PITTSBURGH — There’s something about Pittsburgh, maybe it’s the river? Maybe it’s the high northern latitude? Maybe it’s being inland? But Tampa Bay just can not buy a win away to the Riverhounds. That run continued with a 2-0 loss on Sunday. The key for Pittsburgh? Starving the Rowdies of chances and punishing them for some uncharacteristically poor defense.
The shot count heavily favored the Hounds, 13-6 while the Rowdies did manage more shots on target (4-3) the conversion of on-target shots was 66.6 percent by Pittsburgh. Sometimes it’s just about how many chances you create and the hosts showed that in this match.
Pittsburgh created that lead in how it played. Accurate crossing (25 percent) allowed for plenty of chances, with three golden opportunities set up by a cross. The heat map above shows how the Riverhounds played, moving the ball out to the wing and then getting it into the box made it trickier for the Rowdies to defend.
Another thing that allowed the ball to get into the box was some poor defensive work from Tampa Bay. The Rowdies lost more tackles than they won, managing only a 45.5 percent success rate. Something unusual for this side this year, that allowed the space on the wings to cross the ball into the box.
One pleasing note for the Rowdies was the continued domination in the air. Tampa Bay won 66.7 percent of the aerial duels. That allowed the team to deal with crosses and keep the score down from what it could have been.
Despite the result, the conference title was clinched and from here the goal is sealing the Eastern Conference regular-season title and then the USL Championship regular-season title.
Photo courtesy Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC/Chris Cowger
Florida Soccer Report 