In a much anticipated all-Pittsburgh derby, the first in the city in the Modern Era (1995-present) of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, it was the professional Riverhounds that secured advancement in a tight-fought contest against the difficult amateurs Steel City FC from just north of the rivers.
Charles Ahl and Danny Griffin scored a goal in each half to the lead the Riverhounds to a 2-1 win at Highmark Stadium. It was the first time the Hounds had faced an amateur team in the tournament since 2019. With the win, Pittsburgh has now won seven of their last eight Open Cup games at home.
The Hounds wasted no time in getting the scoring started in the first half. Robbie Mertz took an early corner for the hosts that the Steel City defense was unable to clear out of their box. Captain Danny Griffin would pounce on the loose ball inside the six-yard box and slam home a right-footed effort to give the Hounds a rapid 1-0 advantage.
Despite an aggressive press from the visitors, Steel City struggled to string together the sequences necessary to progress into dangerous spaces, and left plenty of room in behind for the hosts to counter effectively. Fortunately for Steel City, Martin Dominguez was phenomenal in goal during the first half to keep their deficit at just one.
In the 34th minute, Robbie Mertz made a quick-paced run up the middle of the defense and was threaded a nice pass by Trevor Amann. Mertz managed to fire a strong effort at goal, but it was reflexively parried by Dominguez and gathered up.
Amann would have two clear-cut chances of his own. The first came in the 37th minute, as a defensive turnover forced by Mertz allowed him to slot the ball centrally to Amann – all alone 10 yards from goal. But Dominguez would make a stellar save on Amann’s attempted pull shot across goal.
Dominguez would come up huge again minutes later as Amann was fed a through-ball over the top of the defense from the Hounds midfield. Once again one-on-one, Amann tried to finesse a low shot around Dominguez, but the Steel City netminder came up huge again to keep him off the scoreboard.
Ultimately, the halftime whistle would go with Steel City fortunate to be down just one, as the hosts entered the break with the advantage.
It wouldn’t be long in the second half before the hosts managed to find their elusive second goal. After a triple substitution that brought on Charles Ahl, Perrin Barnes, and Sam Bassett, the former two newcomers would combine to double the Hounds lead.
Flying up the right wing, a brilliant through ball found Barnes in acres of space. The speedy wingback had plenty of time to control and cut back a cross to Ahl, alone near the penalty spot. Ahl had all the space in the world himself to compose a careful right-footed curler beyond Dominguez into the top-right corner.
But Steel City wouldn’t go quietly. Just a few minutes later, in the 74th minute, the visitors would earn a penalty after Carlos Santamaria was brought down on the right side of the box. Nick Graeca would step up for Steel City and slot home a strong penalty to the bottom-right corner, beyond Campuzano in net to make it 2-1.
They’d unfortunately make that comeback effort more difficult in the 86th minute, as Steel City’s Will Afawubo picked up a second yellow card and saw himself sent off for a late challenge. Try as they might, and with the benefit of a seven-minute stoppage time addition, Steel City couldn’t overcome the man disadvantage as the Hounds would see out their 2-1 lead to the final whistle.
Riverhounds coach Rob Vincent did not mince words post-game about what was a close-fought game against a cross-town rival.
“A million miles away from where we want to be,” said Vincent. “Really, really poor. If we played at our level, it should have been a comfortable win, no disrespect to Steel City.”
“We were excited about the performance,” said Steel City coach Dan Brower. “We’re of course disappointed in the result, but happy with how we played and made it tough for them.”
The victory gives the Riverhounds the club’s 20th all-time US Open Cup win in the club’s 22nd appearance in the competition. Of those 20 wins, 11 of them have come in the last seven tournaments.
The Riverhounds are now through to the Second Round next Tuesday when they’ll host cupset darlings from Round 1, the Virginia Dream, at Highmark Stadium. Steel City will head back across town to await the start of their USL League Two season coming up in May.