I admit that I've not covered the Riverhounds in a couple of games. I missed the Cincinnati game because of a commitment to cover the Sparks(now 5-1-1), which started at the same time. They won that game(2-0).
But the hounds have lost two straight at home, both 1-0 scores, to the Kings and Harrisburg the following weekend.
The hounds are a long way from their 19-3-1 total record of last year when they were arguably the best in the league. Everyone knows how that ended and we all hoped for better results this year. But I felt it would be different when Said Ali, one of our key players, was traded to Vancouver(now with Toronto), and both George Kithas and Tiest Sondaal went to expansion Cincinnati. It takes a while for new players to gell and I think that cost us to start 0-3. The fact that we missed the U.S. Open Cup is a factor, although we could have beaten Des Moines if the league rules had allowed sudden-death. This is a reason why I'm against going full scale with overtime(allowing the opponent to get the equalizer).
I think head coach Ricardo Iribarren is still a great coach and is doing every thing he can to get the hounds back to winning. If he losses his cool, well, it's been a frustrating season for us, as hounds fans can atest.
As to whether we can make the playoffs, sure it's still possible. But the way the hounds are playing now I'm not counting on it. Almost half of the season is gone, while we're not there yet. There's still a big hill to climb. Maybe it will get better, or maybe more frustration.
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