Riverhounds 'gutted' by sudden, unexpected end to season

For two years, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds were able to avoid a covid-19 outbreak within the team, but that changed last week and it forced them to forfeit their first-round playoff game Sunday at Birmingham Legion FC.

It was a bitter ending to the season for the Riverhounds, who qualified for the USL Championship playoffs for a fourth consecutive year.

The Riverhounds had multiple players test positive for covid-19 last week, and some of them were roommates with other players who tested negative but had to quarantine as a close contact.

“It was really disappointing to put nine months of work in and not have an opportunity,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “The players are gutted that they didn’t get an opportunity to compete in a playoff game. ... We did everything we could do, and the timing couldn’t have been worse. It is really difficult to end that way, but I’m proud of the group for the growth they showed throughout the year.”

The team announced in a news release Saturday that 93% of the team was fully vaccinated.

Players who tested positive were not disclosed. The entire coaching staff tested negative.

Lilley said the first positive cases were confirmed Tuesday night, but at that time it was isolated enough that the team still had every intention to play. He also said they had played opponents this season that had a couple of positive cases, but they were isolated, so the team could play that week.

An off day was scheduled Wednesday, which was planned weeks in advance for players to come in and receive booster shots.

Thursday morning, another player called with symptoms and was told to stay home and was delivered a test. At that point the team canceled training and decided to test everyone on the team and notified the league offices of the team-wide test.

The results of the tests came back Friday, and the Riverhounds did not get the news for which they had hoped.

“Once the tests came back, we ended up with a much higher number of positives where it ended up not being feasible to play the game or risk players traveling,” Lilley said.

The team had to quarantine for 10 days, which meant it wouldn’t have been able to travel to Birmingham until next Monday, making it impossible to reschedule the game.

“Though it was tough, I think it was the right call by the league,” Lilley said. “When you are in the regular season, you can find somewhere to fit a game in and reschedule it. In the playoffs, the winner of that game would typically have a week to prepare for the next round. If you start pushing games back … That would’ve compromised the whole playoff structure for other teams, as well.”

Lilley said the players received tests Thursday and will be tested again Friday. If all of the tests come back negative, the plan is to have a team meeting Monday with individual meetings to follow.

The Riverhounds finished 17-8-7 for third place in the Atlantic Division. Out of 31 teams in the league they tied for the third-fewest goals conceded with 34 and were ninth in goals scored with 52.

The coaching staff already has had discussions about next season and will need to decide whether to pick up the club options on players who have them by the end of this month.

After that, they’ll start to shape the roster for 2022.

“We’ll look at what areas we need to improve upon and what we can do to not only improve but change the course of certain things or the direction we want to go,” Lilley said. “We’re not only analyzing ourselves but looking at how other organizations are going and trying to get a clear picture on how we want to proceed to make the team stronger in 2022.”