By Adam Bossers
There are names written throughout Pittsburgh folklore — Clemente, McCutchen, Bradshaw, Lemieux, Crosby — heroes who have added their stories to an already storied city, transcending sports to help shape the identity of the city in which they played, Pittsburgh.
However, what all of those Pittsburgh sports icons have in common is that, to write their stories, they had to cross our bridges and arrive from somewhere else.
But every city needs its hometown heroes, players who didn’t just play for Pittsburgh, but who were forged and refined here. In midfielder Robbie Mertz, now 28 and the second-most-tenured Riverhounds player, the team has a player who has fit that bill for some time.
Mertz, the second of four siblings, grew up in Upper St. Clair and found his love for soccer very early on in life. His father, Rob Mertz Sr., was a soccer player in Pittsburgh in the 70s and 80s, a time he described as a “very different time for the game of soccer.” Despite not having the resources of today, his father’s love of the game still shone through.
“His passion for the game rubbed off on me,” Robbie said. “I’ve loved soccer for as long as I can remember.”
Once Mertz saw his father’s passion for the game, he was all-in. Around the age of 6, he had started watching Premier League games, citing Arsenal’s “Invincibles” and striker Thierry Henry as early influences.
“(Henry) was my soccer idol growing up in those formative years,” he said. “Early on, there were things that I tried to implement that were inspired by him.”
The second child in his family after his sister, Leah, Robbie was the first to follow in his father’s footsteps. As his love and passion for soccer grew at a young age, it rubbed off on his two younger siblings, Ryan and Landy, who both later played at high levels.
Mertz’s family is one of his strongest support systems, and they were always there to back him up in the good times and the bad. His father wanted to make sure they were able to harbor Mertz’s love for the game by making it fun, but they also realized that he wanted to be challenged.
“He was the type of kid that liked to achieve from an early age,” Mertz Sr. said. “From a parental perspective, you try to put your kids in situations where they’ll be not just challenged, but they’ll enjoy it, and he enjoyed it. We tried to do our best by putting him in situations where he could spread his wings.”
With care and support from his family, Mertz was able to do exactly that, not only by pushing himself with friends and teammates, but also with his siblings, his father and his mother, Kelly. Robbie said his mother is where he got his athletic ability, while his father says Robbie also got his temperament from the maternal side.
“That competitiveness, and the desire to dig in and work hard (came from her),” Mertz Sr. said. “She’s always so supportive of everything the kids do, and despite working full-time, she was there every night, every weekend, showing up.”
With his family as his anchor, Mertz was able to fully focus on growing his game. His father said he was always “very motivated and willing” to put the time into his game.
“For him, it was a love of what soccer meant for him, which early on was developing his skill,” his father said. “He loved to work with the ball at a very early age, which, I think, is really what allowed him to grow and develop throughout the years.”
Mertz remembers this early grind the same way, believing that due to his smaller stature — the seventh-year pro stands 5-foot-7 — he had to rely on two major points of his game.
“One is a high work rate on both sides of the ball. I recognize that I have to be tuned in all the time to the defensive side of things and bring that grit on that side,” he said. “Two is just being comfortable with the ball at my feet, developing a good first touch and being able to put the ball where I want. It’s something that I spent a ton of hours working on.”
It’s that level of grit and determination to constantly work hard that not only represents how Mertz honed his game, but also how the Pittsburgh work ethic flows through him.
As Mertz continued to hone his game on the field, whether it was playing club for Century United, training in the Riverhounds Academy, and later playing at Upper St. Clair High School, it was clear he was becoming an all-around player. He also was a step closer to reaching his dream of becoming a pro.
“I can remember being quite young talking about pro soccer as something that I wanted to do when I was older,” he said. “I just always tried to keep my head down and put myself in the best position possible.”
Mertz stuck to that and earned an offer to play collegiately for the University of Michigan in 2015. However, coming out of high school, Mertz didn’t draw a ton of recruiting interest, and he believes he was fortunate in the way things worked out.
