ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (June 3, 2018) — The Tampa Bay Rowdies were stifled to a scoreless draw on Saturday night against Atlanta United 2 in a rare home performance that didn’t produce a goal.
Here’s Three Things we learned from the match…
1. Opting for Plan B
With both teams reduced to 10 men after having a player sent off late in the first half and plenty of open space on the field, the second half took an interesting turn.
Atlanta had 66 percent of possession in the second half and completed 304 passes, two more than the Rowdies completed in the full 90 minutes.
After about an hour of methodically trying to break down Atlanta’s defensive ranks, Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins turned to his bench and inserted the fastest players available to give the Rowdies’ attack a new look.
Alex Morrell replaced Jochen Graf in the 66th minute and then Leo Fernandes entered the match in place of Michael Nanchoff in the 74th minute. Morrell and Fernandes combined with Junior Flemmings for a three-man front line with blistering pace.
Tampa Bay started to sit deeper and lure Atlanta forward before winning the ball and springing an immediate counter attack with its speed. That approach created a good handful of opportunities.
“The three players we had up top are pretty quick,” Collins said. “Alex Morrell played in the last home game and deserved his opportunity tonight. He took it. Leo Fernandes has been good at home for us and did really, really well. He probably could have or should have scored, but the biggest thing for me is that he changed the game. That’s what your substitutes are for.”
2. Depth will be tested
The Tampa Bay Rowdies, already in the midst of a defensive depth crisis, lost another few players in Saturday night’s match, creating a few more headaches for Collins ahead of next weekend’s match against Nashville SC.
Tampa Bay will be without right back David Najem (torn ACL) and Zac Portillos (knee sprain) due to injury, as well as Marcel Schäfer (red card) and Joe Cole (yellow card accumulation) while they serve suspensions. Add in that holding midfielder Lance Rozeboom left last night’s match injured after only 20 minutes and the situation is pretty challenging.
“I’m a little scared to bring anyone in because I’m sure they’ll get injured the minute we show interest,” Collins joked after Saturday’s match. “It’s just been a baptism of fire since coming into the head coaching job. I’ve had injuries and now I have suspensions. It’s part and parcel with the job, but it doesn’t go like that every week. It’s a great learning curve for me and I think we’ve coped with it admirably.”
The Rowdies could get a big boost if Kyle Curinga is fit to play after resuming training this past week. Curinga has been out since spraining his ankle in Richmond on May 12.
3. Keeping it clean
While the Rowdies failed to score a goal at home for the first time since August 20, 2016, Tampa Bay will be proud of having kept a clean sheet for the first time in five games. The Rowdies had conceded two goals in each of their previous games since Neill Collins took over as head coach.
Akira Fitzgerald made three saves in the match to keep his first clean sheet of the season.
By keeping a clean sheet, the Rowdies extended their home unbeaten run in regular season games to 17 matches dating back to last season.
