Something was seriously amiss Saturday night at Highmark Stadium.
For one, the Riverhounds were rolling toward what would wind up as their ridiculously overdue first win of 2016, a 2-1 doubling of Toronto FC II. They were aggressive, cohesive and, hey, a heck of a lot more impressive than when they failed to win any of their first seven USL games, then were humiliated by that amateur pub club from Yonkers earlier this week.
For another, all through the weekend, not a soul was speaking about the fate of Mark Steffens, the beloved but beleaguered head coach. I'd ask someone a question, and they'd either look away or walk away.
And then, in the strangest sight of all, when the Hounds broke through a stout Toronto back line in the 68th minute on this bending beauty out of the corner by Lebo Moloto ...
... it wasn't just Moloto's teammates who swarmed him to celebrate, but also Steffens, his assistants Niko Katic and Josh Rife, and the entire roster that leaped off the bench and ran down the pitch for a group hug:
"It was a big moment," Moloto would tell me right afterward. "Very emotional."
It wasn't until the coach stepped to the podium for his press conference that everyone finally found out why: Steffens was out.
The man didn't last long before melting emotionally, as you'll see:
The team respected that announcement, then later described Steffens' departure in a press release late Saturday night as a 'mutual' parting. Which was nice and all, but of course no such thing exists in the real world. Team owner Tuffy Shallenberger had mostly made up his mind to remove Steffens after the U.S. Open Cup debacle against Lansdowne Bhoys, and he informed Steffens of the final decision Friday.
But that's only where the drama began, as it turned out.
Steffens sought permission to coach one more game. It was to be a capper in his 20th season as a USL head coach, the first 18 having been spent in Charlotte, and it would offer one last chance for Steffens, who will turn 63 next month, to go out with a smile.
So he told his players in the locker room roughly two hours before kickoff.
"The boys were in shock," team captain Kevin Kerr recalled. "He told us it would be his last night, his last chance. And he didn't need to say more. We knew what we had to do."
Which they did, thanks to Moloto and another fine finish by Corey Hertzog in the 72nd:
Steffens would walk all across the stadium grounds once the referee blew his whistle three times, embracing everyone in sight. And after his brief farewell, he did the same in approaching each reporter on hand for his or her coverage and thanking them for coming -- full context: reporters aren't even accustomed to being hugged by their loved ones -- then shook hands with Shallenberger and left the room with head held high.
Happy ending for everyone, right?
Well, not yet. In fact, not even close.
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No one outworks Shallenberger, not in any walk of life. This Connellsville construction magnate is a self-made rich guy who routinely describes himself as a 'ditch-digger,' whether he's meeting with high-level politicians, entertaining CEOs or sharing a suite with Mario Lemieux. He's got relations with all three of the big-league sports owners in town and, even though he never stops being his down-to-earth self, he somehow fits right in.
But this soccer thing has been a seesaw challenge since he became the Hounds' majority owner two years ago.
The franchise was born in 1999, but it more fully engaged the public consciousness when it left its various rented high school fields in the South Hills to move into $10.2 million Highmark Stadium for the 2013 season. It was modest in size, seating only 3,500, but huge in scope, with a FIFA-certified surface that took up $1 million of that budget, and with Major League Soccer openly casting an eye on a potential future here.
One problem: MLS doesn't just hand out franchises. Unless it's New York or Los Angeles, a city has to demonstrate that it can support soccer at a lower level, then deliver ownership with exceptional means to even gain an audience with the league's commissioner, Don Garber. Case in point in the past year was Orlando, which led the USL in attendance, put together a viable plan for a soccer-only stadium in the 20,000-seat range, added all kinds of mega-money cats and was just welcomed to America's big league.
For that to happen here, the formula will be no different.
The Hounds have to succeed financially. Shallenberger deliberately took the team into Chapter 11 bankruptcy two years ago, mostly to assume total control, and it emerged without incident. But even though the first three seasons at Highmark saw attendance average at about 80 percent of capacity, the team has yet to turn a profit, at least not independent of its healthy development academy for youth soccer. And that deeply troubles Shallenberger, who makes clear consistently that his primary goal is to make the USL work in the city, possibly with a long-range eye toward graduating to the next level.
There are all kinds of ancillary issues related to finances, a few of which I've been told in confidence, but suffice it to say those will have to be resolved for the Hounds to ascend beyond where they are now as a business.
Of course, they've also got to get a whole lot better at this soccer thing.
Highmark is a wonderful place to see a match, with its view of the Downtown skyline across the Mon, with the charm of the CSX trains running along the sideline, and the quirk of when a ball makes it onto those rails and gets retrieved by a team employee:
Hey, those balls cost $150 each, you know.
But ambiance seldom sells in sports. The Pirates eventually found that out on the opposite side of Downtown, when customers grew tired of being sold Kennywood with fireworks rather than competitive baseball. At some point, there has to be a team fans can love.
The Hounds have teased with that. Jose Angulo was the USL's leading scorer in 2014 and a terrific talent, but he wasn't kept because of petty complaints from teammates about his toughness. Rob Vincent blossomed into one of the league's very best in 2015, and he, Kerr and Steffens led the Hounds to a league playoff berth, as well as all kinds of attention in the soccer world for an astonishing comeback against Harrisburg and an inspired overtime Open Cup match against D.C. United that packed the place with both people and tension.
On that night, it was easy to believe anything was possible for Pittsburgh and soccer. I know it's one I'll never forget.
But it also proved to be a bit of a curse. Because Ben Olsen, United's coach, would tell me that night that Vincent "really impressed me out there as someone who maybe shouldn't be at this level," and he and Dave Kasper, former player on the indoor Pittsburgh Spirit, would swipe Vincent into MLS over the winter.
There went a huge chunk of the offense, as well as Kerr's soccer soulmate.
In a bid to replace Vincent, the Hounds ponied up for another player whose pedigree probably exceeded the USL level in Jamaican striker Romeo Parkes. And he delivered five of the team's first seven goals, some in world-class form.
Then, oh, you know, this happened:
The offense was absolutely moribund after Parkes' release, at least until Saturday. It's possible that it will continue to mesh, especially if the wondrously skillful Moloto keeps emerging at age 23. I had a good talk with the kid after this match, and even through his thick South African accent, it was clear he grasps that he needs to distribute less, shoot more.
But so much beyond that is needed, and not just in terms of players.
Shallenberger's obvious next step is to find a new soccer man at the helm, and my understanding as of late Saturday night is that he was down to two choices, either of whom would both coach the team and procure the talent. That's how it works best at this level, and that's how it's got to work here. Tom Smith, formerly of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, was just hired to run the stadium. That was smart, but a pure soccer man's got to be next, not a tweener like recently fired team president Richard Nightingale. My understanding is that both of these candidates fit the pure-soccer category.
I'm not going to come close to knocking a good, good man in Steffens. He doesn't deserve it.
At the same time, that new man can't arrive soon enough.
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Kerr is awesome. He's a relentless competitor, running as much as six miles per match and sliding into every tackle as if his livelihood depended on it.
Watch his reaction to the the Hounds' first win in this interview, and then watch what happens in the moment we're through:
That's how to build a fan base. From the ground up.
Don't overthink what the Hounds genuinely need.
It's the resources to add reasonably to the roster and then to publicize the product. It's the profitability to make it independently viable and impress the soccer world, not to mention the local business community. It's the guidance to put it all together.
Oh, and more Kerrs. There aren't enough Kerrs.