His father recalled: “We went to a tournament in Las Vegas, of all places. Oddly enough, the Michigan coaches showed up to watch a goalie on the other team, and they saw Robbie. Then they came to another game, and they reached out and made him an offer to come play there. Once he went up to visit, it was a done deal.”
Moving away from home can be tough for most, but Mertz made the most of it and became one of the brightest spots in a strong Michigan team. He racked up goals, assists and individual awards, becoming a co-captain in his junior and senior years.
However, to Mertz, the most important aspect was the team’s success and winning the team’s first-ever Big Ten Championship in 2017.
“There was a lot of unknown going into that season, so when we won, everything kind of flipped on its head,” Mertz said. “The fact that the team had success, being a big piece on that team, gave me the confidence to believe that if I had a strong senior year, then I could push on. That was the first moment where being a pro became a possibility for me.”
That successful senior year came, and Mertz was selected by the Colorado Rapids in the fourth round of the MLS SuperDraft in 2019. He went unsigned after preseason, and after trialing with other teams, his hometown club, the Riverhounds, came calling. After proving himself over a successful trial period, Mertz received his first professional contract from coach Bob Lilley, joining the Hounds in 2019.
While he realized he had more room to grow, Mertz transitioned into professional life smoothly with the help of some veteran leadership.
“To have somebody to look up to like Kenardo (Forbes), being humble and approachable was so helpful,” he said. “I think it would have been a much more difficult transition if there wasn’t somebody like him to play alongside in that first year.”
At the time of Robbie’s arrival, Forbes was in his second year with the team but was already a two-time All-USL selection. He was transforming into a star player and leader for a young core of players, which included Robbie.
“Ever since his first day, fresh from college, I was like: This kid is feisty, he’s determined. Ever since then, I knew that he was Bob’s type of player,” he said. “Since he’s a midfielder too, I tried to sit him down and show him what he needs to do in certain situations, or what Bob wants to see.”
As Mertz continued growing relationships with teammates in the locker room, he soon realized it was “a very special thing” being able to play and perform in Pittsburgh, the city he called home.
“I don’t even think I appreciated it until it actually happened,” he said. “It had been a while since I had played at home, being that I was away at school, so I don’t think I realized the impact it would have on me.”
Forbes concurred that it was a special season for Robbie thanks to his feisty and determined nature.
“In practice, he’s getting onto the end of crosses, he’s always finding space in the box,” Forbes said. “So I told him, ‘Hey, that’s your niche right there. If you can keep doing that, you will get on the field, because I’m not that guy’. His all-around game is really good, but what put him over the top that season is that he found space in the box.”
Mertz popped up everywhere on the field in his rookie season, scoring six goals and adding four assists to help the Riverhounds finish atop the USL Championship Eastern Conference for the first time. That brought home field in the playoffs, and Mertz found the net in the team’s historic 7-0 win over Birmingham Legion FC in the Conference Quarterfinals.
After another successful year in 2020, creating and being a focal point of the attack, Mertz elected to move on in 2021, giving himself a new challenge joining Atlanta United 2 as a free agent. Before he left, however, he received input from Forbes.
“My advice to him at that point was: You’re from Pittsburgh. You’re in a good system. You know Bob well, so if it’s about comfort for you, then stay in Pittsburgh,” Forbes said. “But if you want to go challenge yourself, go see what you can do in an MLS environment.”
In his time with Atlanta, Mertz had some early struggles in his first season but soon hit his stride. Across 42 games with Atlanta, he had four goals and 11 assists, with three goals and seven assists coming in the first 14 games of 2022.
“From a playmaking standpoint, I didn’t necessarily have the strongest season in 2021 with Atlanta. but after that, I felt like I was playing my best soccer in my second season there,” Mertz said.
