Tampa Bay and Rhode Island Draw After A Late RIFC Goal In Pawtucket

Recap:

The Tampa Bay Rowdies split the points with Rhode Island FC as the teams finish the match deadlocked at 1-1. 

In a dreary night in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the Rowdies started off hot. A beautiful chance from Russell Cicerone nine minutes into the game required a kick save from RIFC keeper Koke Vegas. Jahmali Waite played the pass to Cicerone who had acres of space to drive into. A great play from Waite to spot and play the pass through. 

A couple minutes later, a Jojea Kwizera free kick found the head of Hugo Bacharach, who directed the ball on frame. The effort required a quick reaction from Waite, whose diving save steered the ball away from the goal and out for a corner kick. 

RIFC got two great looks at goal back-to-back. For the first chance, Kwizera was open in the box, which was shot at and parried away by Waite.

The ball was cleared by Nathan Dossantos to a Rhode Island player. After a succession of quick passes, a nice ball was played past Rowdies defender Brian Schaefer and to JJ Williams. Williams skied the effort, letting the Rowdies off lightly after a series of errors. 

Just under an hour into the match, Pedro Dolabella was unmarked at the back post, getting on the end of Max Schneider’s cross. The goal broke the deadlock, and gave the Green and Gold the lead in the first half. 

After a clearance from Rhode Island, Sebastian Cruz fought off a RIFC defender, and played a ball to Louis Perez. Perez passed to Cicerone, who found Schneider in a pocket of space. Schinder would deliver a gem of a cross into the six-yard box, which found Dolabella’s diving headed effort. 

A beautifully worked team goal for the Rowdies. 

Just before half-time, a giveaway from the Rowdies led to a shot from Amos Shapiro-Thompson. While the shot did not directly challenge Waite,  it was a bad giveaway in the defensive half. Furthermore, it exposes that the Rowdies still struggled to close down space on the outside of the eighteen-yard box. 

With a minute to go in the first half, Pedro Dolabella connected on a Cicerone corner. Dolabella got good contact on the ball, but failed to steer it on target. Despite the effort not hitting the back of the net, it showed how dangerous Dolabella can be in the air. 

In the 65th minute, Jahmali Waite pinged a pass to Sebastian Cruz. While the attack did not lead to anything (besides Cruz getting injured), it highlighted how versatile Jahmali’s passing is. 

As the game got later and later, RIFC started to take more chances and control the possession more. Just before the 80th minute, former Rowdie JJ Williams fired a shot at Jahmali Waite. While the shot was directly at Waite, it showed how Rhode Island was going to be taking more shots, testing the Rowdies’ defense. 

With 5 minutes left in regular time, a Nick Scardina cross found JJ Williams, whose header was perfectly placed off the far post and into the net. The goal evened the tie for the hosts with only minutes to play. 

The Rowdies wasted little time searching for the winning goal. A Dion Acoff pullback cross found Gino Vivi making his Rowdies debut. Vini took a touch, and the ball was cleared away by a perfect sliding tackle from a RIFC defender. 

In the 87th minute, a long ball from Lewis Hilton found Karsen Henderlong, who played the ball to Vivi. Testing his luck, he tried the long-ranged shot. The effort was close enough to have Koke Vegas react, however, not close enough to cause any real damage. 

Despite late attacks from both sides, neither team was able to find a winner. The score was 1-1, and the Rowdies travel back to Tampa Bay with a point. 

Keeping Up With the (B)east: 

While Tampa Bay dropped points, some other teams had it worse off, including Louisville City FC. 

Reigning Player’s Shield holders Louisville City FC hosted reigning USL Championship Winners Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. 

The reigning USL Champions stunned Louisville City, with a 2-0 win. An early headed goal from Trevor Amann gave the visitors the lead less than 10 minutes into the game.  Late into the first half, Riverhound Sam Bassett had an audacious effort bounce off the crossbar, close to a second Pittsburgh goal. Now in the second half, Sam Bassett tried the same effort again, this time yielding better results. 

While Lou City had decent chances, none of them found the net. Pittsburgh won away in Louisville with 4 shots. 

The other important game for Rowdies fans to know about was Hartford Athletic vs Detroit City FC. 

