The Pittsburgh Riverhounds went into Gillette Stadium on Tuesday night and walked out with an upset victory over one of MLS’ best performers in 2023.
Daniel Griffin’s first-half goal was all the USL side needed to claim a 1-0 road victory over the New England Revolution, advancing into the Round of 16. Revs coach Bruce Arena rotated most of his team from MLS play and it unfortunately ended with the hosts suffering elimination.
Pittsburgh was on the front foot early in Foxborough, as Tola Showunmi’s close-range header was denied by Earl Edwards Jr. However, Daniel Griffin’s low drive in the 44th minute boosted the Riverhounds in front and put the Revolution in a hole heading into halftime.
Giacomo Vrioni delivered the only shot on goal for the Revs in the second half, but the hosts’ frustration continued until the final whistle.
A frantic stoppage time period led to several key blocks by Riverhounds defenders, sealing the deal on an upset road win.
New England will now turn its attention back to MLS play this weekend.
Here is a closer look at this week’s U.S. Open Cup results:
Monterey Bay FC 2, LAFC 2 (LAFC advanced 5-4 on penalties)
Los Angeles FC was pushed to the brink against USL hosts Monterey Bay FC on Tuesday, but Steve Cherundolo’s youthful squad dug down deep to avoid a cup upset.
Matheus Maia’s 105th minute equalizer helped force a penalty shootout before LAFC advanced 5-4 on spot kicks.
LAFC struck first through Christian Torres’ goal in the 25th minute after Christopher Jaime connected with his fellow attacker in the final third. Torres’ drilled his effort down the middle of the Monterey Bay FC net, giving the visitors a 1-0 advantage.
Monterey Bay FC fought until the final whistle to get back into the tie and eventually received a 90th minute equalizer from Simon Dawkins to make it 1-1.
After setting up the tying goal, Christian Volesky helped propel Monterey Bay FC in front just four minutes into extra time. Jesse Maldonado’s low shot nestled into the bottom-left corner, giving Monterey Bay FC a late 2-1 advantage.
However, LAFC would tie things up in the 105th minute as Maia’s first senior goal led to the two clubs heading to a shootout.
Mobi Fehr was denied by veteran shot-stopper Eldin Jakupovic in the fifth round, handing LAFC a shootout win and a spot into the Round of 16.
Minnesota United 3, Philadelphia Union 3 (MNUFC advances 7-6 on penalties)
An All-MLS affair from Allianz Field witnessed Minnesota United outlasting the Philadelphia Union 7-6 on penalty kicks.
Kai Wagner scored two dramatic equalizing goals for Jim Curtin’s side, but it wasn’t enough for the Union after a 3-3 result over 120 minutes. Chris Donovan also scored his first goal for the club.
Bongokuhle Hlongwane broke the deadlock in the 68th minute for Minnesota United after his flicked header landed inside of Andre Blake’s net for a 1-0 lead.
Hlongwane set up Joseph Rosales for a 2-0 Loons lead just six minutes later, but the Union would fight their way back to tie things up.
Chris Donovan’s right-footed finish paired with Kai Wagner’s blistering effort in the 94th minute forced extra time.
Hlongwane propelled the Loons ahead 3-2 with his second goal of the match, but Wagner’s dangerous free kick in the 120th minute helped the Union peg the Loons back once again.
Wagner could not deliver once again though in the penalty shootout, watching as his shot was saved by veteran goalkeeper Clint Irwin in the seventh round.
Here is a closer look at this week’s scores:
Tuesday
Charlotte FC 1, Orlando City 0
Inter Miami 1, Charleston Battery 0
New York Red Bulls 1, DC United 0
New England Revolution 0, Pittsburgh Riverhounds 1
Chicago Fire 2, St. Louis CITY SC 1
Minnesota United 3, Philadelphia Union 3 (Minnesota United wins 7-6 on penalties)
Monterey Bay FC 2, LAFC 2 (LAFC wins 5-4 on penalties)
Sacramento Republic 2, Colorado Rapids 4
MLS needs to do a linear deal with CBS sports. Now with the Golazo network being free you could have a bigger national audience for games.
