
Match info
Riverhounds (6-6-3) vs. Detroit City FC (5-6-5)
Date: Friday, July 18
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Keyworth Stadium, Hamtramck, Mich.
Odds: Hounds +170 / Draw +190 / Detroit +160 at Fan Duel
TV: ESPN2
Live statistics: USL Championship Match Center
Live updates: @RiverhoundsSC on X/Twitter
Match hashtags: #DETvPIT and #Grittsburgh
(July 16, 2025) — The Hounds and Detroit City FC have had plenty of meaningful battles during Detroit’s four seasons in the USL Championship, and another one is on tap Friday night in Michigan for a national TV audience on ESPN2.
This time, the matchup is about positioning in the Eastern Conference. Both teams are on the right side of the playoff line with the Hounds in fifth and Detroit only a point back in seventh, but three points would go a long way toward either team making a charge back toward the top four.
The Hounds won the first regular-season matchup last month, 2-0, behind goals from Perrin Barnes and Robbie Mertz, but this will actually be a rubber match for 2025, as Detroit took a 1-0 win at home in the Jägermeister Cup back in April with a Darren Smith goal in stoppage time.
Low-scoring, tight affairs have been the norm in the series. The Hounds hold a 3-2-4 advantage overall, but in nine meetings, the teams have never combined for more than two goals in a single match.
Mertz right now seems to be the player who could break that run for the Hounds. The in-form midfielder has three goals and an assist in five league matches dating back to that last meeting with Detroit. The four goal contributions make it the second-best five-match run in the Championship for Mertz since his return to the Hounds in the middle of the 2022 season, trailing only the final five regular-season matches of 2024, when he posted a goal and four assists down the stretch.
Detroit, on the other hand, has been flailing of late, losing five of its last six league matches to slip out of the top four. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that downturn has coincided with a cooling off by Smith after a torrid start. The South African striker had nine goals in his first 10 matches in all competitions for Detroit on May 3, but since then, he has just one tally in the team’s most recent 10 matches, that coming in a 4-2 Jägermeister Cup defeat against Portland.
The Hounds will look to add on to Detroit’s woes Friday night, but doing so would break a trend, as the two teams have drawn at least once during every year they have met. That streak that extends even longer than Detroit’s participation in USL; the teams played a 0-0 preseason draw in 2021 when Detroit was still a member of third-division NISA.
With the match on ESPN2, there will not be a live stream, but fans will be able to watch through the ESPN app by logging into their cable provider.
Downloadable Game Notes