victory Saturday night at Highmark Stadium.

The Riverhounds had seven losses and five draws against the Independence, but Anthony Velarde’s goal during stoppage time in the first half proved to be enough to break the streak of futility.

Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said the win was more important when it came to the standings than ending a streak. It allowed the Riverhounds (6-4-2) to build their second-place cushion in the Atlantic Division to five points over the Independence (5-5).

“Obviously I knew (about the winless streak) because it’s been brought up,” Lilley said. “This was a big game, because they are high up in our division. We have to go to Charlotte twice, so we definitely did not want to drop another game at home to them after losing the opener.”

The Riverhounds dominated the first half in pretty much every metric. They had 66.2-percent of the possession and outshot Charlotte, 9-0, with four of the shots on goal. They drew nine corners and didn’t surrender any to Charlotte. Seven of the Riverhounds’ shots in the first half were inside the box.

For a while it looked like it would be a wasted effort, but then Velarde broke through.

Following an injury stoppage for Charlotte’s Thomas de Villardi, the Riverhounds resumed possession with three minutes of added time. They steadily built an attack from the backline through the midfield to the forwards.

The sequence culminated in a nifty one-touch pass from Albert Dikwa to Velarde, who deposited the ball into the bottom-left corner of the net. It was Velarde’s second goal of the year.

“It was a good feeling,” Velarde said of his goal. “We could’ve had two or three. Fortunately we were able to get a goal and ended up getting the win. We knew it was going to be tough to beat them, but that’s why we came out and played the way we did. We wanted to be aggressive and put them under some pressure. I think we were successful with that.”

Other chances in the first half for the Riverhounds included a long shot from Kenardo Forbes that went just over the crossbar in the 15th minute, a weak header in the box off a corner by Shane Wiedt in the 29th minute, a shot by Velarde in the center of the box that was denied in the 35th minute and a shot by Forbes that was stopped following a scramble in the box in the 39th minute.

All of those close calls made Velarde’s tally a tension-breaker going into the locker room.

“It was very satisfying,” Lilley said. “I was getting frustrated on the sidelines, but it was a good frustration, because at least we were getting chances. It’s much more frustrating when you’re not generating any chances. It was nice to get a goal before half and not give them that breather where maybe they could slow the game down in the second half. I think because we got that goal they had to be aggressive. They played a little bit better, but we muted that.”

Charlotte had a little bit more possession in the second half but didn’t generate many threats until the 76th minute, when Irvin Parra bounced a shot over Riverhounds keeper Daniel Vitello, but Wiedt chased the ball down and headed it away from the open net.

Pittsburgh had three chances to add to the lead in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but it was thwarted by Charlotte keeper Brandon Miller.

Alex Dixon put a hard shot in on goal off a free kick from just outside the box, but Miller dove to keep it out. Dixon had another prime chance denied a minute later. Miller also stopped a header from Dikwa from in close.

Russell Cicerone, the Riverhounds’ leading scorer, nearly added to his goal total in the 83rd minute. He had a free run on goal, but his shot deflected off of the keeper’s chest.

“I thought if we were a little bit more clinical, there was a lot of open space for us,” Lilley said. “Hopefully that’s one of those things where if we get into those situations in games that we can find the second goal. To me that game tonight should have been put away long before it was.”

The Riverhounds were without a pair of starting defenders. Jordan Dover missed his third consecutive game because of injury, and Jelani Peters is away from the team while playing internationally for Trinidad and Tobago.