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Keystone Derby: The Philadelphia Union Need to Respect the Pittsburgh Riverhounds While Showing Little Brother No Mercy
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The Union are once again competing in the U.S. Open Cup this season, a tournament they’ve fallen just short of winning on three separate occasions. They finished as a runner up in 2014, 2015, and 2018, and after competing in the nascent Leagues Cup for a few years now, they’re back in the American tournament that resembles England’s FA Cup and Spain’s Copa del Rey.
If you have no idea what that means, all you have to know is that this is a non-MLS competition what includes lower division American soccer teams.
Bradley Carnell rolled out a heavily-rotated squad on Wednesday night, squeaking by USL Championship side Indy Eleven on penalty kicks. Out in Western Pennsylvania, Yinzerville, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds pulled an upset over New York City FC, which means it’ll be Union vs. Riverhounds in the USOC Round of 16 on May 21st at Subaru Park:
The Riverhounds are a good story. They play in the second tier of American soccer and are the only team in Pittsburgh that does not currently stink. Their stadium is a 5,000 seater on the South Shore that sits right along the Monongahela River. They get good crowds and they’re a plucky team that has pulled some USOC upsets in the past. They’re coached by the legendary Bob Lilley, who played for the Harrisburg Heat back in the mid-90s.
I vaguely recall arguing with Pittsburgh fans on Twitter a few years ago, I think because they got all uppity about beating the Columbus Crew backups in this same tournament and some of the Yinzers had to be slapped back down to Earth. They were getting a little too big for their britches. Some of these fans of lower division soccer teams are pro/rel snobs and beating MLS teams in the Open Cup is their Super Bowl. It’s a rare chance for them to compete against the best teams in the country, so they go all out while MLS managers try to rest their starters and get by with some of the second stringers in these games. They try to balance USOC play with MLS play.
Think of it as Temple playing Penn State in football. In this case Pittsburgh is Temple and the Union are the Nitters. WE ARE! – Expected to win the game. But if you lose, it’s considered a big upset and a huge embarrassment. You lose to a team like the Riverhounds and all 17 of their fans on social media are in your mentions and giving you hell.
That’s why Bradley Carnell can’t screw around in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are a good team. They are a scrappy underdog and they will be up for this game. They are going to compete and battle for 90 minutes and they are not to be taken lightly. What the Union need to do is run out the full starting XI, no backups, and just wallop these guys. Show no mercy. Press these fools into oblivion. I want to see Jovan Lukic get stuck in with a tone-setting tackle in the first minute. A de-cleater, but totally legal. Show the Yinzers that there are levels to the game. This isn’t the minor leagues. Doop doop, motherfuckers.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com