{"id":769528,"date":"2026-05-03T02:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769528\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T02:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:55:15","slug":"phoenix-brings-home-win-streak-to-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769528\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix brings home win streak to end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"683\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05022026-PITvPHX-ChrisCowger-6764.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Riverhounds Max Viera (left) and Robbie Mertz close on Phoenix Rising FC's Hope Avayevu in the teams' match on May 2, 2026 at F.N.B. Stadium in Pittsburgh. (Photo: Chris Cowger\/Riverhounds SC)\" class=\"wp-image-31904\"  \/>The Hounds\u2019 Max Viera (left) and Robbie Mertz close on Phoenix Rising FC\u2019s Hope Avayevu in the teams\u2019 match Saturday at F.N.B. Stadium. (Photo: Chris Cowger\/Riverhounds SC)<\/p>\n<p><strong>PITTSBURGH (May 2, 2026) <\/strong>\u2014 The Pittsburgh Riverhounds suffered their first home setback of the season, as a single goal by <strong>Ihsan Sacko<\/strong> gave Phoenix Rising FC a 1-0 win tonight at F.N.B. Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Sacko\u2019s goal for Phoenix (3-2-3), which put him into a tie for the USL Championship scoring lead, snapped a six-match home winning streak for the Hounds (3-4-1) and a home unbeaten run of 11 matches, both dating back to last season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>First half<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The match was a defensive struggle throughout with the Hounds being whistled for a season-high tying 14 fouls, one fewer than Phoenix\u2019s 15.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Danny Griffin<\/strong> put the first shot on target in the match in the 12th minute, snapping a shot from the top of the box that nearly caught Phoenix goalkeeper <strong>Patrick Rakovsky<\/strong> off guard, but the veteran shot stopper dove low for the save and covered the rebound.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eliot Goldthorp<\/strong> also had a shot on target from similar distance midway through the half, but it clipped the foot of a Phoenix defender, taking much of the pace off the ball.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Second half<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The halftime interval did little to change the pace of play, though Griffin did come close with an overhead kick that went high in the 50th minute after a Goldthorp free kick was kept alive in the box.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix got its goal in the 64th minute when Sacko made a good individual play to win the ball between Hounds defenders <strong>Max Viera<\/strong> and <strong>Victor Souza<\/strong>.<strong> Gunnar Studenhofft<\/strong> got a slight touch on the ball to send Sacko toward goal on the left, and he fired a shot high into the net from the corner of the 6-yard box.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Albert Dikwa<\/strong> had a chance to pull the goal back two minutes later after <strong>Robbie Mertz<\/strong> hit a low pass from the right that split defenders, but Dikwa had to react quickly and pushed the shot wide left of the goal.<\/p>\n<p>Goldthorp again tried to play provider in the 79th minute, and Viera made contact with a diving header but could not put it on goal. Phoenix also had a good chance that was off target when <strong>Hope Aveyevu<\/strong> attempted a volley from the right side but could not turn it across the front of goal.<\/p>\n<p>The Hounds finished with a 9-8 edge in shots, but they were only able to put two on net, while Phoenix\u2019s only shot on target was Sacko\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Modelo Man of the Match<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lasse Kelp <\/strong>was strong throughout the match on the left side of defense and frequently involved. He won 5 of 7 tackles and 10 of 19 duels overall, both most on the team. He also won possession a team-high eight times, had three clearances and a scoring chance created.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The two most successful teams in the Eastern Conference over the past decade meet once again when the Hounds travel to face Louisville City FC (5-2-1) on Saturday, May 9 in Kentucky. Louisville sits second in the East despite dropping a 2-1 result tonight at Detroit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Riverhounds SC lineup (4-2-3-1) <\/strong>\u2014 Nico Campuzano; Lasse Kelp, Owen Mikoy, Victor Souza (Trevor Amann 85\u2019), Max Viera; Jackson Walti (Charles Ahl 74\u2019), Danny Griffin; Eliot Goldthorp (Junior Etou 85\u2019), Robbie Mertz, Sam Bassett; Albert Dikwa<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phoenix Rising FC (4-2-3-1) <\/strong>\u2014\u00a0Patrick Rakovsky; Luke Biasi, John Scearce, Pape Boye, Collin Smith; Jean-\u00c9ric Moursou, Diego G\u00f3mez; Hope Avayevu (Jackson Gaydon 90+5\u2019), Jaethan Irwin (Gunnar Studenhofft 63\u2019), Charlie Dennis; Ihsan Sacko (Eziah Ramirez 70\u2019)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scoring summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>PHX \u2014\u00a0Ihsan Sacko 64\u2019 (Gunnar Studenhofft)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discipline summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>PIT \u2014 Albert Dikwa 53\u2019 (caution \u2013 reckless foul)<br \/>PHX \u2014\u00a0Jean-\u00c9ric Moursou 57\u2019 (caution \u2013 delaying restart)<br \/>PHX \u2014\u00a0Charlie Dennis 89\u2019 (caution \u2013 reckless foul)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hounds\u2019 Max Viera (left) and Robbie Mertz close on Phoenix Rising FC\u2019s Hope Avayevu in the teams\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":769529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-769528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116508395229527418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}