Rowdies Bounced from U.S. Open Cup by 4-0 Loss to Columbus Crew
June 15, 2016 - North American Soccer League (NASL)
Tampa Bay Rowdies News Release
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Tampa Bay Rowdies)
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Tampa Bay Rowdies crashed out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in lopsided fashion Wednesday night, falling to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Columbus Crew SC.
Things were going fairly well before the Rowdies in the first half but progress was halted by a weather delay of just under two hours midway through the opening 45 minutes. When the match resumed, it was all Crew.
"I'm not happy with the result at all and it's a tough one for us to swallow," Rowdies Head Coach Stuart Campbell said. "We never really got started when the restart came and the Crew scored with their first shot of the match. ... We looked at the opposition and we know Columbus has some really good attacking players. They're a real threat going forward and they showed that tonight. We knew they would be clinical, but, unfortunately for us, they were very clinical tonight."
Goals scored by Justin Meram, Cristian Martinez, Ethan Finlay and Marshall Hollingsworth saw the Crew advance to the Fifth Round of the Open Cup.
The match was scoreless in the 26th minute when lightning in the vicinity of Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium and play was halted. To that point, the Rowdies were more than holding their own against MLS opposition.
Tampa Bay could've scored a goal or two with a more lethal nature in front of goal in the opening portion of the match, but didn't show enough to score.
The weather delay lasted one hour and 55 minutes and when it finally ended, Columbus took immediate control of the match.
Meram opened the scoring in the 41st minute when Frankie Sanfilippo tried to clear the ball, but got only a slight touch on it and it remained in the path of Meram. He finished it well to give the Crew a 1-0 halftime lead.
"We knew that we had created a few chances in the first half," Campbell said. "I wanted the guys to do more of the same and stay patient in possession, but as I've said, Columbus was very clinical against us. ... We can learn a lot from this and strive to get to their level."
Columbus dominated in the second half with goals in the 48th, 52nd and 68th minutes from Martinez, Finlay (penalty) and Hollingsworth, respectively to pull away and ease into the next round.
Tampa Bay fielded a strong lineup in the match but with the notable absence of club captain Tamika Mkandawire. The Rowdies hadn't played without Mkandawire since October 25, 2014. Mkandawire had played every competitive minute since then, a streak of 3,870 minutes, but he was ruled out of Wednesday's match due to illness.
The Rowdies tried to find a way back into the match and came to life in the last 10 minutes, but the deficit was too much to overcome.
"We had a lot of shots and a lot of chances, but we didn't work their goalkeeper enough," Campbell said. "Matt (Pickens) had no chance on any of their goals, but it wasn't like he was overworked. Columbus's first four chances all resulted in goals. That's the difference between the levels, when they had a chance, they scored, but we didn't manage to finish any of ours off."
Tampa Bay has now officially reached the midseason break and does not play again until the Fall Season opener against the Jacksonville Armada FC at home on July 2.
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