When the Hounds’ season ended last Saturday with a tight, 1-0 loss in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Charleston Battery — the league’s second-best team in the regular season — strong disappointment was naturally the first reaction.
But even a fan with the most black-and-yellow-tinted glasses probably would not have predicted the Hounds to be in that position at the start of July.
Instead of letting a rocky start bury the season, the Hounds surged to the finish of the year. The team secured a seventh straight playoff berth and seventh straight winning season under head coach Bob Lilley, and closed out the 2024 campaign with plenty of momentum to build on entering the 2025 preseason.
Records set amidst rocky start
The start of the Hounds’ season was no easy task, with their first two road games at the eventual conference top seeds, New Mexico and Louisville, and seven straight against eventual playoff team to begin the year. But with only one goal in the first five matches and a 0-3-2 record out of the gates, it was clear the revamped lineup would take time to click.
There were still reasons to celebrate in the opening months of the campaign, starting with recognizing a milestone for one of the team’s all-time greats.
Kenardo Forbes, already the team’s all-time assists leader and most decorated player in terms of league honors, became the Hounds’ all-time appearances leader on April 6 when the Hounds hosted the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Forbes eclipsed the mark of 195 games played by David Flavius, and Flavius was on hand to greet Forbes in a pre-game ceremony bringing together the two Caribbean island natives who have had such a major influence on pro soccer in Pittsburgh.
Forbes would go on to set other marks during the season, including the USL Championship’s all-time games and minutes played records, and he closed the year with 226 appearances for the Hounds, as well as 296 regular-season matches in the USL Championship on his ledger.
The team also closed April with another high note, defeating Detroit City FC, 2-0, on April 27 in a rematch of the previous year’s playoffs in front of a packed house of 6,099, the largest Highmark Stadium crowd for a regular-season match on record.
Midsummer shift into gear
Things looked bleak through the month of June, and the Hounds’ USL record dropped to 3-9-6 after a late goal led to a shock July 6 loss at home to Monterey Bay FC, 1-0. It was the team’s 11th straight match without a win in all competitions, moving the group close to a dubious club record, and it left them in 11th place in the East.
The following weekend was another home match against Oakland Roots SC, and it was also the Hounds’ Hall of Fame weekend, when original Hounds players Gary DePalma and Randy Dedini were inducted along with former coach, broadcaster and Pittsburgh soccer legend Paul Child. Maybe it was the Hall of Fame mojo, or maybe it was just the moment the light bulb went on, but that July 13 match proved to be the turning point.
The Hounds thrashed Oakland — then in second place in the West — by a 5-0 score behind a two-goal Championship Player of the Week performance from Junior Etou, a first career goal by Sean Suber and tallies from veterans Forbes and Robbie Mertz. That was followed by a 3-1 win over Hartford Athletic shown nationally on ESPN2, and the Hounds were rolling.
Even with some heartbreaking results mixed in — most notably giving up a late equalizer to the Colorado Springs Switchbacks in a 2-2 draw — the Hounds went from going 11 matches without winning to 10 matches in a row without defeat. Those five wins and five draws had the team back in contention, and the 3-0 win at Birmingham Legion FC on Aug. 24 gave Lilley his 400th professional win, but more was needed to finish the turnaround.
A late arrival and a scary-good October
The Hounds entered September on a roll, despite scoring multiple goals in a game just twice in the previous seven matches. Shortly before the league’s roster freeze, the Hounds acquired forward Bertin Jacquesson, a former University of Pittsburgh star, on loan from Real Salt Lake in MLS.
Jacquesson went straight into the lineup on Sept. 7 in a key home match against Rhode Island FC. Shortly before halftime, Jacquesson became the first Hounds player since Dane Kelly in the 2022 season opener to score on his Hounds debut, and the Hounds stayed hot with a 2-0 win. Though the team suffered defeat the next week at Tampa Bay — the Hounds’ only loss between July 6 and Nov. 2 — the Hounds’ offensive uptick continued through the season’s end.
Edward Kizza grabbed his own piece of Hounds history during the team’s late surge, becoming only the fourth Hounds player to score in five consecutive matches, joining Thiago Martins (twice), José Angulo and Romeo Parkes with that team record. Kizza also became the 12th player with 20 or more goals in club history.
Through all the ups and downs of the season, the team’s defense remained reliable. That clocked upward to outstanding during the final month of the year, when the Hounds did not allow a goal in the entire month of October, outscoring opponents 10-0 in four matches.
The Hounds finished the season giving up the fewest goals in the USL Championship at 28, and the team recorded 16 shutouts out of 34 matches, the most in the league and one short of the team record set in 2019. That was done not with a fixed lineup, but with a strong rotation in the back that included Suber, Pat Hogan, Illal Osumanu and Luke Biasi as frequent starters at center back; an effective wingback rotation with Etou, Langston Blackstock, Dani Rovira and occasionally Biasi popping wide; and Danny Griffin, Jackson Walti and Bradley Sample logging heavy central midfield minutes.
In goal, Eric Dick established himself as the team’s No. 1, and he would parlay that into winning the USL Championship Golden Glove with only 18 goals allowed in 25 matches. In his first year with the Hounds after putting in years as a backup in MLS, Dick set a new club mark with 14 clean sheets and a .791 save percentage that rates as the fourth-best in the Hounds’ 25-year history.
Closing the season in the way they did — with one defeat in the final 16 matches of the regular season — the Hounds got back to winning matches in the way Pittsburgh fans have become accustomed. And as the curtain lowers on the 2024 season, the team finds itself at a good starting point to launch into 2025 and contend for one of the top spots in the East once again.
