Riverhounds plan to use home field to their advantage in playoff opener

It’s been five years since the Pittsburgh Riverhounds hosted a playoff game in front of fans, so a fervent atmosphere is expected Saturday night when Detroit City FC comes to Highmark Stadium for a USL Championship first-round game.

That’s an element that Hounds coach Bob Lilley wants to use as an advantage.

After all, they worked all season to earn the best record in the league and obtain home field for the entire postseason. They don’t plan on squandering that opportunity.

“We have to use the crowd and their energy,” Lilley said. “We also need to have clarity. We can’t run around like our heads are cut off. We just have to use that energy and get after it, but still be able to make decisions and manage the game. You have to have that composure that good teams have. At playoff time, you have to your wits about you, but we want that passion, fire and energy.”

The Hounds (19-5-10) and Detroit (11-15-8) each have a unique scenario where they’ll face each other in the playoffs a week after meeting in the final game of the regular season.

The teams played to a scoreless draw in Detroit last Saturday. The point was crucial for Detroit as it secured a playoff berth.

Lilley said it wasn’t the Hounds’ strongest performance coming off an emotional win at Tampa the week before that secured the Eastern Conference championship and most points in the entire league.

“We had a little bit of a let-up from the week before winning in Tampa,” Lilley said. “Detroit is a physical team. They’re organized. I don’t think we played enough and got caught up in a chaotic type game that favored Detroit in some ways. We have to be ourselves this week and show our qualities, do the work and get off to a fast start.”

Detroit was the worst scoring team in the entire league with only 30 goals, six fewer than anyone else. A strong defense led by the backline of Stephen Carroll, Matt Lewis, Devon Amoo-Mensah and Michael Bryant and keeper Nate Steinwascher carried them into the playoffs. They yielded 39 goals, which tied for fifth fewest in the league.

Pittsburgh was even better defensively with only 29 goals conceded and had a league leading 15 shutouts. They also have the Golden Boot winner in Albert Dikwa.

Dikwa scored 20 goals, which is only 10 fewer than Detroit’s entire team.

A key for Lilley on Saturday is keeping the ball on the ground and passing through the lines. He saw too many long, arial passes last week.

“I think when the ball is in the air all game, it’s an equalizer for (Detroit),” Lilley said. “It’ll be important for us when we’re on the ball we’re making good decisions and connecting passes, not just having everything in the air all the time.”

It’s been fun for Lilley to watch the group come together, which he said happened pretty quickly. He’s been impressed with their willingness to fight together and for each other.

They hope to be playing together for several more weeks, and the first step is Saturday.

“We have to play a better 90 than we did in Detroit,” Lilley said. “It’ll be a difficult game regardless, but I think we have the quality. If we put a good 90 minutes together, it’s a game we hope to be able to send people home with smiles and making plans to show up the following week.”