Riverhounds SC

Riverhounds players mob Beto Ydrach after his late winner against New York City FC

On a night that will live as long in the memory with the fans as their win over Columbus in 2023, the Riverhounds were able to shake off their league woes to pull off a stunning 1-0 upset of MLS side New York City FC as Beto Ydrach’s last-gasp header sent them into the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 at Highmark Stadium. 

Speaking after the loss to North Carolina on Saturday, Bob Lilley admitted that tonight was going to be a tough ask, essentially saying that the team had no chance against the MLS outfit, but in the early stages, they were arguably the better side, even getting away the first shot of the game, Bertin Jacquesson firing a loose ball from a Robbie Mertz freekick right at goalkeeper Tomás Romero, a shot that would have had him well beaten if it had been a foot either side of him. 

But as the half grew older, so did the away side’s confidence as they started to control the game, and even had a decent chance of their own when Monsef Bakrar took a bouncing ball over the top and stung the gloves of Eric Dick from the edge of the box. 

Barring those two flashes, the first half passed without much in the way of incident, and that’s exactly how the lower division team in a cup tie wants it to be, the more yo u can frustrate a team like this, the greater chance you can sneak something. 

That something was very close to coming from Jorge Garcia, who curled a low shot that was heading into the bottom corner before Romero sprang to his side to push it behind for a corner, just enough to tell New York City they were in for a battle in the second half. 

And it was a battle that they wanted to control as they took command of the game in the early stages after the restart, forcing Dick into two very impressive saves, first from Andrés Perea's flicked header, then Julián Fernández's powerful shot from 12 yards out.

As the game wore on, it looked like the Hounds were settling in for penalties, especially when Dick was given a warning for time wasting with just over 25 minutes to go, and even when Lilley's second set of substitutes saw Brigham Larsen, a substitute himself, being brought off for Ydrach and Garcia replaced by Bradley Sample, it looked like we could have been in for a long night. 

Sample’s impact though was instant as he won the ball from Strahinja Tanasijević, and the New York man dragged him down when he was clean through on goal, which saw the Serbian defender given his marching orders and forcing them to play a man down for the rest of the game: 

But if the Riverhounds thought they could take the advantage, they were sorely mistaken as an Agustín Ojeda effort fired off the crossbar before Fernández inexplicably managed to miss the net from six yards out and the goal at his mercy as the visitors refused to take their disadvantage lying down. 

With the game looking destined for extra time, the Riverhounds came close to a winner as Luke Biasi’s shot was deflected wide for a corner, but with the subsequent kick, it was Ydrach who rose the highest, scoring his first goal as a professional and a goal that he, nor the 3,661 in attendance at Highmark will ever forget:

In 2023, it was the victory over Columbus Crew that turned the Hounds’ season around, as they only lost three games in the regular season after that on their way to the Players’ Shield. Dare the fans, and indeed the players dream to think that this cup upset will do the same for them in 2025? 

As the great Ted Lasso once said … ‘Believe’.