Plata poked the ball past Manuel Neuer in the 77th minute and lifted Ecuador to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Germany on Thursday and into the knockout round of the World Cup for the first time since 2006.
"Life is different now. We suffered a lot," said Plata, a 25-year-old winger who scored his ninth international goal.
"We suffered too much in the first two matches. We would have liked to secure qualification much earlier, but now we're going forward more hungry, knowing we have to give it our all."
Ecuador, who have lost only one of their past 22 games, finished third in Group E with four points and advanced past the group stage for the second time, headed to a possible match-up with Mexico on Tuesday in Mexico City.
A four-time champion already assured of advancement by winning its first two games, Germany will play their round of 32 game Monday at Foxborough, Massachusetts, most likely against Paraguay or Sweden.
"On Monday it's important that we start well," Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said through a translator.
Germany's winning streak was stopped at 11 games, one shy of the team record set in 1979-80.
"The difference was today that the opponent wanted to win more than us, and you could really feel it, especially in the second half," Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich said.
Germany went ahead on Leroy Sané's second-minute goal.
Aleksandar Pavlovic chested the ball and ended up kicking Pedro Vite in the head following Nathaniel Brown's throw-in, but American referee Tori Penso didn't whistle a foul. Pavlović passed to Florian Wirtz, who centered to Sané just inside the penalty area to beat goalkeeper Hernan Galindez.
Nilson Angulo equalised in the ninth minute with Ecuador's first goal of the tournament following a 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast and a 0-0 draw with Curaçao.
With the crowd tensing as time ran down, Plata scored after Vite's corner kick was nodded on by Kevin Rodríguez, who was six yards out at the near post. Neuer, the 40-year-old Germany goalkeeper who ended two years of international retirement for the World Cup, was about to grasp the ball when Plata raised his left foot and stabbed it into the net.
Sebastian Beccacece, an Argentine who has coached Ecuador for two years, sprinted to the front of the stands, his shoulder-length blond hair flowing, to hug his wife, Patricia Persson.
He had been pilloried after the poor start and paraphrased a lyric from Argentine rock band Los Redondos.
"In loneliness you cannot always listen to what you hear. You just keep pushing forward. You ignite your fire and you continue," he said.
A crowd of 80,663 at MetLife Stadium was mostly in Ecuador's yellow.
"We felt at home in all these stadiums," Rodríguez said.
With AP
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