Pittsburgh Riverhounds vs New Mexico United
Yesterday, ESPN+ streamed a pair of soccer games played on baseball fields with mixed up audio, and just like that the USLC season was officially underway. Now I don’t know if the audio issue was an ESPN or a USL problem, but as a guy who just built a website around covering this league, I just want to say get your shit together. Fortunately, the audio issue was resolved after 20 or so minutes. Unfortunately, the baseball field issue never was, and I had to endure a grueling 90 minutes of Riverhound soccer at Isotope Park.
Well, it was more like 45 minutes of Riverhounds soccer, because the Hounds didn’t show up in the first half at all. They looked jet lagged and slow. Lilleyball is all about positioning, pace, and generally outworking the other team. It is completely reliant on congesting the midfield, and hustling to always maintain the numbers advantage. The system simply doesn’t work when the team looks as slow and tired as they did in the first half. New Mexico won the midfield battles and moved the ball at will. The only notable performance from the Hounds in the first half was Big Eric Dick, who made several key saves to keep the hounds in the game. But it wasn’t enough and New Mexico pulled ahead in the 44th minute. A long dissecting pass straight through midfield found Jacobo Reyes, wide open with space to run before putting the ball past the backline to Greg Hurst. It was the exact sort of goal Lilleyball is designed to prevent.
The first half legitimately looked like boys against men. New Mexico was faster and more decisive in the midfield, and generally did what they wanted. The Hounds have never cared about winning the possession battle, but 70/30 is rough. The little possession they had almost always resulted in crosses to no one in particular picked off by Tambakis. It really felt like the offensive strategy was “we’re taller”. What I wouldn’t give to hear Bob losing his shit in the locker room after that one!
Whatever he said, it worked. The Hounds came out with a little pace in the second half. They congested the midfield and slowed down the game. Now maybe I’m giving the Hounds too much credit here, it’s very reasonable to think New Mexico would also want to tighten up and slow down the game. Regardless the game went from a one-sided beating, to a tactical spar with the Hounds finding a few openings. Still they weren’t able to capitalize on anything or ask any real questions of the New Mexico defenders. Cue the spark guys.
In the 71st minute Bob Lilley took out Babacar Diene and King Kenny Forbes for EJ Johnson and Langston Blackstock, and just like that this team has some life.
We didn’t get to see too much of EJ on the ball, but wow that guy can run! He spent the last 20 minutes of this game running down defenders and forcing quick decisions. Props to the New Mexico back line for handling him with composure, but I think EJ is gonna make a lot of defenders very uncomfortable this year. It feels bad anytime King Kenny comes off the field, as the team is just so much less threatening on set pieces, but Langston Blackstock might be my favorite player to watch on this team right now. He is such a fun blend of size and speed and always seems to be around the ball. Anytime he comes out of nowhere to run someone off the ball is truly a magical moment, even if most of them result in fouls.
Unfortunately, even the bash brothers couldn’t provide the spark this team needed on offense. The Hounds lost 1-0 to New Mexico and didn’t give a lot to be excited about in the process. The extra pressure EJ and Blackstock provided may have helped the midfield to win the ball a little more, but the transition game simply didn’t exist. The Hounds have just learned what Phoenix Rising would learn later in the night; giving up all of your top goal scorers makes scoring goals really hard. Who knew? Again, props to New Mexico who took advantage of the Hounds sluggish start and didn’t make any mistakes to let them back into the game.
Key Take Aways
Eric Dick is really good and he might just need to be.
The midfield isn’t in form yet.
The offense doesn’t exist.
New Mexico is fast and generally better than I expected.
Isotopes Park is the worst field to broadcast. I literally couldn’t see the far sidelines or goal lines. Get it together.
Questions
Where is Babacar? Is the midfield not finding him, or is he not finding open space? I genuinely don’t know.
Is age finally catching up to Kenardo Forbes? Kenny was the keystone of that midfield last year, and I didn’t see much of him at all.
What do I need to do to see Blackstock at striker or anywhere in the starting 11?
Charleston Battery vs North Carolina FC
Look I’ll be honest, I was pretty drunk and generally disgruntled by the Hounds game to give this one the attention it deserved. As I look over my notes, there is very little soccer here and a lot of ranting. Let’s get into it anyway.
First and maybe foremost, NCFC should not have stars above their crest. They have not won in this league. I’m not saying they can’t celebrate their league 1 win, raise a banner, hell, put a shoulder patch on for all I care. Stars above the crest should be reserved for wins in the division. No offense NCFC, but what Phoenix did last year is more impressive than what you did, and I hate you. Okay, I do mean some offense. Am I gatekeeping stars? Sure, I am. Clearly someone has to. I hoped the USLC would step in, but clearly that isn’t happening.
While I’m at it I also think we should be gatekeeping the term “Derby". This was supposed to be a Derby match? This sucked. Well, not the game itself, the game rocked. The atmosphere was pretty lame. NCFC is coming off a league 1 title and essentially a promotion. Charleston is coming off an Eastern Conference title. It’s the season opener, and the supposed rivals are what, 4 hours from each other? On top of that, it’s nationally televised on CBS. Where the hell were the supporter sections?!
Alright, I’m done talking shit on these teams, I actually need all the readers I can get right now. Most of my notes on this game come in the form of ranting about how much better it was than the previous one. The broadcast was great, the field looked great, the teams looked great. This game really looked to be at a higher level than the Hounds vs New Mexico. They were evenly matched from the start, but Charleston slowly took over and won the possession game. Aaron Molloy just might be the best player in the league, and he tested the NCFC back line with masterful crosses all night. NCFC maintained defensive composure and had their fair share of good counter attacks. It was about as good of a 0-0 game as you could have hoped for, and there is suddenly no doubt that NCFC belongs here.
Too far gone for takeaways and questions on this game.
Clearly I’m past really talking soccer at this point. So let’s talk about other stuff I noticed flipping between the late games.
Miami won. How did that happen? Have I underestimated them, overestimated the Switchbacks, or a bit of both?
El Paso vs Hartford was played on a Baseball field, and it was still a decent broadcast. Seriously Isotope Park, wtf.
Phoenix vs Birmingham. I watched the first 30ish minutes of this one. Phoenix looked good and the place was bumping, what happened here? 18 shots, 8 on target, 0 goals.
Sacramento vs OCSC. The Orange County jerseys are just as ugly as I thought they were, and I won’t hear otherwise. Trevor Amann is really good: who could have possibly seen that coming… I fell asleep during this game at 1-0 and woke up to the stoppage time goal, that was neat. That tie also moved my betting record to 2/7 on the night, which was good enough to earn me $12.50. Suck it Vegas oddsmakers!