The Tampa Bay Rowdies made their first road trip of 2022 over the weekend, trekking across Interstate-4 to face off against Major League Soccer’s Orlando City SC. Despite a fantastic opening goal from Rowdies newcomer Jake LaCava, the Rowdies ultimately fell 3-1 to Orlando.
“There’s always a little part of you that’s frustrated with the result, especially with a first-half performance where you don’t deserve to be down at halftime,” said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins. “We maybe deserved to be in front at halftime. I think there were aspects of the performance that were very good and I think there were aspects of the performance that are going to need to vastly improve. As someone just reminded me, we’re at least two, maybe three weeks behind (Orlando) from a fitness standpoint and we’ve just had a very tough week on the training field.”
Collins allowed the starting XI to play 60 minutes in Orlando for the club’s second preseason game so far, with the exception of midfielder Junior Etou, who exited to make way for Yann Ekra at halftime. Etou only joined Rowdies preseason camp and began training with his new teammates this past week after receiving his visa to enter the country.
The Rowdies largely controlled the tempo in the opening half hour against Orlando. During this period, LaCava was able to bag his second tally of the preseason in the 20th minute. Defender Jordan Scarlett initiated the sequence with a clever ball down the right for Sebastian Dalgaard, who then fed the ball to Sebastian Guenzatti. The Rowdies captain deftly controlled the ball and played a pass for LaCava, who took a touch before blasting a strike from 20 yards out into the back of the net.
“I thought it was a great team goal. Jordan Scarlett brought the ball out, Sebastian Dalgaard had a nice pass, Sebastian Gunezatti’s touch to open up space was great, and then a great moment for Jake to score another goal. I think we had three or four really good opportunities. In the second half, (Guenzatti) has one that I don’t know how it stays out. It was fantastic play; Lewis spreading the play, Leo coming inside to link up with Jake. We definitely could have had more than one goal. There’s certainly a lot in the middle we can build from.”
The hosts managed to equalize in the 34th minute when the Rowdies failed to properly deal with a corner toward the near post. They then took the lead from the penalty spot minutes before the break after Scarlett was judged to have taken an Orlando attacker down in the box. The Rowdies came out of the break to create a couple promising chances but were undone at the back in the 55th minute as Orlando stayed persistent to keep an attack alive in the box.
The Rowdies closed out the game with two teenagers from Tampa Bay United on the back line; Tate Johnson and Lukas Kamrath. This is the second appearance of the Rowdies preseason for both players. Defensive stalwart Aaron Guillen, as well as midfielder Laurence Wyke, have been held out from Tampa Bay’s first two preseason games as a precautionary measure after the duo suffered minor injuries in Tampa Bay’s intrasquad scrimmage game. However, both Guillen and Wyke returned to training with their teammates on Monday.
Collins will be glad to see Guillen and Wyke make their return. With the season set to start on March 13, the Rowdies’ preseason schedule is starting to intensify. This week the Green and Gold will battle the University of South Florida at Corbett Soccer Stadium on Wednesday night before a trip up to Jacksonville to play the University of North Florida.
“This past week was a big one on the training field in terms of fitness,” said Collins. “This week will be big for fitness with all the games, but we’ll also need to start working on certain details and how we need to improve. We have two good games to look forward to. As I said, lots to be excited about but lots we’ll need to spend time with on the training field as well.”
Starting XI: Arozarena; Scarlett (Tate Johnson**, 60’), Antley (Mehl, 60’)), Brandon Terwege* (Luka Kamrath**, 83’); Dalgaard (Harris, 30’), Hilton, Etou (Ekra, 45’), Fernandes (Areman, 60’); Greig (Dos Santos, 60’), Guenzatti (Mkosana (60’), LaCava (Tejada, 60’)
Scoring Summary
20th minute – LaCava (Guenzatti)
34th minute – Orlando
43rd minute – Orlando
55th minute – Orlando
*Trialist
**Tampa Bay United Academy Player
