USL Final Preview: Hounds at FC Tulsa
USL Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

USL Final Preview: Hounds at FC Tulsa

Published on November 20, 2025 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC News Release


TULSA, Okla. - There have been rivalry clashes with the Rochester Rhinos and budding pests Detroit City FC.

There have been cup contests against the Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, Philadelphia Union and FC Cincinnati - both as a USL and MLS team.

There even have been unofficial friendlies against England's cup holders (Wigan Athletic) and a soon-to-be UEFA Champions League runner-up (Bayer Leverkusen).

But without a doubt, Saturday's match - the 772nd competitive match in Riverhounds history and the team's first final, league or cup - is the biggest in the 26 years of Pittsburgh's professional soccer club.

The Hounds will play for the USL Championship's crown when they visit Western Conference champion FC Tulsa in a noon kickoff (11 a.m. CT) that will be seen around the country on CBS and locally in the Pittsburgh market on KDKA.

Riding high after a pair of penalty shootout victories and a dramatic 1-0 win over Rhode Island FC in the Eastern Conference Final, the Hounds have a calm confidence about them after going 3-0-3 in six matches with Rob Vincent serving as acting head coach. But Tulsa has every reason to be just as confident, if not more, having won four straight matches, including a 3-0 win over New Mexico United in their Western Conference Final.

It will be the first meeting of the year between the teams, as Tulsa was one of the four Western Conference teams left off the Hounds schedule to make room for USL Jägermeister Cup matches.

Both teams are on a defensive tear in the playoffs, with neither allowing a goal through three playoff matches. Should either team win the title by clean sheet, they would be the first team to win the USL Championship without allowing a goal in their entire playoff run.

The Hounds have not conceded a goal in 512 minutes of play overall, the fourth-longest such streak in club history, and goalkeeper Eric Dick has five straight clean sheets - including a pair of 120-minute shutouts - to break his own team record with 15 clean sheets on the season. FC Tulsa, meanwhile, has not given up a goal on their home field in 603 minutes, a stretch that has seen starts in goal by both Tyler Deric and Johan Peñaranda, the latter a former University of Pittsburgh goalkeeper and college teammate of Hounds midfielder Jackson Walti.

Tulsa has been able to play on their home field throughout the playoffs as the top seed in the West, and unlike the Hounds, they have not needed to go to penalty kicks during the playoffs. They did need extra time to win each of their first two playoff matches, however. Stefan Lukic scored the winner in each of those 1-0 wins, including a 122nd-minute strike to topple the same Phoenix team the Hounds drew to end the regular season.

Those trends tend to indicate another tight match could be in the works, and the Hounds will look for more heroics like the individual effort of Robbie Mertz to score the winner against Rhode Island, as the Pittsburgh native scored his second career postseason goal. Vincent seems likely going to ride with the lineup that got the team to this point, which has seen only one change since the start of the postseason - Perrin Barnes coming in for injured Guillaume Vacter - but he will have an otherwise full squad to utilize.

Fans not making the trip to Oklahoma have plenty of other options to follow along beside the TV broadcasts. The match will be streamed on Paramount+, and radio coverage will air on Sirius 137, XM 202 and in Spanish on Radio Las Palmas, 92.9 FM HD2.

By the end of the afternoon Saturday, the Hounds hope to have their third - and by far the biggest - trophy in the past three seasons to go with the 2023 Players' Shield and last week's Eastern Conference Champions trophy.

But regardless of the outcome, Nov. 22 will go down as the biggest match for pro soccer in Pittsburgh, as the Hounds try to bring the city its first title in any pro sport since the Penguins last claimed he NHL's Stanley Cup in 2017.

Match info

USL Championship Final

Riverhounds vs. FC Tulsa

Date: Saturday, Nov. 22

Time: 12 p.m.

Location: ONEOK Field, Tulsa, Okla.

Odds: Hounds +220 / Draw +210 / Tulsa +120 at FanDuel (After 90 minutes of play)

TV: CBS (national); KDKA (local)

Streaming: Paramount+

Radio: Sirius 137, XM 202 and Radio Las Palmas, 92.9 FM HD2

Live statistics: USL Championship Match Center

Live updates: @RiverhoundsSC on X/Twitter

Match hashtags: #TULvPIT, #Grittsburgh and #USLPlayoffs

Check out the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC Statistics

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United Soccer League Championship Stories from November 20, 2025


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