Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. Founded in 1999 and beginning play in 1999, the club plays in the Eastern Conference of the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. Since 2013, the Riverhounds have played their home games at the 5,000-seat Highmark Stadium, a

soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-pu ...

located in Station Square. Their current head coach is Bob Lilley. Saint Lucian international David Flavius currently holds the club records for most appearances and goals which he set over his eight seasons with the Riverhounds between 1999 and 2006. In June 2017, the Riverhounds entered into a developmental partnership with the

Ocean City Nor'easters Ocean City Nor'easters is an American soccer team based in Ocean City, New Jersey. Founded in 1996, the team currently plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team plays their home games at Carey Stadium wh ...

of the

Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental association football, soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United Stat ...

, running through the 2018 season. In 2013, the Riverhounds organization announced its intentions to join

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

by 2023; but have never submitted a formal bid during any of the league's rounds of expansion. Highmark Stadium initially seated 3,500 spectators, though the stadium is designed to be capable of being expanded to 18,500.

History

Colors and badge

Originally, the Riverhounds' colors were predominantly red with smaller amounts of black and white. Pittsburgh-based BD&E designed the original logo. The firm made a strategic decision not to make the club's colors black and gold. The choice meant the Hounds would not align with the region's established professional sports identity but would allow the soccer fans' jerseys to stand out in a Pittsburgh crowd. The club adopted new colors, predominantly blue with white and black added, before the start of the 2008 season to honor their academy and training partnership with Everton. The use of blue was also an allusion to the blue collar populace of Pittsburgh. Beginning in 2014, the Riverhounds began wearing black and gold uniforms more regularly, aligning the club with the colors representative of Pittsburgh's other professional sports teams. Blue and black kits continued to be worn as an alternate third version. On February 16, 2018, the Riverhounds unveiled a new crest as part of its rebranding. The new crest incorporates traditional Pittsburgh sports colors with important symbols of the city such as

bridges A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

and rivers. The crest was designed by Oregon-based graphic designer Brian Gundell.

Sponsorship

* Source(s):

Stadium

Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC has played at Highmark Stadium, a 5,000 seat

in Station Square, since 2013. The stadium is owned and operated by the Riverhounds organization. File:Highmark Stadium from Mount Washington.jpg, Highmark Stadium as seen from

Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, ...

File:Highmark Stadium Main Stand.jpg, Highmark Stadium main stand File:Highmark Stadium collage.jpg, Highmark Stadium

Supporters

In November 2007, the first supporters group of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds was formed, The Steel Army. The Steel Army held their first meeting at Piper's Pub in Pittsburgh's South Side. The group started as 5–10 local people interested in supporting the reorganized Riverhounds Soccer Club and in supporting the efforts of growing the sport of soccer in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

as well. Members are from Pittsburgh and nearby states like Ohio and distant states such as

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Membership in the Steel Army is also international. Members have joined from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in the

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, Bray in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

, and

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The section of Highmark Stadium where the Steel Army stands and supports the Riverhounds is located at the South Gate end of the stadium. The terrace there holds 1,000 supporters. On August 1, 2015, the supporters' section was renamed the Paul Child Stand in honor of Pittsburgh soccer legend Paul Child. The Steel Army had fierce rivalries with

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

clubs Penn FC (Sons of Susquehanna) and the

Rochester Rhinos Rochester New York FC, formerly known as the Rochester Rhinos, are an American professional soccer team based in Rochester, New York, United States. Founded in 1996, as the Rochester Raging Rhinos, they changed their name to Rochester Rhinos to ...

(Oak Street Brigade) before both clubs moved to USL League One. File:Steel Army at Highmark Stadium Home Opener.jpg, Steel Army during the first match at Highmark Stadium File:Steel Army 2013.jpg, Steel Army in 2013 File:HighmarkStadium4.JPG, Steel Army during friendly with

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

File:Rob Vincent tifo.JPG,

Rob Vincent Rob Vincent (born 26 October 1990) is a former English footballer. He is also a coach at the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Academy. Career Youth Vincent spent time with Everton and Crewe Alexandra as a youth from 1997–2000 and 2000–2005, resp ...

tifo during 2015 US Open Cup

Players and staff

Current roster

Team management

{, class="wikitable" , - !style="background:#FFC62C; color:black; border:2px solid #000;" scope="col" colspan=2, Front Office , - , - !style="background:#FFC62C; color:black; border:2px solid #000;" scope="col" colspan=2, Coaching Staff , - , - !style="background:#FFC62C; color:black; border:2px solid #000;" scope="col" colspan=2, Riverhounds Development Academy , -

Honors

USL Pro Soccer League The USL Second Division (commonly referred to as USL-2) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL). It was at the third tier of soccer in the United States, behind Major League Soccer (t ...

** ''Atlantic Division Champions'' (1):

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

* USL Championship ** '' Eastern Conference Regular Season Champions'' (1):

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Record

This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Riverhounds. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC seasons. {, class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;" , - style="background:#f0f6ff;" !rowspan=2, Season !colspan=11, League !colspan=2, Position !rowspan=2, Playoffs !rowspan=2, USOC !rowspan=2 colspan=2, Continental !rowspan=2, Average attendance !colspan=2, Top goalscorer(s) , - !Div !League !Pld !W !L !D !GF !GA !GD !Pts !PPG !Conf. !Overall !Name !Goals , - ,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, rowspan=5, 2 ,

USL The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

, 34 , 15 , 5 , 14 , 47 , 26 , +21 , 59 , 1.74 , bgcolor=CFAA88, 3rd , 8th , R1 , R3 , rowspan=5 colspan=2, DNQ , , align="left" , Neco Brett , 15 , - ,

, USLC , 34 , 19 , 4 , 11 , 58 , 30 , +28 , 68 , 2.00 , bgcolor=gold , 1st , bgcolor=silver, 2nd , QF , R4 , , align="left" , Neco Brett , 14 , - ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, USLC , 16 , 11 , 4 , 1 , 39 , 10 , +29 , 34 , 2.13 , bgcolor=CFAA88, 3rd , 5th , R1 , NH , N/A , align="left" , Ropapa Mensah , 6 , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, USLC , 32 , 17 , 8 , 7 , 52 , 34 , +18 , 58 , 1.63 , 5th , 7th , R1 , NH , 3,132 , align="left" , Russell Cicerone , 16 , - ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, USLC , 34 , 16 , 9 , 9 , 50 , 38 , +12 , 57 , 1.32 , 5th , 7th , R1 , R3 , 3,934 , align="left" , Russell Cicerone , 13 1. Avg. Attendance include statistics from league matches only.
2. Top Goalscorer(s) includes all goals scored in league, league playoffs,

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

, and other competitive continental matches.

References

External links

*
Steel Army Supporters Group
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