On Saturday, October 7, the Riverhounds defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-0 in St. Petersburg, Florida and in the process, clinched the top seed in the USL Championship playoffs.
The Riverhounds also clinched the USL Championship Eastern Conference title and home-field advantage throughout the postseason, as well as the USL Players’ Shield for the first time in the franchise’s history. The Players’ Shield goes to the team with the best regular-season record in the league.
The Hounds started quickly, with Albert Dikwa scoring 29 seconds into the match to give Pittsburgh an early 1-0 lead. It was Dikwa’s 20th goal of the season, which leads the USL Championship by three goals.
Arturo Ordonez added a goal in the 61st minute to make the lead 2-0, and that score would hold for the rest of the match.
The Riverhounds played their final regular-season match the following Saturday, October 15, drawing with Detroit City FC 0-0. Coincidentally, these two teams will square off again next Saturday, October 21 in the opening match of the USL Championship playoffs at Highmark Stadium.
Pittsburgh ended the regular season with 19 wins, 10 draws and 5 losses. They finished with 67 points, the most in the entire USL Championship, with the next closest club being the Sacramento Republic FC at 64 points.
In the Eastern Conference, the Tampa Bay Rowdies finished second behind the Riverhounds with 19 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses. They ended with 63 points. The Charleston Battery finished third with 59 points and Memphis 901 FC rounded out the top four with 52 points.
As for the rest of the opening round playoff matchups, in the Eastern Conference Tampa Bay will host the Birmingham Legion FC, Charleston will host Indy Eleven and Memphis will host Louisville City FC. In the Western Conference, Sacramento will host New Mexico United, Orange County SC will host El Paso Locomotive FC, San Diego Loyal SC will host Phoenix RIsing FC and San Antonio FC will host Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC.
The winners of each opening round playoff match will advance to the Eastern and Western Conference semifinals. The winners of those matchups will advance to the Eastern and Western Conference finals then the winners of each of those matchups will advance to the finals with the winner becoming the 2023 USL Championship champions.
Dikwa led the Riverhounds this season with 20 goals, followed by Ordonez with 5, Edward Kizza and Tola Showunmi with 4 and Juan Carlos Obregon Jr. with 3 goals. Kenardo Forbes led the team with 11 assists, followed by Daniel Rovira with 5, Luke Biasi and Marc Ybarra with 4 and Showunmi and Brunallergene Etou with 3 assists. In front of the net, goalkeeper Jahmali White made 41 saves, had 10 clean sheets and only gave up 26 goals all season.
Best of luck to the Riverhounds in the 2023 USL Championship playoffs. No matter how the playoffs unfold, this has been an incredible season.
