(July 12, 2023) — Albert Dikwa scored the only goal in his first start since returning from a broken collarbone, and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds came away with a 1-0 win over Louisville City FC in a top-four battle tonight at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Ky.
Dikwa’s goal in the 68th minute put the Hounds (9-2-8) back in first place in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference, and it moved the striker from Cameroon back into a tie for first in the league with 10 goals this season.
The Hounds are now unbeaten in 12 straight league matches, and midfielder Danny Griffin became the 15th player in history to record 100 appearances for the Hounds. The goal was also the first allowed by Louisville (8-5-5) in four matches.
First half
The Hounds were knocking at the door in the opening 45 minutes, recording four shots on goal (to none for Louisville) despite having less than 40 percent of possession.
Langston Blackstock forced the first of five saves by Louisville’s Oliver Semmle with a hard drive from the top of the box that could only be parried away for a corner.
The biggest moments came late in the half, when Semmle made consecutive saves to stop Junior Etou in a 1-on-1 situation before getting a foot to Marc Ybarra’s shot on the rebound.
Louisville had a late shout for a penalty kick when Cameron Lancaster went down on a pass through by Ray Serrano, but the referee ruled Pat Hogan’s tackle to break up the play was fair.
Second half
Robbie Mertz nearly opened the scoring in the 54th minute with a shot from 20 yards that struck the left post, and a minute later, he played Dikwa into the right side of the box, but the striker couldn’t put his angled shot on target.
The breakthrough began with a high, looping cross from Dani Rovira on the right flank that went all the way to Etou wide on the right. Etou looked up and split the defense with a low, hard pass to Dikwa, who tapped in with ease from close range.
The Hounds had to do some team defending in the final 20 minutes to close out their third straight shutout. Griffin made a huge goal-line block to prevent Wes Charpie from finishing a tap-in in the 79th minute, and in the final minute of stoppage time, Trevor Zwetloot got a lunging boot in to deflect former Hound Brian Ownby’s open shot over the crossbar.
Heineken Man of the Match
Albert Dikwa netted the game-winning goal, but in his first start since returning from a broken collarbone, he was back to being a physical presence. Dikwa won 8 of a team-high 15 duels, connected on 73 percent of his passes and the high striker even recorded a clearance defensively
What’s next?
The Hounds return home to revive their budding rivalry with Detroit City FC in the teams’ first meeting of 2023 after drawing twice a season ago. The match at Highmark Stadium is a 7 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, July 15.
Riverhounds SC lineup (5-2-3) — Luis Zamudio; Langston Blackstock (Kenardo Forbes 64’), Illal Osumanu, Pat Hogan (Mike DeShields 64’), Arturo Ordóñez, Dani Rovira; Danny Griffin, Marc Ybarra; Junior Etou (Burke Fahling 72’), Albert Dikwa (Trevor Zwetsloot 81’), Robbie Mertz (Edward Kizza 81’)
Louisville City FC lineup (4-3-3) — Oliver Semmle; Amadou Dia, Wes Charpie, Sean Totsch, Manny Perez; Niall McCabe (Tyler Gibson 61’), Elijah Wynder (Rasmus Thellufsen 77’), Ray Serrano (Brian Ownby 61’); Enoch Mushagalusa (Maarten Pouwels 73’), Cameron Lancaster, Carlos Moguel Jr. (Dylan Mares 73’)
Scoring summary
PIT — Albert Dikwa 68’ (Junior Etou)
Discipline summary
PIT — Danny Griffin 51’ (caution – tactical foul)
LOU — Carlos Moguel Jr. 60’ (caution – reckless foul)
