Tag: pittsburgh riverhounds

U.S. Open Cup shock as Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Birmingham Legion both stun MLS foes

What’s better than one cupset? Two cupsets!

Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup fixtures couldn’t have gone better for the USL Championship, or for upset-loving neutrals.

The last two remaining lower-division teams in the tournament both defeated MLS opposition. First, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds shocked the Columbus Crew 1-0 at Highmark Stadium. Just an hour later, Birmingham Legion matched that scoreline in eliminating 10-man Charlotte FC.

That makes it three Open Cup tournaments in a row where at least two lower-division teams have advanced to the quarterfinal round. St. Louis FC and New Mexico United made that run in 2019, while last year Union Omaha of USL League One went to the quarterfinals. Sacramento Republic FC went even further, going to the final before falling to Orlando City. The Open Cup wasn’t held in 2020 or 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Pittsburgh, the Riverhounds showed the organization that has long been their hallmark under veteran coach Bob Lilley. The home side held a heavily rotated Crew side to just seven shot attempts in 90 minutes, despite the visitors holding 75% of the possession and completing over 700 passes on the night.

Despite those stats, the Riverhounds had the better chances throughout, and only needed to make one count. USL Championship Golden Boot leader Albert Dikwa was unsurprisingly the man for the job, sprinting in alone to fire past Evan Bush after a midfield turnover from the Crew.

Pittsburgh would see substitute Edward Kizza sent off deep into stoppage time, but still managed to keep Columbus at bay for what is the deepest run in their Open Cup history.

Down in Alabama, the scoreline was the same, but the path to it was a bit different. A Birmingham side starting eight players with MLS experience spent the first half largely pinned back by Charlotte, only for the visitors to lose center back Adilson Malanda to a second yellow card early in the second half.

From there, the Legion sensed their opportunity, changing their posture and making Charlotte work hard to hold them off on a hot night. That helped set up their goal, with Charlotte not recovering quickly enough to prevent Prosper Kasim from isolating Derrick Jones before pinging a low shot into the bottom corner.

The rewards for the the final two non-MLS teams left in the tournament are a bit different. Birmingham will be a popular pick to keep their run going, as they host a quarterfinal match against a stumbling Inter Miami side that managed to beat Nashville SC on Tuesday. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has a far more daunting pairing, as they will head to Ohio to take on high-flying FC Cincinnati.

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