Both teams have looked dangerous this season, and are teams that the Rowdies need to keep an eye on in the table. 

Samuel Careaga broke Hartford’s 4-game goalless streak with a redirected effort finding the back of the net. In the 83rd minute, Detroit City FC found an equalizer off a corner through an Adrián Diz own goal. However, Diz scored the winner in the 89th minute, securing the win for Hartford.

Tampa Bay sits in 1st place in the Eastern Conference with 18 points. Louisville City has 16 points and is in 2nd.  Five teams share 13 points. Hartford, Charleston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Miami. Indy is in 8th place with 12 points. Birmingham has 10 points. Rhode Island has 9 points in 10th place. Loudoun United is in 11th place and has 8 points. Brooklyn FC sits second to last with 7 points. And finally, Sporting Jax continues to threaten Antigua Barracuda FC’s record as the only winless team in USL history. 

The Bigger Picture:

The Good: I am very happy to see Dolabella on the scoresheet. I think he can provide a lot of versatility in the midfield and the attack. He is not afraid to take on defenders, and his height makes it him a threat on every high cross thrown into the mixer. 

Also, Jahmali Waite needs to be talked about. His performance was really impressive, and prevented RIFC from scoring for majority of the game. It was really cruel for him to not get a clean sheet for his heroics. I have been really impressed with him since he signed with the club.

What really stood out to me about Jahmali was his distribution. He set up multiple attacks, and it showed how truly versatile he is.

That ball to Cicerone in the first minutes of the game was beautiful. Unluckily, Cicerone did not convert due to an impressive kick save from one of the best keepers in the league. If Waite keeps setting up chances like that from the keeper position, this is a great way to set up attacks in the future. 

The Bad: The defense. Brian Scheafer has been good this season. I think he has been one of the best players so far, and I think he has been everyone’s surprise standout so far.

However, he was just off against Rhode Island. It is rare he lets balls past him, but this happened commonly in the game. 

While I am just highlighting Schaefer, it was all of them. The whole defense felt a step behind, and gave Rhode Island too many chances. 

In the first half, especially, it felt like they were sleep-walking. Slow to second balls, poor giveaways, bad clearances. I understand they won’t be perfect every game, but it felt weird seeing them play that sluggish. 

Both Schaefer and Dossantos have been unplayable all season. It was almost shocking to see them look as poor as they did. I just hope this is a one-off, and they will be back to their brick-wall like selves in Miami-Dade County. 

Final Thoughts: The unbeaten streak continues, but I am definitely starting to see cracks in the team. 

Defensively, this was by far their worst game. They were bailed out by Jahmali Waite multiple times, and unfortunately, the luck ran out at the end against an inevitable JJ Williams goal against the Rowdies. 

I am happy that Pedro got his goal, and that Schneider got his first goal contribution as a Rowdie

Overall, not a great game by any means. However, the undefeated streak continues, and the team looks forward to the USL Cup. 

Coming Up/Match Prediction:

Tampa Bay puts the league on pause again as they resume their USL Cup conquest. The Rowdies head across Alligator Alley to face Miami FC.

Miami FC has had a strong start to the season, only having two losses all season. Those losses came to Phoenix Rising FC and Louisville City. 

Miami has played an extra game in the USL Cup, so they currently sit in first place. They won their first group game 1-0 away at Jacksonville. They won their second game, a midweek match against League One team FC Naples. Miami dispatched Naples easily, winning the home match 4-1. 

Jürgen Locadia has been Miami’s most in-form player at the moment, having three goal contributions in his last four games. In fact, in the USL Cup game against FC Naples, he got a goal, an assist, and a red card in less than an hour, very impressive. 

I was unsure about our first USL Cup game against Sarasota in whether Coach Dom would rotate the squad or not. I feel pretty confident he’ll keep it pretty similar to what we have been seeing. Again, we haven’t fielded the same Starting XI yet, but I mean multiple dramatic changes in the squad. 

With all of this in mind, I am going with a 2-0 win for the Rowdies. Historically, the Rowdies have played pretty well in Miami, and I think they will be able to keep the Miami attack under wraps, and walkout of South Florida with a clean sheet win.