Highmark stadium – 7PM
Purchase Tickets (Very Few Remaining)
Match Officials, as assigned by PRO
REF: Mr. Donovan Noocha
AR1: Ms. Amanda Ross
AR2: Mr. Igor Reznik
4TH: Mr. Justin Mazzeo
Riverhounds Yellow Card Watch (5 cautions to a match ban)
Danny Earls – 3
Anthony Arena – 3
Stephen Okai – 1
Matt Dallman – 1
Willie Hunt – 1
Morning Line Odds, Via Bet365
Pit +170
Draw +250
Ric +120
Yeah, that road trip wasn’t that good. Late goals suffered against NYRBII and a massively disorganized backline and midfield leading to flat-liner against the Battery. However, the season is only a quarter over and clearly the East is going to wide open for nearly everyone. What’s important now is to get back on track, get a result today as these two teams will face each other next weekend in Virginia.
The Kickers are coming off their only loss of the season, a stunning 3-nil beatdown by the otherwise hapless Charlotte Independence. There has been a decent amount of these upsets lately, including both Eastern Canadian II teams taking road upsets of Saint Louis and Charleston, which has helped tighten the entire table. Even accounting for the Kickers playing more than 45 minutes down a man, there were already trailing when Alex Lee was shown red in the 41st minute. The suspension shouldn’t hurt Richmond too much, as they haven’t shown the desire to keep a steady starting XI, they’ve used three keepers and 20 outfield players through their first eight games.
A (possibly) familiar face that we should see today is Brian Ownby. Ownby played, in theory, for the Hounds, as a Dynamo loanee, last season. He is best remembered for attending a concert at Stage AE, either during or immediately after a 1-1 draw with Harrisburg, that featured the Hounds conceding the equalizer in the 85th minute. His subsequent tweeting about enjoying the concert (since deleted) went over about as well as you could expect. Naturally, he’ll have a huge game today.
For the Hounds, its about regaining composure. Anthony Arena is expected to rejoin the lineup after sitting last week with a neck strain. That should help stabilize a back line that went for bad to worse when Fejiro Okiomah had to leave the game with a bad hammy. Okiomah will likely miss today’s contest, which could open the door to Drew Russell to start, himself starting the year with an injury.
The other wildcard is the addition of Serbian midfielder, Boris Zivanovic (assigned squad number 18). When and how he is mixed into the squad could result in pushing some guys forward more, or to allow players with positional flexibility (thanks, Tomlin) to move to the backline. Between injuries and coaching decisions, pegging down a starting XI, including positioning, has been a useless task. In any event, the Hounds aren’t in a position to have a poor, unorganized outing. Another loss this week could be the building block to repeat the same in Richmond, the club would then be looking at four defeats, on the spin. The perils of home-and-home setups, to be sure.
TAILGATE
The festivities proper begin at 4pm, but you know some people are overachievers. There are limited tickets available (20 in the grandstand, total at the time of writing) and we know of a couple Army members who will be bringing friends to their first match, so this has the makings of a fantastic afternoon. If the weather decides to not cooperate, we are prepared to move everything into the Highmark sports bar, where we’ll create the party and use that as an opportunity to talk to some of the grandstand patrons who might be grabbing a pint and spread the good word of the Army. If anyone has extra tickets available, be sure to bring them, as they will most likely be used.
UNLEASH