I also foresee CBS and CBS sports making a bid to televise the 2030 WC. Becoming major players in soccer now.
rumor is crocker to hire gooch for new VP position that will then hire the coach. three cheers for creating layers of bureaucracy before we hire a soccer coach.
If I was Don Garber I would be looking at Pittsburgh as a future MLS city. Phoenix, Tampa Bay, San Diego, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Detroit, Louisville, New Orleans. Those are the American cities I would be looking at to grow into. Canadian cities: Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary.
personally i’m inclined to say leave it be. i think expansion should be thoughtful and thorough and i am not sure if we have much low hanging fruit left to pick.
louisville is the best-attended and -run USL team but they are pretty close to cincy and might cannibalize each other like yellowjackets. TB had a good team they wouldn’t attend. SA i used to suggest but el paso outdraws them in-state now. SA in turn outdraws SD that i also used to think was a good idea. you wander into the “austin vs. miami” question of whether minor league attendance is predictive of interest, or go with a good city/stadium and owner group and hope the fans follow.
re canada, i am a CFL fan. ottawa has had multiple reboots of their football team. on paper it’s a big city but in reality it’s a nerd capital that doesn’t attend teams like it’s a 1m person city. their CPL team is attended ok (~6k) but would rank several down against USL sides. edmonton and calgary attend their CFL teams but FC edmonton just folded and calgary doesn’t even have a team. both are “western” for canadian purposes and make as much sense as putting a team in the dakotas or wyoming. halifax is atlantic, where soccer is popular, the best attended CPL team but it’s a small population (<500k) who don't even have a CFL team, have struggled to put together owners and a stadium idea to even try to get that much less MLS.
the economy is unstable. personally i think this is a good team to sit still. personally i think MLS waters down the team-by-team product by constantly expanding. can you imagine if it was a 16-20 team league with about twice the talent per franchise?
But where would development be with only 16-20 teams? Every MLS (except maybe Minnesota who closed theirs for awhile because it was awful) has their own academy. When the league was 16-20 teams you didn’t need to grow your own players because 75% made the playoffs so no need to spend money. I do agree there’s no rush to expand beyond 30 or 32. As for attendance in USL to MLS attendance, it just doesn’t seem to matter too much St. Louis used to get 4,500, NCar 4,100. ATL had 60,000 total for the season in 2015 in NASL and had 55,000 in their first match at Ga Tech’s stadium.
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I lived in San Antonio 20 years ago when they wanted an NFL team, what they discovered then was it was more how many tv viewers you brought and how many luxury boxes you sold. With the military as the cities biggest employer there just wasn’t enough corporate support. MLS you wouldn’t need as much money though. Not sure how important tv market is now with the streaming package, but unless you have big pockets owner those small markets are going to struggle to compete over the long run. Phx, Tampa, Detroit would the biggest untapped tv markets. San Diego has a nice new stadium if they share with SD State and the Wave draw well so I think they’d have a good shot. I don’t think Pittsburgh would do well in MLS unless they signed Pulisic.
JR: if you wanted more youth development you’d join me in saying the international slots need to be chopped back down to 5. there are plenty of good european leagues with limits around there. 3 more americans per team x nearly 30 teams is ~90 americans with more opportunity to play and “turn out.” you’re saying more teams =more americans but the pattern has been to increase international slots and DPs over time which in my experience leaves fewer slots per team to see the field as a domestic. and having watched my dynamo slowwalk the immediately talented raines into usage, they tend to be cautious to integrate youth players.
i’ve also been witness to a dynamic here in houston where as the league expanded and became more liberal with roster rules the team here got trapped in a cycle of losing and eroding attendance and then losing some more and eroding…….etc. this was a well attended team under a hard cap in a smaller league and it took risks on players like holden and cameron. as the league expanded and roster rules liberalized the team has grown cynical about youth players and historically uncompetitive. i don’t think shifting more and more towards the NASL model necessarily helps the kids out.