With seconds remaining, the crowd at Highmark Stadium was building to what they hoped was a crescendo as the hometown Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC set up for a corner kick. The game against Major League Soccer’s New York City FC was scoreless and seemed destined for extra time.
Pittsburgh’s Robbie Mertz delivered a corner kick to the far post where it found Roberto “Beto” Ydrach, who headed the ball across the goal and into the back of the net. Moments later, after a wild celebration that saw Ydrach rip off his shirt, the referee blew for full time. This meant the Riverhounds had won 1-0 and delivered their fans a third MLS upset in the last three years, with two of them coming at home in the Steel City.
Ydrach, a rookie who has been a mainstay for the Riverhounds all season, came off the bench in the 77th minute. His roughly 13 minutes of work, including that game-winning goal, was enough to earn him TheCup.us Player of the Round honors.
The award is voted on by TheCup.us staff, a select panel from the North American Soccer Reporters and select backers (those that pledge $10 or more) from TheCup.us’ Patreon team.
He beat out Brandon Vazquez of Austin FC who scored two goals and assisted on another to help the Verde and Black overcome a 2-0 halftime deficit and edge the El Paso Locomotive (USL Championship) 3-2. Orlando City teenager Gustavo Caraballo, whose two goals sparked the Lions to a 5-0 road win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies, finished third.
The game-winning goal by Ydrach was extra special because it was his first professional goal. For the former Akron University standout, waiting to score that first goal and to rip his shirt off was a long time coming.
“It’s been since probably I was three years old, since I started playing soccer,” said Ydrach. “That’s a requirement for a goal like that, right? I had to do it.”
For Ydrach, who was recently called up by the Puerto Rico national team, it was being in the right place at the right time and executing.
“Our assistant coach Rob (Vincent) put me in that position and I just read it in the air, the flight of the ball,” said Ydrach. “The defender stepped up a little bit, so I snuck behind him and just headed it in.”
The celebration that followed was a new experience for the former Big East Defender of the Year.
“I blacked out,” he said. “The only thing on my mind was to take the shirt off. I’m not one to typically score that many goals in my career, so whenever I do, it’s typically a blackout scenario where I just run to the corner and have the whole team celebrate with me but it was a great moment for me, you know, we all work really hard for moments like that. To be able to do something like that in your career is something special.”
Ydrach becomes the first Riverhounds player to be named TheCup.us Player of the Round.