Brooklyn FC earns first road win in club history at Pittsburgh

Brooklyn FC earned the first road win in club history on July 4, beating Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC 2-0 at F.N.B. Stadium after an hour-long weather delay and a tense finish in front of a record regular-season crowd of 6,376. The win came on Pittsburgh’s traditional Independence Day home date and gave Brooklyn a result that looked earned in every phase, from early patience to late control.

Pittsburgh came out on the front foot and produced the first real pressure when Eliot Goldthorp’s volley forced Lukas Burns into the day’s first save. Brooklyn needed time to settle, but it steadily found its footing and nearly struck before halftime through John Klein and Jaden Servania, warning that the visitors were not just there to survive the holiday atmosphere.

The breakthrough arrived in the 50th minute. Thomas Vancaeyezeele worked the ball across the top of the box and CJ Olney Jr. smashed a volley into the net for his second goal of the season. Olney, recently named the USL Championship Mid-Season Young Player of the Year and on loan from the Philadelphia Union, scored his second goal of the season.

Pittsburgh kept pressing and had a shot cleared off the line by Callum Frogson in the 65th minute, but the match turned sharply in the 76th when Brooklyn forward Stefan Stojanovic was sent off for violent conduct and Pittsburgh’s Albert Dikwa also saw red after the confrontation. With both sides down to 10 men, Brooklyn’s shape and discipline mattered as much as any attacking sequence, and the visitors absorbed the push without losing control of the game.

Brooklyn put it away in stoppage time, when Abdoulaye Kanté cut inside from the right side of the box and finished with his outside foot in the 90+3 minute for his first goal with the club. The result ended Pittsburgh’s six-match unbeaten run and its 476-minute shutout streak. Brooklyn entered the night at 2-8-3 in league play, still looking for a first victory since April 11.