ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 22, 2018) — The Tampa Bay Rowdies picked up a big win Saturday night, beating one of the favorites to win the Western Conference with a 2-0 win over Real Monarchs SLC.
Joe Cole and Georgi Hristov had the goals for Tampa Bay as it both ended the Monarchs’ nine-game regular season unbeaten run, and extended an impressive streak for the Rowdies.
Here’s Three Things about the victory…
1. Georgi ties the record.
Rowdies forward Georgi Hristov is on the doorstep of all-time Tampa Bay Rowdies history after scoring his 57th goal for the club in the second half of Saturday night’s win. The goal put him into a tie with Derek Smethurst for the most goals all-time. Smethurst played for the Rowdies from 1975 to 1978 and has held the record for the last 40 years.
You can read more about Hristov’s record-tying moment here.
Ever humble, Hristov was most excited that his goal helped the Rowdies to secure a win.
“I’m happy for the win and I’m happy that I tied the record. It was never my big goal, but when you get close, you want to beat it of course,” Hristov said. “Most importantly, I’m really happy with the way we played against a very, very good team. They had four wins in four games and we played better than them tonight.”
He will go for the record Saturday night in Charleston against the Battery.
2. Kyle Curinga’s debut
Kyle Curinga signed for his hometown club this winter, but had to patiently wait for his first chance to wear green and gold and make an impact. The Clearwater native narrowly lost a tight battle against David Najem for the role as starting right back and hadn’t dressed for any of Tampa Bay’s first five matches.
When David Najem tore his ACL in New Jersey on April 14, it opened the door for Curinga to come into the team and step onto the field for the first time.
Curinga made the most of his debut last night, helping the Rowdies keep a clean sheet against his former club. Curinga made 27 appearances for the Monarchs last season.
“You can’t write it up any better,” he said. “I felt a lot of emotions all day and I got texts left, right and center from friends, family, teammates, ex-teammates. I was thinking about that the whole time. About 40 minutes before the game, I shut my phone off, focused and just tried to do my job. We got the result and that’s the most important thing.”
Curinga had five clearances and three interceptions in his first competitive match and drew high praise from Tampa Bay Head Coach Stuart Campbell for his performance.
“I thought he was great from the offset,” Campbell said. “I know it sounds crazy, but I made a conscious decision to keep my distance from him a little bit this week because he’s a local kid, this was his first start and I knew he would be feeling a little bit more anxious than he would playing against another team because it was his old club. I just wanted to let him process the week ahead of him coming into the game on Saturday. He played really, really well, which we knew he would. He’s a good player. Him and David had a really good battle as to who would win the starting right back spot. David just shaved it, but Kyle, credit to him, day in and day out, he’s come in and worked hard.”
3. Home dominance
As of today, April 22, a full calendar year has now passed since the last time the Rowdies lost a regulation match at Al Lang Stadium. Tampa Bay lost just one regular season match in St. Petersburg last season, a 3-2 loss to the Charleston Battery on April 23, 2017.
The Rowdies have brought that impressive home form into this season, winning all three home games so far by a combined margin of 9-0.
In all, the Rowdies have a record of 12-0-4 (W-L-T) in regulation USL matches since that loss to Charleston and have outscored opponents by a mind-blowing margin of 32 goals scored to only six goals conceded.
The Rowdies now have to wait until May 19 for their next home USL match and must find a way to carry the confidence of playing at home on the road.
