Tampa Bay Storms Out Of Louisville With Impressive Three Points

Recap:

The Rowdies defeat Louisville City FC after late goals from MD Myers and Max Schneider. The final score was 2-0 in favor of Tampa Bay.  

The first great chance the Rowdies created came in the 11th minute. The ball was passed to Dion Acoff after Louisville defender Kyle Adams rushed Pedro Dolabella. Acoff crossed the ball which was parried away from Lou City keeper Danny Faundez. The shot fell to Sebastian Cruz, who blasted the shot high over the bar. 

While this attack did not result in a goal, this set the trend of Dion Acoff commonly finding himself in acres of space. 

A couple minutes later in the 17th minute, a Max Schneider cross found Pedro Dolabella at the back post. A similar play to how Pedro scored his goal against Rhode Island FC earlier this year. 

Instead of a header on goal, Dolabella attempted a pull-back cross to striker MD Myers. The cross was blocked, and the ball was open in the Louisville box. Wanting to salvage the situation, Dolabella collected the ball and fired at the goal. The shot was aimed well, requiring a parry from Lou City keeper Danny Faundez. The ball was later cleared for a Rowdies corner. 

Despite having chances that were easily collected by Rowdies keeper Jahmali Waite, Louisville’s best chance of the night came in the stoppage time of the first half. 

After a Louisville City corner, the ball fell to Ray Serrano. Serrano fired a shot which was slightly deflected while heading towards goal. The path did not deviate too much after the deflection, and was easily collected by Waite. 

The whistle then rang, and the teams went into the locker rooms at half-time all evened up. 

In the 60th minute, an offside MD Myers thought he had sent the Rowdies into the lead. Max Schneider passed the ball to Myers, who held up the ball, eventually passing it to Dion Acoff roaming in open space in his Rightback position. 

After taking the ball to the goalie box, he played the ball to Evan Conway, who flicked it to MD Myers. Myers buried the chance, but had wandered offsides, keeping the score even at 0-0. 

Ten minutes later, the Rowdies found themselves in a similar position. Conway played the ball to Dion Acoff, who drove into the open space he had on the right-hand side. 

This time however, instead of passing, he lowered his head and fired a shot at the goal, which narrowly missed to the right.  

The Rowdies did take the lead in the 75th minute. An Acoff cross found MD Myers who had to elegantly move around Faundez, and smashed the ball into the net. 

Both parts of this goal were really well worked. First, the ball from Louis Perez to Dion Acoff was perfectly weighted to take him into open space. Then, Acoff did a good job of drawing out defenders, and providing in a low, fast cross to MD Myers.  

Myers then had a great individual effort to shoulder a Louisville defender off the ball, keep the ball after Faundez rushed him, and finally turn and fire a shot that missed the last sliding Louisville defender. While it was a nice worked team goal, Myers had an incredible effort to secure the goal. I also thought it was a nice touch that he pointed to the traveling Rowdies fans as well in his celebration. 

In stoppage time, the Rowdies put the game to rest through a lovely Max Schneider finish. 

After Lou City won a free kick in their defensive half, which eventually fell to Sebastian Cruz after being knocked around. Cruz played the ball to substitute Micaletto, who played the one-two back to Cruz, now in a lot of space. Cruz crossed the ball to Max Schneider, who calmly slotted it past Faundez, giving the Rowdies their second of the night. It was also Schneider’s first goal in Green and Gold. 

Not done yet, the Rowdies found themselves on the attack again. A phenomenal pass from Sebastian Cruz found Evan Conway wide open on the left wing. Conway ran into space and fired across goal, nearly missing the target. 

The Rowdies left Kentucky with all three points, and their unbeaten streak continued.  

Keeping Up With the (B)east:

The first important game that Rowdies fans need to know about was Charleston Battery hosting 2nd-place Detroit City FC in South Carolina. 

The Battery took the lead in under fifteen minutes with Battery striker Colton Swan’s header from a corner kick. The delivery from Nate Messer was perfect, and Swan headed in the go-ahead goal. 

Only a couple minutes later, Charleston doubled their lead. After quick passing in the Detroit City eighteen-yard box, Langston Blackstock’s perfectly placed shot in the bottom left corner of the goal secured the second goal for the Battery. 

Detroit City thought they had gotten a goal back, with Devon Amoo-Mensah scoring off a corner after the ball bounced around in the goalie box. However, Amoo-Mensah was in an offside position, and the goal was recalled. 

Halfway through the second half, Battery winger Maalique Foster had a great look on goal. Emilio Ycaza played a lovely ball over the Detroit City backline to Foster, whose left-footed shot required a kick save from City’s goalie Carlos Herrera. 

That was the last good chance of the game, and Charleston won against the second-place Detroit City FC.  

The other important game Rowdies fans need to know about is Rhode Island FC traveling to Indianapolis to play Indy Eleven. 

