Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Sacramento Republic FC played to a scoreless draw on Saturday evening before a sellout crowd of 5,251 at F.N.B. Stadium. Nico Campuzano and Danny Vitello recorded clean sheets, each making four saves.
Defensive Struggle
The Hounds remain in fifth place in Group A of the USL Championship standings with 27 points and 11 matches remaining. The top eight qualify for the playoffs, but the four with the best mark in the group will host at least one first-round match in the postseason.
Pittsburgh welcomes longtime Eastern Conference foe Charleston Battery to F.N.B. Stadium in its next match on Sept. 15. The kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
Sacramento didn’t look like the team who traveled across the country, as the visitors maintained a 67.7-33.3 advantage in possession the first 20 minutes for the match, and forced Campuzano to make two saves.
The Hounds had their first solid opportunity to break through in the 21st minute when team captain Danny Griffin set a slick pass between the Sacramento backline to Albert Dikwa, but Vitello took away the angle from Pittsburgh’s leading scorer and collapsed on the ball before Dikwa could get a look to earn his seventh goal of the season.
Pittsburgh defender Victor Souza was named the Modelo Man of the Match after contributing eight clearances, an interception and winning 7 of 8 aerial duels.
Original reporting: Herald-Standard – latest news for Uniontown, Pennsylvania — read the source article.
