NASL Tampa Bay Rowdies

Rowdies Erase Two-Goal Deficit to Defeat Notts County 3-2 in Preseason Friendly

Published on March 11, 2016 under North American Soccer League (NASL)
Tampa Bay Rowdies News Release


Tampa Bay Rowdies Huddle
Tampa Bay Rowdies Huddle
(Tampa Bay Rowdies)

NOTTINGHAM, England - The Tampa Bay Rowdies staged a dramatic comeback Friday in England to top a Notts County XI 3-2 in the second match of the preseason tour.

Tampa Bay had fallen behind 2-0 by the half-hour mark, but goals from Danny Mwanga, Darwin Espinal and Junior Burgos ensured the Rowdies would have plenty of positives to take from the match.

"We got 100 percent of what we wanted from the match today," Rowdies Head Coach Stuart Campbell said. "I wanted to push the guys and they pushed back and gave it their all. We didn't start the match particularly well, but we kept playing and ended up getting a really positive result out of it."

Playing just two days after the first match of their preseason tour, the Rowdies fielded an entirely different lineup in the familiar 4-2-3-1 formation deployed by Campbell.

Matt Pickens started in goal behind a back four of Jeremy Hall, Tamika Mkandawire, Frankie Sanfilippo and Ben Sweat from right to left. Juan Guerra partnered with Verneri Valimaa as the defensive midfielders behind Freddy Adu, Georgi Hristov and Walter Ramirez from left to right. Danny Mwanga served as the lone forward.

An abbreviated warmup led to a lackluster start for the Rowdies, who had some initial pep in their step, but soon fell into a bit of a lull of slow possession without creating much danger.

A pair of quickfire goals scored by Notts County in the 27th and 29th minutes saw the Rowdies fall behind 2-0 at the halfway mark.

The goals against served only to wake the Rowdies up, because from then, Tampa Bay was in full control of the match.

"I don't think we started playing until we were 2-nil down," Campbell said. "That woke us up. I give huge credit to the guys because they kept going. It would've been easy to sit at halftime and feel sorry for themselves, but they didn't. They went out and they put in a really good performance in the second half."

Mwanga's goal seven minutes before halftime opened the door for the Rowdies' second-half surge.

Georgi Hristov, playing in the No. 10 role, wreaked havoc in the first half and had the assist on Mwanga's goal, feeding him a ball about eight yards out from goal. Mwanga shot to the left side of the goal, but the ball took a deflection off a defender and bounced past the goalkeeper, who was diving in the wrong direction in the 38th minute.

Campbell made just one change at halftime, bringing in Justin Chavez in place of Mkandawire.

Tampa Bay started the second half aggressively and could've scored a handful of goals in the second 45 minutes.

Valimaa nearly leveled the match in 54th minute, but a diving defender blocked his shot. Two minutes later, Mwanga powered a strong header on target, but it was saved.

The intensity of Tampa Bay's attack was ratcheted up in the 60th minute when Burgos and Espinal entered as substitutes. Those two combined nicely in the 71st minute, but Espinal's curling left-footed shot missed by inches.

Valimaa and Guerra each rocked a shot off the crossbar in the 73rd and 74th minutes respectively, but the Rowdies wouldn't have to wait much longer for their equalizer.

Later in the 74th minute, Freddy Adu received a ball in the right side of the box and beat his defender one-on-one before cutting the ball back to Espinal for a first-time finish to tie the match at 2-2 with fifteen minutes to play.

Junior Burgos won the match for the Rowdies in the 81st minute with a dominating run through midfield and then a low, hard finish to the far post for the go-ahead goal.

"It's important for the attacking players to score goals, so it was great for them to do that today," Campbell said. "We had quite a few more opportunities from some of our midfielders. It was good attacking play for us today."

The Rowdies will be back in action Tuesday when they take on a Stoke City XI at St. George's Park in the final match of their preseason tour.

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Tampa Bay Rowdies Huddle
Tampa Bay Rowdies Huddle
   



North American Soccer League Stories from March 11, 2016


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