Henderlong’s Brace Secures 2-0 Win Against Sarasota in USL Cup Opener

Recap:

A Karsen Henderlong brace takes down Sarasota Paradise with a 2-0 win in front of a rowdy Al Lang Stadium to open up their 2026 USL Cup campaign with a win. 

Karsen Henderlong, signed from FC Naples after having a breakout season with the USL League One club last year got the start. With MD Myers on the bench, Henderlong surely wanted to show off his abilities, which he did quite well.  

Sarasota set up in a defensive formation, requiring the Rowdies to have precision passing and long-range shots in order to create chances. 

Sarasota Paradise had an early chance, with striker Garrett McLaughlin getting a decent opening for a left-footed shot. He caught the ball horribly, and the ball went high and wide, not coming close to the Tampa Bay goal.  

The Rowdies found the breakthrough in the 30th minute via a Henderlong rebounded shot. Rowdies midfielder Lewis Hilton found himself in open space, and fired a shot on goal, requiring a parry save from Sarasota Paradise keeper Alex Sutton. 

Unfortunately for Sutton, Henderlong was ready for the rebound, and smashed the ball into the net, breaking the deadlock and scoring his first Rowdies goal. 

A couple minutes later, the Rowdies found themselves on the break again. A sublime through ball from Hilton found Henderlong midstride, whose right-footed curling shot was parried by the Paradise goalie. Evan Conway was ready for the rebound, unfortunately, Sutton blocked Conway’s effort, and the ball went out of play. 

This was one of many close chances that the Rowdies failed to take advantage of.

Right before halftime, Sarasota had their best look of the night. Rowdies keeper Jahmali Waite attempted to cutoff a Paradise pass in the box, which deflected off him, hitting the right post. 

Sarasota’s Rightback Roberto Burlew then tried a point-blank overhead kick, which bounced off a Rowdies defender, and was eventually collected by Waite.

The Rowdies second goal had a beautiful build-up, starting with Alex Rodriguez keeping the ball and finding Hilton after being swarmed by the Sarasota press. 

Hilton fielded the ball and found Mattheus Oliveira, who drove the ball into space at the midfield line. Oliveira found Evan Conway, who spotted Leftback Charlie Ostrem wide open on the touchline. 

Ostrem, not rushed by the ensuing Paradise press, picked a perfect ball back to Mattheus. Mattehus one-timed the cross to Henderlong at the near post who calmly finished the chance, and doubled the advantage to the Green and Gold. 

Henderlong earned his brace, giving the Rowdies a two-goal cushion with just over half an hour to go. 

Two minutes later, a Louis Perez corner kick was punched away by the Paradise keeper. The ball fell to Hilton at the edge of the 18-yard box, a range he is lethal from. 

After evading a Paradise defender, Hilton fired, a perfectly aimed shot to the top left corner of the goal. An impressive save from Alex Sutton denied Hilton from a wonder goal, and kept Sarasota in the game.

The Rowdies found themselves on the break with 15 minutes to go. Substitute Russell Cicerone’s through ball to the box found Max Schneider, whose pull-back cross found MD Myers, who subbed in for the goalscorer Henderlong. 

MD Myers took a touch, and fired his shot right at the Sarasota shotstopper. A great buildup play from Schneider and Cicerone, and a nice effort from Myers. 

I just think if he places that shot anywhere else, he would have been wheeling away in celebration. He also had another option of passing again to Marco Micaletto, who was unmarked backpost. The Sarasota defender marking Micaletto left him to attempt a sliding block on Myers’ shot, leaving Marco wide open.

A few minutes later, the Rowdies were on the attack again, with Cicerone on the ball. He had a pullback cross to Myers, who played a nice pass to Hilton at the edge of the box. Hilton one-timed the finish, which was right at Sutton. Sutton parried the ball over the bar, and the score remained 2-0 to the Rowdies. 

With three minutes left in regulation time, Sarasota was trying to play out of the back. A poor pass from Swedish international Amadeus Sögaard was intercepted by Perez, who immediately played a pass to Myers roaming in open space. 

Myers played a pass to Cicerone who was running full speed ready for the pass. Cicerone’s shot was close enough to the middle of the net for Sutton to get his arm on it, redirecting it off the crossbar. 

The ball bounced directly down on the line, where Sutton then beat Cicerone to the second effort. Sutton’s punch got there just before Cicerone’s header, ending the chance. 

That was the last good chance of the night, and the Rowdies started their 2026 USL Cup with a 2-0 win. 

