A half-dozen summers since Highmark Stadium opened to raves from across the soccer world, it's finally setting the stage for its first legitimately important match.
"Playoffs ... here ... can you imagine it?" Kevin Kerr was telling me late Saturday night, right out on the pitch where the Riverhounds had just fended off Indy Eleven, 3-2. "It would be amazing. It really would."
No one would know better. Kerr, the indefatigable Scottish midfielder and team captain, was signed as a free agent before the 2013 season, the one in which Highmark rose up on the city's South Shore. And in all the time since, he's heard and seen people praise the setting -- the trains that whistle by during matches, the Gateway Clipper fleet tooting out on the Mon, the breathtaking view of Downtown's First Side -- and he's experienced it all.
Except for a solitary playoff match.
The Hounds have reached the playoffs twice in the Highmark era, but both were one-and-done, and both were on the road, in 2013 and 2015. And actually, there hasn't been a home playoff match at all for the franchise since 2004, back when home was a one-year rental of Moon High School's football stadium.
Well, that's virtually certain to change: The Hounds improved to 14-4-11 to stay within a point of second-place Louisville in the USL's Eastern Conference. And, because the top four teams get home field for the single-elimination first round of playoffs, and the top two teams get home field for the first two rounds, that's a pretty upbeat scenario with five regular-season matches to go.
And it's all just wonderful, right?
"We like where we are," Bob Lilley was saying after this match. "We like a lot of the things we've done over the past seven or eight matches. And at the same time ..."
Yep. Here it came.
This turnaround from back-to-back losing seasons has been engineered by Lilley and longtime assistant Mark Pulisic, from player acquisition to instruction, but this man's seldom satisfied. And he sure wasn't after this match.
"We're not trying just to make the playoffs," Lilley continued. "There's a lot more at stake for this group. And they're capable of a lot more."
A championship, he meant. Like the one he won in the USL three years ago as head coach of the now-on-hiatus Rochester Rhinos. That's the goal. Home field is vital, not because of any history but because the Hounds are now 9-2-6 at home, including an ongoing 4-0-3 unbeaten run.
So even on a night in which Ben Zemanski rushes forward for his first goal of the season, when Neco Brett adds his team-high 15th by capitalizing on similar chaos, and then Kenardo Forbes puts home a penalty in the 88th minute ...
Five goals in the second half. Three by the good guys. Highlights from tonight's 3-2 win over @IndyEleven. #PGHvIND pic.twitter.com/oLcBgeRnSL
— Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (@RiverhoundsSC) September 23, 2018
... the coach's focus was squarely on yet another in a series of late lapses that twice allowed Indy to pull within one. And that's flat-out not going to cut it when matches that matter come around, as he's been telling all concerned in no uncertain terms.
"This is a good result, but it's not a great performance," Lilley said. "For the most part, we've been pretty good, so hopefully it's a one-off and we'll get back to our expected level of play. For whatever reason, we just weren't that tonight."
The man's relentless, but he's consistent. The Hounds have had matches where they've lost, and he's lavished them with praise solely because he saw measures beyond the scoreboard that would serve them well in playoffs. There have also been matches where they've blown out the other side, and he's been livid.
The outcome has been highlighted by two exemplary elements other than the obvious record: One is that they've been by far the best defensive team in USL, conceding 21 goals -- nine fewer than any other team -- and recording a league-high 15 clean sheets; the other is their plus-20 goal differential that's fifth-best in the 30-team league. In any sport, scoring differential is a powerful indicator of a team's general quality, even more than wins and losses.
That's how Rochester won, too. Seldom did Lilley have star talent and, in fact, he almost always operated with one of the league's lowest payrolls. But he pounded home defensive expectations early in the process -- that began with the Hounds two full months before the season opener in March -- and coaxed chemistry out of a group that had basically been cobbled together from Rochester outcasts like himself, a couple remnants from Riverhounds past like Kerr, and a litany of Major League Soccer hopefuls not yet ready for that level.
He pushed, prodded and, trust me, after having observed this up-close for months, he never let up.
Ask Dan Lynd, the former Pitt goalkeeper who's been maybe the most pleasant surprise of the season with 11 of those 15 clean sheets.
"We're not happy with giving up goals late," Lynd told me, referring to Indy's two in this second half. "We're scoring goals at the other end, which is good to see, but we're working on the rest. We're working hard on it."
Ask Joe Greenspan, the outstanding center back who still bears the brunt of Lilley's more vocal admonitions:
Recognize that?
It's the same tone all around. This much is fine, and it's been fun. But it won't be enough.
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