7PM – Highmark Stadium
Match Officials, as assigned by PRO
REFEREE: Mr. Jose Carlos Rivero (2014 MLS Statistics)
AR1: Mr. David Potter
AR2: Mr. Erik Blackburn
4TH: Mr. Joseph Martin
Round two of three for the Keystone Derby is tonight as the beloved attempted to win three two games in a row. The Hounds, coming off of a come-from-behind-victory-in-a-place-they-never-win-at-let-alone-score should be riding high (relative to the rest of the season) and looking to ride that momentum out of the USLPro basement.
For Harrisburg, after salvaging a point on the first of the month, the City Islanders traveled to Richmond and couldn’t repeat the last minute heroics. Richmond’s only goal was all that was needed to secure full points. Now, with a true home-and-home spanning 72 hours, Harrisburg is about as desperate as Pittsburgh to get points and make a run in a congested bottom half of the table.
For the Hounds, it is all about doing the same things that they did on Saturday. Take advantage of the set pieces and corner kicks. Allow Danny Earls to find his touch to drop the ball into the six yard box and congest the area with bodies. Someone gets free from their mark and finds the net. Hopefully, the confidence is there, now, to pull it off with more regularity. Beyond that, the defense played a decent bend-don’t-break game in Rochester. The two goals allowed game on decent top corner shot off a direct kick and a PK. The whistle that led to that free kick, highly questionable. The penalty was soft, but probably justified, even thought those calls are somewhat rare in the waning moments of a contest.
Either be design, necessity, or lack of options, Niko has gone with a pour on the offense approach to his substitutions. True defensive options aren’t on the substitution bench, but the moves that have been made are with the concept of putting more pressure up top, goal differential be damned.
Finally, figuring out the starting XI is a fool’s errand. No clue who really is or is not hurt, or which Dynamo loanees are in the Eastern Time Zone. Until further notice, assuming all Houston players (sans Lisch) are not in Pittsburgh, or if in Pittsburgh, at Stage AE.
TAILGATE
The party “officially” gets started at 4pm, but assume a majority of people will arrive after the man lets them out of their eight hours indentured servitude. However, the Hounds-U23 squad has a game at 2pm. So, if you’re feeling especially adventurous, you can make it a full afternoon of football and libations.
The first goal/last goal pot has a $20 rollover, on both goals, so there is so added value in picking up your tickets, tonight. Also, be prepared to throw your money down on the remaining spaces left on the bus trip to Harrisburg on Saturday.
#UNLEASH