USL Cup Group Update:

The Rowdies are in USL Cup Group 7. The group has 5 teams, the group the least amount of clubs in the competition. The group was supposed to have six teams, but with South Georgia Tormenta FC not fielding a team, the group only has five. 

The group is made up of Tampa Bay, Miami FC, Sporting Jax, Sarasota Paradise, and FC Naples. Both teams play two games at home, and two games away. 

With 5 teams in the group, only two games can happen at a time. While Tampa Bay was playing Sarasota, Sporting Jax played against Miami FC, and FC Naples did not play. 

Miami FC went to Hodges Stadium to face Sporting Jax. Miami FC got off to a hot start, scoring within the first ten minutes. A beautiful pass found Miami striker Jürgen Locadia who selflessly set up Arney Rocha for the easy finish. That would be the only goal scored in the game, as Miami FC won 1-0. 

Sporting Jax kept up their league form into the USL Cup, as they dropped more points. After Matchweek 1 of the USL Cup, Tampa Bay sits in first place with 3 points and a goal difference of 2. Miami FC sits in 2nd with a goal difference of 1. FC Naples sits in 3rd with 0 points and 0 GD, Sporting Jax sits in 4th with a -1 GD, and Sarasota is in last place with -2 as their GD.

The Bigger Picture:

The Good: Coming into the game, I didn’t know if Coach Casciato would rotate the squad or not. I was really happy to see the squad he put out. 

I was especially happy to see Henderlong and Rodriguez starting. Since MD Myers has started, it has become rare to see Karsen get decent minutes, so I was excited to see what he could do given more time to make something happen.

Rodriguez is a bit of a different story, he hasn’t gotten any time to shine so far this season. He played a lot during preseason, and I was really impressed with him in what was shown. He played both Leftback and Rightback well, and I felt like he should be getting more playing time. 

I thought both players played well, with Henderlong scoring the game’s only goals, and Rodriguez having a decent game I thought. Rodriguez recorded three defensive contributions, three interceptions, four recoveries, and five passes into Sarasota’s final third. I hope we get to see both more as the season progresses. 

The Bad: We need to be converting chances as they come to us. There were three chances in the game where the Rowdies should have added to their lead. The Conway chance in the first half, the MD Myers chance, and the Cicerone chance. The Conway chance is the most forgivable, as the Paradise keeper was right in front of the ball when he shot it, but the other two are hard to justify. 

The MD Myers’ one is frustrating, because I feel if we passed the ball onto Marco Micaletto, it was a goal. He was unmarked, and had loads of space in front of him. I have made an image showing the passing lane Myers had, and how much space Micaletto had. 

Finally, the Cicerone one is really hard to defend. Myers played a perfect pass to him, and he hit it right at the keeper. It is really unfortunate to see a chance like that go to waste, and you’d expect a player of Russell’s caliber to finish a chance like that. 

Final Thoughts: In the Cochol Cup preseason match, Sarasota played very defensively. They started off this match aggressively by taking shots on goal, which really surprised me.

Luckily, the Rowdies settled into the match and took control. The Rowdies created chances well, and did a good job of testing the Paradise keeper and dictating the tempo. 

In the game against Charleston, I thought it was highlighted how Hilton needed to be played whenever healthy. This game proved me right in my opinion. He set up Henderlong’s first goal and was pivotal in keeping possession against Sarasota. 

Otherwise, I was overall happy to see how the team took the game seriously and showed the will to win. It was a very important game to the fans, and I felt like the players did a good job showing up for their supporters. 

Coming Up/ Match Prediction:

The Rowdies are back home under the Al Lang Stadium lights as they host Indy Eleven in Regular Season USL Championship play. The Rowdies look to continue their unbeaten conquest of the league. 

Meanwhile, Indy Eleven have struggled a little bit in the start of the season. They are coming off a loss in the USL Cup to USL League One team Union Omaha (second time they have lost to Union Omaha this season). In league play two weeks ago, they tied with Birmingham Legion FC after conceding a last-second goal. 

Despite their slow start, Indy Eleven still has players that the Rowdies need to be aware of. 

The first is 2025 USL Championship Final MVP Goalkeeper Eric Dick. Dick got the move to Indianapolis after his penalty heroics in the penalty shootout in the 2025 USL Championship final against FC Tulsa. He is a top-tier goalkeeper in the league, and the Rowdies attackers will have to be in top form to score against him. 

The other player the Rowdies need to be aware of Cuban international Bruno Rendón. Rendón has 5 goal contributions in 8 games this season. 

If the Rowdies can quell the Indy attack, they can have a comfortable win. I am predicting a 2-0 Tampa Bay victory, and the unbeaten streak continues.