ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rowdies suffered their first defeat of 2026 on Saturday night, falling 1-0 to the visiting Hartford Athletic at Al Lang Stadium. The loss halted the Rowdies unbeaten start to the year at a club-record 15 matches across all competitions, coming up one result shy of matching the longest undefeated start in USL history.
“We were never listening to any of that noise,” said Rowdies Head Coach Dominic Casciato regarding the streak. “For us, it was always about trying to win this game. We never really spoke about a record in the locker room, and I don’t think we ever will… I think we still created enough chances to not just take something from the game but probably win the game. But we didn’t do that. Sometimes that’s football. Again, I think we’ve got to learn the lessons from that and use them to get better. That’s all we’re ever trying to do, is get better every day. We’ll use this to propel us to get better.”
The visitors grabbed the lead on a rebound opportunity in front of Tampa Bay’s goal in the 20th minute. Rowdies Goalkeeper Austin Pack did well to deny an initial left-footed strike from Samuel Careaga, but the rebound fell to the feet of Hartford’s Sebastian Anderson to deposit into the net. The Rowdies protested for an offside as Anderson looked to possibly be a step ahead of the last defender when Careaga let go of his shot. However, no whistle came and the Rowdies found themselves down a goal.
The Rowdies created their fair share of chances throughout the first half. Before Anderson’s goal, Marco Micaletto probed Hartford’s goal in the 13th minute with a curling strike toward the top right corner that keeper Antony Siaha managed to parry away. Siaha also denied Pedro Dolabella moments before the halftime whistle, diving to his left to swat away a header from the Brazilian at the last second.
Possession continued to remain in favor of the Rowdies in the second half as Hartford settled behind the ball to protect the one-goal lead. The Rowdies could not use that advantage in the second 45 minutes to produce many more quality chances on frame, though. The Rowdies registered 28 total shots on the night but only managed to guide five of those on target.
Along with Saturday marking Tampa Bay’s first loss of the year, the result is also the first time the club has been shutout.
“On another night, we finish a couple of those chances and walk out of here with three points,” said Rowdies Captain Nate Dossantos. “But we’ve gone 16 games now and there was bound to be a night when we couldn’t find the back of the net. The positive is we still created a ton of chances and had the opportunities there to win the game and get back in it, but it just didn’t fall for us tonight.”
Dossaantos, who helped Pittsburgh win the USL Championship Players’ Shield in 2022, emphasized the bigger picture for the club as the Rowdies are now just two matches away from the midway point of the USL Championship regular season.
“I went around the locker room and spoke to some boys to say it’s a long season,” he said. “The league is not won tonight; it’s not lost tonight. We have to go until November. It’s going to be that consistency that wins us trophies at the end of the day. We have a long way to go. We weren’t worried about this streak. We weren’t worried about keeping this run going. We were worried about winning games.”
Next up, the Rowdies travel to face USL Championship newcomer Brooklyn FC on Saturday, June 20 at 7 p.m. ET.
Scoring Summary
HFD – Anderson, 20’
Caution Summary
TBR – Myers (Yellow Card), 30’
TBR – Cruz (Yellow Card), 88’
Stats Summary: TBR / HFD
Shots: 27 / 9
Shots on Goal: 5 / 6
Saves: 5 / 5
Corner Kicks: 15 / 1
Fouls Conceded: 11 / 11
Offside: 2 / 4
Possession: 75.7 / 24.3
Lineups
TBR: Pack, Cruz, Schaefer (Cicerone, 63’), Dossantos, LeFlore (Ostrem, 59’), Perez (Schneider, 46’), Dolabella, Oliveira, Micaletto (Archer, 46’), Myers, Conway (Henderlong, 85’)
TBR Bench: Waite, Archer, Ostrem, Rodriguez, Hilton, Schneider, Henderlong, Cicerone
HFD: Siaha, Anderson, Scarlett, Fischer, Samadia, Njie (Presthus, 63’), Careaga, Moreira, Coffey (Williams, 71’), Ngalina (Hernandez, 83’), Diz Pe
HFD Bench: Carvalho, Presthus, Hernandez, Taofeek, Williams, Flynn, Anaku
