Pittsburgh 1-0 Miami FC: Riverhounds win an ugly match
Bob Lilley teams are notoriously tough to play against. But Miami FC did have their chances, but showed little composure in the final third
Editors Note: Please welcome Joseph Torviso a new writer for us to the site! He has covered Inter Miami for ESPN Gainesville as well as covering Gator Sports for University of Florida-related publications. He will cover Florida Soccer and some European topics for us at BT 90.
Miami FC playing without Luisinho and for most of the match Manuel Botta turned in a frustrating effort in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh at Highmark Stadium. The Riverhounds, last years Players Shield winners have now won three on the bounce after a difficult start to the campaign. As is typical, Bob Lilley coached sides find ways to win ugly matches.
The Miami FC midfield looked disjointed most of the night without Botta & with Rocco Genzano pushed to the right. - Miami’s chance creation was been minimal in spite of some decent build-up play at time. The final ball was consistently lacking and lack of composure was alarming in the final third. In the first half Miami FC shape was good at the back in spite of the giving up the goal and some quick changes if possession after bad giveaways. However in the second half, they weren’t so good in these situations and Pittsburgh could easily have scored three second half goals if they has more poise in front of goal.
Similarly Miami FC blew several opportunities in the second half. Jordan Ayimbila did the hard work but couldn’t finish a chance off a mistake by Pittsburgh keeper Eric Dick. Nico Cardona missed on two point blank headers, one forcing an outstanding save from Dick.
And most notably, Allen Gavilanes failed to play in Frank Lopez OR put a shot on target when in on goal with the Riverhounds defense out of position late in the second half. It’s the second time in three week Gavilanes has made such a mistake in a similar situation - against Birmingham he had Roberto Molina making a dangerous, unmarked run and instead opted to take a shot from a tight angle. Gavilanes is Miami FC’s leading goal scorer but sometimes it feels like he has too much faith in his own ball striking ability when the simpler and smarter thing to do would be to lay it off.
Otherwise, despite lots of possession Miami FC was not particularly dangerous. The CBS Sports commentators said at the outset of the game to make the most of the few opportunities they were going to get, noting how difficult it is to create against a Bob Lilley team at home.. Miami FC has four clear chances to score yet did not take any of those chances.
Welcome Joseph!