Tola Showunmi scored in extra time to give Louisville City FC a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the USL Championship Playoffs’ Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Friday at Lynn Family Stadium.
LouCity, the No. 4 seed, advances to face No. 8 Miami FC, who upset the No. 1 Tampa Bay Rowdies in penalty kicks Friday, 1 (5) – 1 (4).
LouCity will host the Eastern Conference Semifinal at Lynn Family Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday at LouCity.com/playoffs.
“We’re not done yet,” LouCity interim head coach Simon Bird said. “There’s three more (games). And we’re happy to get the win.”
Pittsburgh, the defending USL Championship title winners, are eliminated. Louisville City remains the last club to win back-to-back USL Championship titles, in 2017 and 2018.
The game was gritty, physical and demanding. In the end, LouCity claimed victory over 120 minutes.
In stoppage time of the first period of extra time, Pittsburgh’s Owen Mikoy threw Showunmi to the turf battling for possession — but that did not deter him. When no foul was called, Showunmi got back to his feet, made a run in the box, and redirected a determined Amadou Dia’s pass into the back of the net.
“As soon as the ref doesn’t stop the game, you have to keep going, and we all kept going,” Showunmi said of the tussle with Mikoy. “And thankfully, I was in the right spot, made the run across the defender and was able to tap it in. So, (the) mentality was just ‘Let’s keep playing,’ and we were rewarded by that.”
It was Showunmi’s first goal since May 23, and sixth of the season overall.
“We’ve talked to Tola a lot about threat inside the box and, when the ball gets wide, of being a threat inside, between the goalposts,” Bird said, later adding, “He’s such a handful up there.”
The 26-year-old Englishman is in his second go-around with LouCity. He wore purple in 2024, before a move back to his native England with Crawley Town FC. Showunmi returned to Louisville in January ahead of this season.
Dia’s assist was his first goal contribution this season. He had not tallied an assist since April 15, 2025, in a U.S. Open Cup game versus Loudoun United. He nutmegged a defender and pushed through another challenge to get the pass off.
“These young kids, they haven’t seen young Amadou in a long time, long time,” the 33-year-old Dia said. “They keep calling me ‘Unc,’ so I had to make sure that I get to show them what I used to do and stuff.”
Aside from Showunmi and Dia — who connected for the lone goal — Kevon Lambert led LouCity once again defensively.
Lambert finished with a game-high 15 clearances. He also led all players in duels, winning 15 of 19, including 14 of 16 in the air.
LouCity’s clean sheet was the club’s fifth in its last six games. The boys in purple have not conceded a goal in 356 minutes.
Those defensive performances give the boys in purple confidence that this season’s playoff run will not be just a one-hit wonder.
“It was not the regular season that we wanted, but we’ve turned it up at the right time,” Dia said. “Right now everything is clicking, and as long as we keep working hard, taking every day at a time and doing what we do, then we can make a really far push.”
LouCity will now advance to face a Miami FC team that pulled off one of the biggest upsets in USL Championship history Friday. Miami’s upset of Tampa Bay, the Players’ Shield winners, marks the third time in four years that the regular season champion was knocked out in the opening round of the USL Championship Playoffs.
Louisville and Miami split their season series in high-scoring fashion. LouCity topped Miami at Lynn Family Stadium on March 14, 4-1. Miami got even with a 4-3 win in South Florida on May 23.
Game Summary: Louisville City FC vs. Detroit City FC (USL Championship Playoffs – Eastern Conference Quarterfinal)
Date: October 30, 2026
Venue: Lynn Family Stadium — Louisville, Ky.
Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. ET
Weather: 74 degrees, partly cloudy
Attendance: 7,438
Scoring
Louisville City FC (0, 0 – 1, 0, 1)
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (0, 0 – 0, 0, 0)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 29 – Ryan Schewe; 13 – Amadou Dia, 32 – Kyle Adams (c), 31 – Kevon Lambert, 2 – Aiden McFadden, 15 – Manny Perez (90′ 5 – Brandon Dayes), 8 – Taylor Davila, 19 – Babacar Niang (45′ 6 – Zach Duncan), 7 – Ray Serrano, 27 – Evan Davila (79′ 25 – Jansen Wilson), 9 – Chris Donovan (99′ 14 – Tola Showunmi)
Unused substitutes: 30 – Ryan Troutman, 3 – Jake Morris, 4 – Sean Totsch, 47 – Mukwelle Akale, 99 – Cooper Conley
Interim head coach: Simon Bird
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC: 1 – Nico Campuzano, 16 – Beto Ydrach, 6 – Owen Mikoy, 5 – Victor Souza, 3 – Perrin Barnes (90′ 4 – Lasse Kelp), 10 – Charles Ahl (90′ 8 – Junior Etou), 2 – Danny Griffin (c), 14 – Robbie Mertz, 42 – Jackson Wälti (108′ 36 – Yu Tsukanome), 19 – Sam Bassett (45′ 37 – Eliot Goldthorp), 7 – Trevor Amann (83′ 9 – Albert Dikwa)
Unused substitutes: 24 – Mike Sheridan, 28 – Illal Osumanu
Head coach: Rob Vincent
Stats Summary: Louisville City FC / Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
Shots: 13 / 5
Shots on Goal: 5 / 1
Expected goals: 1.83 / 0.27
Possession: 47.8% / 52.2%
Fouls: 15 / 16
Offside: 2 / 2
Corner Kicks: 7 / 2
Discipline Summary:
Louisville City FC:
16′ Babacar Niang (yellow card)
79′ Kevon Lambert (yellow card)
89′ Aiden McFadden (yellow card)
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC:
90+4′ Eliot Goldthorp (yellow card)
113′ Lasse Kelp (yellow card)
Referee: Abdou Ndiaye
