LAKELAND, Fla. (June 3, 2017) — After starting the season with a win, the Rowdies U23 team has now dropped a second straight match in equally heartbreaking fashion.
Starting the game, the pressure was on for both Rowdies keeper Sean Caufield and Tropics net minder, and former Rowdies 2 player, Jonathan Valerio. On a damp night in Lakeland, chances were flying both ways although neither side could quite put anything away.
Rowdies star forward Ricky Lopez changed that when he put away his shot off a feed by Tosan Popo in the 31st minute to give the U23’s an early lead over the Tropics.
Lopez did not stop their as he used the momentum of the first goal to look immediately for an encore yet an effort from both Valerio and the Tropics backline prevented the highly touted prospect from extending the lead before halftime.
Coming out of the halftime break, Lakeland seemed to have much more energy than they had in the first half of play. This resulted in a quick equalizer in the 49th minute by Juan Tejada off a pass from Ricardo Diegues.
From there, the Tropics continued to truly force the issue for most of the second half. This, as a result, came along with a great amount of frustrated and chippy play on both sides.
Although one man, the Tropics’ Diegues, was carded in the first half, the second half saw six different cards shown in total over a span of less than thirty minutes.
This truly boiled over in the 66th minute when a hard tackle by Rowdies captain Ryan Gallagher drew a card and lead to pushing and shoving on both sides which pulled another yellow on Tropics’ midfielder Victor Rojas.
From there, the Rowdies picked up three of the remaining four cards including two yellow cards on Gonzalo Rodriguez which forced him out of the game during stoppage time and left the Rowdies down a man for the final minutes of the game.
This deficit was clearly impactful as the Rowdies were called for a foul in the box while trying to compensate for the 11 on 10 disadvantage.
Tropics leading goal scorer Ricardo Diegues ended up taking the penalty kick for Lakeland which he put away with ease thus striking a fatal blow to the Rowdies’ chances to pick up a point on the road.
As the final whistle blew, heartbreak once more settled in on the Rowdies squad as it was the second game in less than a week that was lost in stoppage time.
Although it still remains quite early in the PDL season, such losses certainly weigh heavily on the backs of the Rowdies players and should inspire them to come out strong in future games.
The Rowdies will look to get back on track Wednesday at home against The Villages SC at 7:30 p.m.
Scoring Summary
Rowdies: Ricky Lopez – 31st minute (assisted by Tosan Popo)
Tropics: Juan Tejada – 49th minute (assisted by Ricardo Diegues)
Tropics: Ricardo Diegues – 90th minute (Penalty Kick)
Caution Summary
Tropics: Ricardo Diegues – 45th minute
Tropics: Victor Rojas – 66th minute
Rowdies: Ryan Gallagher – 66th minute
Rowdies: Kevin Varela – 70th minute
Rowdies: Gonzalo Rodriguez – 80th minute
Tropics: Pedro Ivo Diaz – 90th minute
Rowdies: Gonzalo Rodriguez – 90th minute (2nd Yellow)
Starting Lineups
Rowdies (4-1-4-1) – GK Sean Caufield; D Ivan Castro, Preston Kilwien, Gabriel Pfeffer, Pico Espinal; CDM Kamar Marriott; M Tosan Popo, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Kevin Varela, Noah Franke; F Ricky Lopez
Lakeland Tropics (4-5-1) — GK Jonathan Valerio; D Caue Carvalho, Luca Wiechers, Ramzi Toure, Chase Hovious; M Victor Parreiros, Victor Rojas, Pedro Ivo Dias, Juan Tejada, Gustavo Rodrigues; F Ricardo Diegues
