Sterling rescues Riverhounds with late goal to push unbeaten run to six

Kazaiah Sterling came off the bench to rescue a point as the Pittsburgh Riverhounds came from two goals down to draw with FC Tulsa on a dramatic and action-packed Saturday night at ONEOK Field in Tulsa, Okla.

It might be one of the oldest cliches in the sport, but for the Riverhounds, it’s the cold hard truth. Eliminated from the cup competition on Tuesday night by this same FC Tulsa team, they can now ‘concentrate on the league’. Although for Bob Lilley and his men, they probably hoped to be in that mood a little bit later in the season rather than in the middle of May.

The return to league action should have, at least in theory, meant a return to the ‘usual eleven’ that have played in their last few fixtures, following the wholesale changes that Lilley made during the cup game in midweek. However Lilley, having stated that the cup game acted as a chance for players to assert themselves into the picture for more regular playing time, confirmed that he’d made good of his word when the starting lineup was announced an hour before the game, with Langston Blackstock, Bradley Sample and Gabrielle Perrotta all having kept their spot from Tuesday:

Sample and Blackstock, on the surface, made sense, with both players having impressed in midweek and getting mentions from Lilley after the game. The inclusion of Perrotta though ahead of established number one Eric Dick, who entered the game tied for second in the league in terms of clean sheets, would certainly have caught a lot of people by surprise. 

The changes to the teams quickly brought a change to the pace of the game as the Riverhounds were forced to play from behind after just ten minutes of play. Edward Kizza found guilty of committing a very clumsy challenge on Phillip Goodrum on the edge of the box, and boy do I mean the edge, and whilst the referee might have been justified in giving a free kick given how close to being outside the area he was, he instead pointed to the penalty spot, with Goodrum dusting himself off to bury the ball into the bottom corner: 

Perrotta looked to be a little hesitant with his dive, and if he’d have just been a little bit more committed and gone to the ground earlier and with more authority, the touch that he got might have been enough to keep the ball out of the back of the net.

The Hounds didn’t let the early setback get them down though, responding instantly and only being prevented from getting back on level terms by the barest of margins. From a corner kick, forced by a nice bit of skill by Danny Griffin cutting in from the left flank, Sample had his header blocked, Patrick Hogan struck the loose ball goalbound, Kizza stuck a foot out and deflected the ball crashing onto the bar and onto the goalline, but sadly not far enough over for the referees to give them a goal. Television replays were pretty inconclusive as to whether the ball went over the line or not:

The attacking threat continued through the first half, and the Hounds had two great chances within a matter of seconds to bring the game level. First Kizza arrived late at the back post to fire a Blackstock cross into a defender, and from the resulting corner, Luke Biasi couldn’t get a decent enough connection and his effort trickled wide of the post. 

Those missed chances would end up costing the Hounds immediately, as FC Tulsa charged up the pitch and once again Goodrum was at the heart of the action, cutting the ball back from the byline just in the nick of time, his cross finding Boubacar Diallo all alone to tap home and double the lead for the hosts:

A goal like this really shouldn’t be happening for the Hounds. One of the biggest crimes you can commit in football is losing your man, and that’s exactly what happened with Goodrum. If you look at Hogan (#3), he doesn’t look behind him and is too focused on the ball, he doesn’t look behind to see if there’s a runner, at which point it’s too late.  

Much like the first goal, the Hounds did their level best to get back in the game instantly and once again had two decent chances, Kizza’s header from Blackstock’s cross hitting the crossbar before finally being cleared away by the hosts, only for the Hounds to quickly return fire and after a spell of pinball inside the Tulsa box, Blackstock fired a good shot that had goalkeeper Michael Creek scrambling to his right to make the save. 

The halftime stats told the story. Not just of this game, but pretty much the vast majority of the Riverhounds’ season so far. The attacking threat will always be there for Lilley’s men… the only thing that’s missing is the cutting edge, and if you don’t take your chances, as the second goal proved, then you’re just asking for trouble: 

USL.com

Stats from the first half of FC Tulsa v Pittsburgh Riverhounds

Perhaps it was those positive stats that made Lilley believe that the team out there were still able to get something from the match, as he didn’t make any changes at halftime, but within five minutes of the restart, FC Tulsa almost put the game out of sight. Justin Portillo dinked a freekick to the edge of the box towards a crouching Bradley Bourgeois whose flicked header just went over the top of the bar. 

The Riverhounds’s attacking prowess eventually brought the team the goal that they had deserved, although it didn’t come from open play. In the latest edition of FC Tulsa failing to clear their lines at the back, they were finally punished as Junior Etou, who had been relatively quiet up until this point, was brought down in the box, allowing Griffin to step up and comfortably stroke the ball home by sending Creek the wrong way and bring reduce the deficit: 

That deficit though was instantly in danger of going back to two, as Perrotta got caught in two minds at the edge of his area, and in the process of trying to take the ball away from Goodrum, brought him down and conceded another penalty kick. Luckily though for the Riverhounds, Goodrum went the same way with his second effort as he did with his first, and showing far more confidence than he did first time around, Perrotta was able to make up for his mistake and push the ball wide: 

The incident wasn't going to pass Lilley by without comment, as speaking after the game he was far from happy with the state of the backline, and the goalkeeper in particular for the way they've allowed teams to score on them:

"Defensively, we’ve been inconsistent. Tonight, we have everyone back in good position, but we’re naive and give up a penalty crashing into the guy. It’s Keystone Kops sometimes. The second PK we give up, again, we have a goalkeeper being indecisive at the edge of the box, the same thing we had last Saturday (against Miami)."

The save, as you might expect, brought a new level of life to the Riverhounds as with the game entering the final fifteen minutes, the vast majority of the play took place deep in FC Tulsa territory, and after huffing and puffing for so long, Lilley’s side finally got their rewards in the form of an equalizer. Robbie Mertz’s cross from the right-hand side was spilled by Creek, with the ball falling perfectly to Sterling to tuck home the rebound and grab his second goal in the space of two games and third of the season:

It’s a moment like this that makes you wonder why Sterling wasn’t in from the start, because his ability to get something out of not really a lot here, combined with his ability to be in the right place at the right time was pretty much what the Riverhounds were crying out for in the first half. If he’d have been on the end of one of the scrambles in the box rather than the likes of Biasi or Blackstock, he’s got a better chance of putting the ball into the back of the net than either of those two. 

Speaking after the game, Lilley pointed to exactly that lack of production throughout the game, and how they failed to get anyone on the end of the few chances they could create:

“It’s nice to come back and get something out of the game, but the second half, we were just kicking long balls... We created very few chances in the second half. On our crosses, there was no one there a lot of the time. We need more movement in the box.”

Without the luxury of Albert Dikwa on hand to convert at the rate he did last season, the Hounds are still struggling to find that go-to guy for them, Even recreating his production in the aggregate hasn't quite produced the way it did last year. The only thing that is for sure, is that until they can start playing with some level of consistency as they did down the stretch last year, chance are they won't be going into the playoffs with enough momentum to make that deep run.