Perhaps the most important part of his time in Atlanta, like his time at Michigan, was that Mertz emerged as a leader, captaining the Atlanta side.
“Their coach, Jack Collison, saw that Robbie was gonna be the leader on that team and handed him the keys to the car,” Mertz Sr. said. “Robbie grew as a leader down there, being that it’s an academy-type program. It seemed like they really valued having Robbie there to lead that group of young men.”
But things ran their course in Atlanta for Mertz, who wanted to advance his career. He looked again for a new home and concluded that Pittsburgh was where he needed to be.
“For me, it felt like there was unfinished business in Pittsburgh,” he said. “We had been close in those first few seasons that I was here, in terms of trying to push on. I felt like if I was to help a team win a championship in the USL, there was only one place I wanted to do it, and that was here.”
Now in his second stint with the Riverhounds, Mertz has grasped his role as a leader, something Forbes believes Mertz always was.
“He had that leadership in him since the first day. He always was a leader to me, he’s more vocal than me and he’s very smart,” said Forbes, who wore the captain’s armband for four years before turning it over to Danny Griffin. “Coming back here, I said to him, ‘It’s yours and Danny’s team now. It’s up to you guys where the direction of the team goes.”
“Honestly, with as much humility as I can, he always was a leader,” Mertz Sr. said. “His club teams he was a captain, in his junior and senior years at Upper St. Clair, he was captain, and he was a captain in his junior and senior years at Michigan.”
Mertz understands that his role as a leader is important in helping to develop the young players with the Riverhounds, being from the city and a part of the team for many years.
“I think it’s about trying to help them understand our team environment but also help them develop their own games, trying to put them in a position to be successful, and how to approach their business day-to-day,” Mertz said.
Mertz isn’t slowing down with his own contributions on the field. In a win over Detroit City FC last month, he became the third player in Riverhounds history with 20 goals and 20 assists, joining club legends David Flavius and Kevin Kerr.
“It’s a good list to be a part of,” Mertz said. “I don’t think it’s one I ever thought I would be joining, honestly. It’s a special thing for sure.”
That game was more than just another milestone in a storied career for his hometown team, however. It was Mertz’s first game as a father, after the birth of his son, Callahan, just two days earlier.
“I’ll never forget those couple of days as long as I live,” Mertz said. “I was feeling a lot of overflowing joy from the birth of my son, which I think just kind of carried into the game and the way I felt on the field that night. I was able to play very freely and let the emotion and passion drive me.”
His father — now a new grandfather — is grateful for what this year has brought as well for Robbie, both on and off the pitch.
“This year’s been special for him, there’s just no two ways about it,” Mertz Sr. said. “He and his wife had their first child, he’s been able to stay healthy, and more than anything, he wants to contribute to the team’s success, and I think he’s been able to do that.”
He was named the USL Championship Player of the Week for the first time after that Detroit match, and he has added goals in each of his past two games to bring his total for the Hounds to 22, the most by any Pittsburgh native for the club.
One of those was the only goal in the Fourth of July win over New Mexico United, and celebrating the holiday under the fireworks, at home and with family close by, made a perfect time to reflect.
“I’ve grown so much as a player and continue to believe that I’m improving, maybe in smaller ways these days,” Mertz said. “Personally, it’s been six years of growth. I’ve gotten married and started a family, too. I’ve grown a lot, learned a lot and put up with a lot of adversity, as sports typically expose you to, but it’s been a special time in my life.”
What hasn’t changed about Mertz is his determination, grit, and his constant desire to be challenged.
“I don’t think he’ll ever lose that,” Forbes said. “This environment will always challenge him.”
As for what’s next for the team’s hometown hero, it’s all about team success and bringing a championship to the city he has represented and called home for so long.
“I would like to continue being a good option for the team and producing as much as I can,” Mertz said. “This is a very team-centered environment. It’s not about the stats, what I would say is this missing piece, from my perspective, is the postseason success. That’s what I hope to achieve.”
