Rowdies Beat Hartford Athletic 3-2
In a do-or-die situation, the Tampa Bay Rowdies showed they still have fight and take their playoff hopes down to the last matchweek. Tampa Bay defeated Hartford Athletic 3-2, securing a vital three points that kept their season alive one more week.
The Rowdies started the game off great. Striker Manuel Arteaga, who has been in great form recently, found the net in the 7th minute. He was found in open space by a beautiful pass from Alex Mendez, and had no issue shooting the ball near post, to give the Rowdies the lead.
The Rowdies’ lead would double as Woobens Pacius would fire the ball into the net with blistering pace. After Arteaga had a perfectly timed tackle on a Hartford defender, Paul Marie would have the ball at the edge of Hartford’s penalty box. He would cross the ball, which Woobens got a hold on and fired to the side netting of the goal.
Hartford Athletic would pull one back right before halftime as Michee Ngalina would be unmarked at the back post. He would have no issue converting the chance, making the score 2-1 going into the half.
The Rowdies would reclaim their two goal lead in the 56th minute, after Alex Mendez scored a potential goal of the year nominee. The ball was perfectly placed in the top corner, with Hartford Athletic’s goalkeeper Anthony Siaha having no hope of saving that shot.
The scoring would not be over, as Hartford’s Ngalina would score his brace, rounding the ball around goalkeeper Bill Hamid, and placing his shot through the legs of Juan Carlos Azocar.
After a very long six minutes of added time, the Rowdies would finish the match 3-2.
Around The League:
7th place Rhode Island clinched their playoff spot after a scoreless draw against North Carolina FC.
8th place Detroit City drew at Patriot’s Point against Charleston Battery. MD Myers would convert from short range off a corner, giving Charleston the lead halfway through the 2nd half. Alassane Diouf would even the score for Detroit City after converting an outside the box shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
9th place Indy Eleven hosted playoff qualified Loudoun United. Bruno Rendon would take the lead in the 11th minute after chipping the Loudoun keeper from outside the box. Rendon would get his second of the night by scoring a short range goal, doubling the lead for the hosts. Loudoun would pull one back from an own goal from Cameron Lindley, but the final would be 2-1, with Indy Eleven getting three points.
With their draw, Rhode Island FC punched their ticket to playoff soccer in 7th place. That means that Detroit City FC, Indy Eleven, and Tampa Bay are all fighting for the final playoff spot, 8th place.
Detroit City is currently in 8th place, with 36 points, Indy in 9th with 35, and finally, Tampa Bay is 10th with 33 points. I will get into the hypotheticals and playoff scenarios later in the article.
The Bigger Picture:
The Good: Wow. We played well, with heart and passion, exactly what we were lacking in our game against Rhode Island FC. Hartford is not a pushover team anymore, and we could have just to rolled over and die, summing up the disaster of a season this 50th anniversary has been. I am happy to report that was not the case, and we live to fight another day.
The attack has finally been clicking with Paul Marie in the team now, and they seem to be an organized unit. Although he was not given credit for the assist, he set up Woobens Pacius’ goal.
It continues to seem like Arteaga has returned to his ways, as a had a beautiful goal. He seemed to be in his head so much this season, and would overthink shot after shot. It looks like he has put that past him, now he fires the ball into the net as hard as he can, and it has been working for him.
Woobens also kept up his goal scoring form, scoring the second goal on Saturday night. That takes his tally up to 13 goals in this regular season. He really has delivered this season. Even though he is just on loan (NEVER fall in love with a loan player) I don’t think that it’s ridiculous to say that he probably has been the best player this season.
Alex Mendez had a very impressive performance, bagging both an assist and a goal. The assist, probably close to a 40 yard pass which found Arteaga in open space, and led to a goal. And the goal will possibly be up for the goal for the year. Because of this performance, he has earned both mine and RBLR reporter Carlos Rueda’s Man of the Match award.
Danny Crisostomo played well, earning RBLR reporter James Knowles’ Man of the Match honors. Crisostomo played easily the best performance of his recently, he was solid defensively having 4 tackles, 2 clearances, and 2 interceptions. He was also solid when moving the ball, having an 81% passing accuracy.
The defense played well, and I was very intrigued to see both Robert Castellanos and Forrest Lasso starting. They both played well in my opinion, and I think we should do that again next week. It felt like we won almost every header all game.
The Bad: We conceded late, again. We really need to sort out this issue. While we were still able to collect all of the points, we have dropped points in the past because we were not able to defend in added time. It makes me nervous thinking of losing our season next week because we conceded a useless goal in garbage time. In fact, it could have already cost us our season. Imagine the situation we would be in if we hadn’t conceded to North Carolina FC and collected all three points. Same with San Antonio FC. If we hadn’t dropped those 4 points, we would currently be in 8th place.
Another thing is makes me nervous is that Blake Bodily was not dressed out on Saturday. While Joey Skinner is a solid backup, the team just seems to play better with Bodily on the field.
Final Thoughts: I was nervous we weren’t going to live up to the expectations, and the pressure was going to get to us. It also did not help that Hartford are easily the most in form team in the league at the moment, and they were playing for a home playoff game.
My silver lining to this was that we would be playing at home, in front of Ralph’s Mob and the Skyway Casuals, who both showed up in fine voice.
We scored two early goals. I always make the joke “set the tone”. We actually did. I didn’t and I certainly don’t think Hartford expected the intensity that the Rowdies came out with. Tampa Bay had the most in form team in the league chasing the game. If you told me that in the beginning of the season, I would’ve laughed at you.
Coming Up/ Match Prediction:
The Rowdies will host Detroit City FC in beautiful Al Lang Stadium at our usual 7:30pm kickoff time, as both teams fight for playoff soccer. It is now time to talk about playoff scenarios.
The Rowdies need to beat Detroit City FC by at least two goals. That will tie DCFC and Tampa Bay on points, and head to head goals. The next tiebreaker is conference points, which the Rowdies have more than Detroit. If the Rowdies score more than two goals, the Rowdies will win the second tiebreaker.
Now, this is all dependent on what happens in Orange County, California. Orange County SC hosts Indy Eleven. If Indy Eleven wins, the Rowdies’ season is over no matter the result in St. Petersburg.
Now time for my prediction. I am hilariously optimistic right now, so I am going with a 4-1 Tampa Bay win. I am ALSO going to go with a 1-0 Orange County SC win. WIll this happen? Probably not. Do I care? Absolutely not.
