Detroit City FC stuns top seed in USL playoffs, advances to second round

Detroit City FC didn't qualify for the United Soccer League Championship's playoffs until after its final game of the season had been played, but that didn't keep it from advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

DCFC defeated Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, 1-0, in Pittsburgh Saturday night, giving the No. 8 seed the upset over the top overall seed in the entire league.

A goal by Dominic Gasso in the 78th minute sent DCFC through, and some big saves by Nate Steinwascher in the closing minutes preserved the lead.

There were few serious scoring opportunities for the first half and the first half-hour of the second half for the sides, who played to a scoreless tie at Keyworth in the final game of the regular season a week earlier.

Gasso's goal ended a flurry of sustained pressure from Le Rouge, as he intercepted a ball headed out from the box and right-footed a shot along the turf from about 20 yards out that worked through a mass of traffic and eluded the screened Pittsburgh keeper Jahmali White on its way into the net.

Steinwascher's biggest save of the match came in the third minute of injury time when a header by Albert Dikwa that was labeled for the bottom corner of the goal frame was batted away by a diving effort from the DCFC keeper.

Pittsburgh applied plenty of pressure over the closing two minutes, but a couple of corner kicks resulted in a shot that was blocked, another that went wide and another that went just over the crossbar, and the final whistle cemented DCFC's first playoff victory in its second season in the league.

DCFC's second-round match will be at No. 5 seed Louisville City FC, a winner on penalties over No. seed Memphis 901 FC on Saturday evening.

The sides split the regular-season series, with Louisville winning 1-0 at home on April 8, and DCFC winning at Keyworth, 2-0, on July 19.

Date and time for that match is yet to be announced.