Open Cup Preview: Hounds vs. Steel City FC
USL Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

Open Cup Preview: Hounds vs. Steel City FC

Published on March 16, 2026 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC News Release


PITTSBURGH - In the Hounds' 27th season, the team is about to meet a 5-year-old club in a matchup that has been 69 years in waiting.

The Hounds begin their 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign with the first all-Pittsburgh matchup in the competition since 1957 when they host USL League Two side Steel City FC on Tuesday night at Highmark Stadium.

This year's edition of U.S. Soccer's national championship begins with a crowded First Round field, as the impending FIFA World Cup caused a shuffling of the format that starts all teams outside of MLS in the opening round. That means the Hounds will have extra work to replicate their performance as the longest surviving team from outside the top flight in two of the past three years, when they reached the 2023 quarterfinals and the 2025 Round of 16.

That work begins with facing Steel City, a team that arose in 2021 from a merger between two long-established Western Pennsylvania youth clubs, Arsenal FC and Pittsburgh Hotspurs. The new club continued the senior men's First Team that Hotspurs established in 2019, and in 2024, the team made its first Open Cup appearance. Steel City fell 1-0 at home to the Michigan Stars out of third-division NISA in that match played at Pitt's Ambrose Urbanic Field, where many current Hounds, among them Robbie Mertz and Jackson Walti, were in attendance to support their fellow Pittsburgh side.

But this year, the Hounds and Steel City will clash head-to-head, and Hounds coach Rob Vincent has made it clear when speaking to the media that his team will put out a strong side geared toward winning the match. The weekend's 3-2 win at Loudoun United was a positive result, he said, but one that still exposed areas where the team must improve in their USL title defense.

One has to go all the way back to the Eisenhower administration for the last matchup between two Pittsburgh-area teams in the Open Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup. In the 1957 quarterfinals on Feb. 20, the Harmarville Hurricanes - the defending champion and last cup winner from Western Pa. - scored a 2-1 win over Bridgeville-based Morgan Strasser before going to to lose in the semifinal round over two legs.

Naturally, that also makes this the Hounds' first-ever match against a Pittsburgh-area team, with their nearest previous opponent being the amateur Erie Commodores in 2018. The Hounds have advanced in their past five Open Cup matches against lower-division opponents, with their last upset coming on the road in 2017, 3-1 against a Chicago FC United side that featured future USL Championship standouts Mark Segbers and Tom Barlow.

Tickets for Tuesday's match, the Hounds' first at home since winning the 2025 USL Championship title, are still available through Ticketmaster. The match will be streamed live via the U.S. Soccer YouTube channel, and the Hounds' local partners at Radio Las Palmas, 92.9 FM HD2, will carry the Spanish-language radio broadcast.

Match Info

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup First Round

Riverhounds vs. Steel City FC

Date: Tuesday, March 17

Time: 7 p.m.

Location: Highmark Stadium

Tickets: Ticketmaster

Odds: Not available

Streaming: U.S. Soccer YouTube

Live updates: @RiverhoundsSC on X/Twitter

Match hashtag: #PITvSTC and #USOC2026

Check out the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC Statistics

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