A day late and a dollar short this week.

Just like the Riverhounds season.

BOOM!

 
*drinks*
 

Five minutes away from a win and the Riverhounds continue to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Late goals happened at a comical level last season, but at least the season on a whole wasn’t a joke. This is the second time we’ve seen them go up early and fall apart late (the 2-2 game against Richmond). As they say on Men in Blazers, they made the classic mistake of scoring too early.

Somehow the Riverhounds got it in their mind that they can play shut down defense and coast to the end of the game. This is not a team built for that kind of play. It’s as if they got star struck by Rochester’s style of play the other week. You know what kind of team can play like that and be ok? Teams who don’t have to worry about scoring and who don’t have the 2nd lowest Goals For in the league. Teams who have a solid defense that hasn’t given up the 3rd most Goals Against in the league. The Riverhounds are neither of these. We knew coming into this season the team dumped a ton of money on an offense that on paper should’ve been able to counter balance a bad defense. If they could score 2 or 3 goals a game it doesn’t matter too much if they give up 1 or 2. The 19 GA’s in 10 games isn’t too shocking. The 9 Goals For in 10 games is.

You know what though? Looking at Goals For for just the Riverhounds looks bad, but if you look at #8 on down their Goals For and Goals Against are right there with every other team. OC Blues- 12/18. Arizona- 6/18. Charlotte- 12/16. OKC- 12/20. Harrisburg- 11/18. Dayton- 9/20. We could be right in the middle of that mix instead of 4 points from everyone else at the bottom. So what gives? The answer coming up more and more lately is lack of passion, lack of effort, and lack of heart. Based on what we’ve seen on the field it’s tough to argue against it. The Riverhounds were pushed around by Harrisburg in the second half last weekend. McLaughlin dribbled around a line of more half hearted tackles than I care to count before putting it in the net. If I asked someone off the street based on their performance which team on Sunday was playing their 3rd game in 4 days. Which team played the night before and lost because of a heartbreaking last minute goal. They would probably say the Riverhounds, and they’ be wrong.

In years past we were proud of the team because they gave it all for 90 minutes. They would fight to the end and even in defeat they would still face the supporters at the end of the game. Their biggest fans. Their harshest critics. It would be nice to know what happened to that team.

At least we’re still giving it our all.

The Riverhounds travel to Rochester on Saturday to face a team who can shut down a 1-0 lead. Kickoff is at 7 pm. We’ll be at Hough’s starting at 6:30… drinking.

#UNLEASH