Coming out to a sparse but lively crowd along the Downtown Pittsburgh cityscape Wednesday night, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds entered their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 game against New York City FC of MLS riding a four-game losing streak, all of which have come in USL Eastern Conference play.

The lack of scoring punch, coupled with questionable starting lineups from club manager Bob Lilley, had the Hounds grasping for answers. Their most recent defeat, a home loss last Saturday to North Carolina FC had been dull and lacked punch.

After 90 minutes of spotty attack play and few set pieces, the 11 from the Steel City found a way to get ahead of an opponent.

In the final seconds of extra time, Riverhounds defender Beto Ydrach re-directed a corner from teammate Robbie Mertz off his head, finding the back of the net and a 1-0 lead.

Seconds later, in front of 3,661 fans, the Riverhounds secured a win against an MLS squad and a Round of 16 date in two weeks’ time.

Ydrach came into the contest in the 79th minute, replacing Hounds forward Brigham Larsen. Moments later, New York City defender Strahinja Tanasijevic found himself chasing a ball with Riverhounds forward Bradley Sample.

The visiting defender took down Sample, and the referee doled out a red card for the hard tackle, giving the home team an advantage for the remainder of play.

That advantage came on the game’s final set play, one that Lilley described in detail after the game.

“We haven’t been as good on set pieces as of late. Robbie did a great job,” Lilley said. “Their keeper did a good job with crosses all night. We had two active runners on the backside.

“Beto found a little bit a space. It was well directed. The minute he hit it, you could see it was going in.”

Forward Augie Williams did not play, and Lilley discussed using players who are not 100% healthy.

“For sure we are putting guys out that are injured, we are shuffling players around,” Lilley said.

“But when you have that good of a first half, we must build off that. We put ourselves in a good position to win in the second half and let a lot of games get away from us.

“The second half, they played through us, they played over us. We were competing, we had some chances as well. But they could have scored four or five goals in the second half.”

NYCFC coach Pascal Jansen said his club didn’t do enough offensively to win.

“We didn’t bring it enough in the first half,” Jansen said. “We only had one shot on goal. That’s not good enough.”

It was the second straight Open Cup win against an MLS opponent at Highmark Stadium for the Hounds. The one prior was versus Columbus in 2023.

The Hounds will face another MLS side, Philadelphia Union, in the next round of Cup play on the road May 20 or 21. USL action resumes Saturday with a trip to Louisville FC.

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