USL Championship 2025 Season Previews - Backheeled
With a new USL Championship season starting this weekend, we’re dropping in-depth previews for all 24 teams.
John Morrissey
Where we left off last year
2024 season: 48 points, 7th in the Eastern Conference
Did Pittsburgh go 585 consecutive minutes without scoring at one point last season? Yup. Did that stop them from extending their playoff streak to seven years? Absolutely not.
Bob Lilley found a way to get over the line as always, leaning into eventual Golden Glove winner Eric Dick in net and experimenting ahead of him. Eventually, leaning into a gritty young midfielder in Bradley Sample and loaning in the electric Bertin Jacquesson from Real Salt Lake did the trick, and the Riverhounds actually looked formidable heading into postseason play. There's no reason to think that defense-first, "let Lilley cook" sensibility is going to change in the near future.
