Riverhounds hoping Liverpool-Real Betis friendly brings new fans

Let me start with a question. 

Have you been enjoying all of the soccer these past few weeks?

Whether it be Copa America, the European Championships (me even more so after England finally fell at the final stage, muchas gracias to Spain for that) or even the local action with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds (especially now that they seem to have got their act together), it’s been pretty hard to escape the sport in one way or another.

Well if you have, and you live in Western PA, then the good news is that you’re going to be getting a pretty big event on your doorstep this week when the Premier League's Liverpool (who coincidentally are owned by Fenway Sports Group who also own the Penguins) and La Liga's Real Betis, two of the biggest clubs in their respective leagues, will be putting on a preseason friendly at Acrisure Stadium this Friday night. 

By the way, I say all of the above not as a fan of either team, nor am I using this article to ‘promote’ the event, I just speak as a proud Brit and as someone who wants to see the sport grow any way that it can on this side of the Atlantic. 

And on the subject of growth, I’m not the only one who is hoping that the game will spark something within the Steel City and beyond. Pittsburgh Riverhounds President Jeff Garner recently sat down in an exclusive interview for DK Pittsburgh Sports to break down the event, and he explained to me how much involvement the Riverhounds have had in getting the event set up as well as on the day of the game: 

“It's great for soccer in Pittsburgh to have a brand like Liverpool on tour here. I wouldn't say that we were consulted in organizing it, but we got a heads up and we are involved, not necessarily in the game itself, but in the week leading up to it. So while the teams are here training, we are going to do some events with both Real Betis and with Liverpool, particularly the Liverpool Foundation who will be here with a group of Liverpool legends who are going to do some community clinics and camps for kids. 

“Some of those will be Riverhounds Academy specific, others will be open to the public, and they'll be at our venues in the week leading up to the game. 

“We're still trying to finalize how we'll be involved in the game because we have a game on Saturday night, so our team will be focused on that game, but we're talking about how perhaps we could have some kind of involvement, perhaps something as simple as a captain's jersey exchange before the game.”

The game between the two European heavyweights is set to take place the day before the Hounds take on Eastern Conference rivals Loudon United at Highmark Stadium, and with the influx of people coming into the city from all over America, and possibly even the world, the plan is for the game at Acrisure to serve as the appetizer and have fans double-dip their soccer experience by sticking around to take in the final game of the club’s ‘Summer Of Soccer’, which in Garner’s eyes could spark a new level of support from those outside of the region: 

“How many people that may go to that Liverpool game will come to our name the next day? That's the question. I think you're going to have a lot of people both regionally and internationally coming to the game that may want to stick around and watch soccer on the Saturday also, so that makes it a full weekend.

“We'll get people from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus, all these different places coming to Pittsburgh. And so we'd very much like to capitalize and make it a soccer weekend to catch not only Liverpool, but stick around on Saturday, come to our stadium, and check it out.

“There might be a Liverpool fan who comes over from from UK and says, ‘oh I don't have an MLS team to support. I may choose this USL team’. We could become everybody's favorite second team.”