Rowdies Fall to Hartford Athletic In First Loss of 2026
Recap:
After an unbeaten streak of 16 games, and one game away from tying Orlando City SC’s and San Antonio FC’s record of 17 unbeaten games, the Tampa Bay Rowdies lost 1-0 to Hartford Athletic after Sebastian Anderson’s first-half goal.
The Rowdies started the game off with having the best chance, with Marco Micaletto’s shot forcing a diving save from Hartford’s goalkeeper Anthony Siaha. Micaletto attempted to take advantage of the space he was given at the edge of the box, but a good save denied him. Mattheus tried to follow up on the rebound, but sent the effort far over the net.
A couple minutes later, in the 19th minute, Hartford Athletic took the lead. Sebastian Anderson fielded a parried shot from Rowdies goalkeeper Austin Pack, and one-timed the finish. Despite multiple Rowdies defenders in the area, Anderson was first to the rebound, and fired the shot on target.
The Rowdies continued attacking for the rest of the first half, with the best effort coming from a Pedro Dolabella header right on the six-yard box. Siaha had quick reactions to deflect the shot upwards, which was eventually cleared.
Halfway through the second half, MD Myers had a powerful shot on goal. After receiving the ball from Evan Conway at the edge of the eighteen-yard box, Myers held the ball up, before turning and firing on goal. Unfortunately, Siaha had expected the move, and was able to make the diving stop.
Despite some late goalkeeping heroics from Austin Pack, the Rowdies were unable to find the equalizer and suffered their first defeat of the 2026 season.
The Bigger Picture:
The Good: The best part of the game has to be seeing Leland Archer take the field for Tampa Bay. He was a marquee signing for the 2026 season, so it is nice to finally see him playing in Green and Gold.
Despite the result, the Rowdies did a good job attacking. Where they struggled was actually putting the ball into the net.
At some points however, you have to give props to the Hartford defense, and to Anthony Siaha in specific. He made multiple good saves and kept the Rowdies out of the net. Siaha recorded a total of five saves.
The Bad: The team was very clearly gassed, which was my biggest fear coming into the game. They looked tired midweek during the No Quarter Derby, so I was extremely nervous about how they would look on Saturday.
The worst part of this game was by far the finishing. The Rowdies had many opportunities to score, but were unable to secure the chances.
Finally, the low block strikes again. As soon as Hartford scored, they shifted into a defensive low block, which the Rowdies have struggled with all season. They struggled with it against Sporting Jax in April, Indy Eleven, and now against Hartford. I definitely think this is a weak point for the team, and they need to learn how to work around a low block.
I think this game was just a culmination of a bad week for the Rowdies.
Final Thoughts: The undefeated streak was never going to last forever, and I think everyone knew that. This game just felt like a brutal way to end that streak.
The team has a week’s rest until their next game in Brooklyn, so I hope they can use that time to rest and recover.
While the streak is over, they are still in the knockouts of the USL Cup and are in first-place of the Eastern Conference, so there is a lot to keep playing for.
Keeping Up With the (B)east:
There were two big results on Saturday that Rowdies fans need to know about.
First, Detroit City FC hammered Sporting JAX at Hodges Stadium.
Darren Smith scored a total of five goals for Detroit, having gotten a hat trick in the first half.
Despite Smith’s performance, Jacksonville took the lead first through Emil Jääskeläinen’s header off a corner kick.
However, Detroit found their footing in the match, and went on to score five unanswered goals, all from striker Darren Smith.
Kieran Sadlier scored one back for Jacksonville after an impressive outside of the box strike. However, after another Darren Smith goal, and a stoppage-time goal from Kobe Hernández-Foster, the game finished 6-2 in favor of Detroit, who moved back into second place in the Eastern Conference.
The other game was Louisville City vs Brooklyn FC.
Brooklyn’s Markus Anderson opened the scoring after an impressive half-volley from outside of the box.
After close chances from both teams, Louisville City found their equalizer through Chris Donovan on the volley in the eighteen-yard box.
In the second half, Brooklyn FC took the lead again through a counter-attack by Stefan Stojanovic.
Louisville kept attacking, with chances falling everywhere except into the net.
In the 88th minute, Ray Serrano pounced on a botched clearance and equalized for Lou City, salvaging a point in the process.
With Tampa Bay’s first loss of the season, they are still in first place, and they still are seven points clear of 2nd place Detroit City and 3rd place Louisville City, who are both at 28 points. Charleston is in 4th place with 20 points, and just behind them is Pittsburgh Riverhounds with 19 points. 6th place Indy Eleven have 18 points, and 7th place Hartford is at 17 points. Tied with Hartford is Miami FC, with Rhode Island FC having 15 points in 9th place. 10th place Birmingham has 11 points, 11th place Brooklyn is tied with 12th place Loudoun for 9 points. Sporting JAX is still at three points, and zero wins, having played thirteen games.
Coming Up/Match Prediction:
The Rowdies now travel to Brooklyn, New York to face new USL Championship club Brooklyn FC.
Brooklyn has spent most of their season second to last in the Eastern Conference table, but with their draw against Louisville City, they are now in eleventh-place, not twelfth.
The Coney Island club’s best player has been Markus Anderson, who is on loan from MLS side Philadelphia Union.
Anderson has 10 goal contributions in twelve matches played for Brooklyn, with eight of those five goals coming in the USL Championship league play.
He scored in his most recent match against Lou City, opening the scoring in the first five minutes.
Brooklyn’s defense has been their weak point this year. They are tied second last for goals conceded in the Eastern Conference play with 22 goals conceded.
I believe that the Rowdies will be able to control the game, and create chances against a weaker Brooklyn defense.
I am going for a 3-0 Rowdies win.