The first chance of the game came from Indy striker Bruno Rendón. Rendón chested a pass from Aodhan Quinn, let it bounce once, and fired a left-footed shot cross-body. The shot barely missed the post, and the score remained even.  

In the 54th minute, Indy took the lead through Rendón. Rendón one-timed Quinn’s corner, and scored the goal against a frozen RIFC keeper Koke Vegas. 

With just over fifteen minutes to go, Jack Blake played in Josh O’Brien, who calmly slotted the ball past Koke Vegas. However, the flag had gone up, and the goal did not stand.  

With five minutes to go, RIFC attacker Logan Dorsey chested a pass to striker JJ Williams, who one-timed the volley, requiring a diving save from Eric Dick. It was a powerful shot, and Dick did a good job to stop the hard hit shot. 

Indy held onto their one-goal advantage. With this win, Indy Eleven jumped into 2nd place. 

Tampa Bay leads the table with 27 points, nine points above second-place Indy Eleven with 18 points. Detroit City FC is in third-place with 17 points. Four teams share 16 points. Those teams are Pittsburgh, Charleston, Louisville, and Miami. Hartford sits in the last playoff spot with fourteen points. Rhode Island FC is just outside the playoff line with twelve points. Tenth place Birmingham Legion FC has 10 points, Loudoun follows them with 9 points. Brooklyn FC has 8 points and is in twelfth, and finally, Sporting Jax has picked up TWO points in the league this week, and now are in thirteenth place with three points. 

The Bigger Picture:

The Good: Lynn Family Stadium is a tough place to play. The Rowdies went in and looked dominant. 

Dion Acoff in particular stood out to me. He was everywhere. He was providing in crosses, using the space he was given, and widening the pitch. 

Acoff contributed to both the offside MD Myers’ goal and the onside one. 

While he was not credited with the assist on Myers’ goal, he should have. Myers did have an extraordinary effort to secure the finish, however, it was a good pass from Acoff that put Myers in that position. 

In the goal that was ruled offside, Acoff played the pass to Conway, who flicked it to Myers. While it ultimately did not count, it shows how valuable Acoff was in this Rowdies attack against Louisville. 

While watching the game, I was surprised how much space they were giving him. He was consistently wide open, which is where he is the most dangerous. 

The Bad: Honestly, I really don’t think I can say anything I felt annoyed about when watching the match.

The match was definitely more even in the first half. The best part about Coach Casciato to me is his ability to make changes at half-time. 

When the Starting XI came out, I was really happy to see Laurence Wyke. While I was happy he wasn’t in the backline, I knew the value he could bring higher up in the pitch. Wyke has over 100 appearances for Tampa Bay, and he knows what it is like to play in high-pressure games for this club. In my opinion, he did fine. I knew he was bound to get subbed out at half-time, which is what happened. 

Conway for Wyke was the perfect sub, and tipped the scale towards the Green and Gold when it came to attacking.   

And as we know, we scored two very important second-half goals, which I don’t think was possible if Conway wasn’t on the field.  

Final Thoughts: This was the most nervous I have been for a Rowdies game for a long time. To me, this was the game to show the team’s true mentality and skill. 

While Louisville has not had the best season since the departure of Danny Cruz, they still have a lot of talent, and I knew they were the perfect test to see if the Rowdies were worth the hype. 

The team flows so well together. The midfield and the attack are clearly all on the same page when it comes to passing and exploiting space. 

The defense has only conceded five goals in eleven league games. That is truly impressive. That shows how teams have been struggling to score against this impressive Rowdies defense.  

Lou City only had two shots on goal the whole game. A very good attack was limited to two shots the whole ninety minutes. That is insanely impressive for the Tampa Bay defense. 

The Green and Gold hit the road again in USL Cup play, heading back to Hodges Stadium to play Sporting Jax. 

Coming Up/Match Prediction:

The Rowdies take a break from the league again to face Sporting Jax in the USL Cup. 

Tampa Bay is at the top of the group, with Sporting Jax in third out of five teams. 

The last time the Rowdies and Sporting Jax played each other, Evan Conway scored a stoppage-time winner through a beautiful header. 

Sporting Jax has been in decent form (for their standards), drawing their last two games. They  got a draw against San Antonio FC, who is in first place in the Western Conference. The game ended 4-4 and will probably be game of the season. 

Last weekend, they played Brooklyn FC, who is second-to-last in the Eastern Conference. The teams split the points 2-2. 

Sporting Jax attacker Rafferty Pedder has had no issue finding the net recently. He has four goal contributions in the past four games. 

Against San Antonio FC, Pedder got a goal and an assist, which made a difference in getting the point against a top team. 

Given his form, I think the Rowdies will have to watch out for Pedder, but I feel confident the Rowdies defense can handle it. 

Tampa Bay struggled to break down the Sporting Jax low block the last time these teams met. That was a Tampa Bay team still learning how to play together. This is a much different Rowdie team, and because of that, I am going with a 2-0 win for Tampa Bay.