Rowdies Suffer 3-1 Defeat in Rhode Island
October 5, 2024 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Tampa Bay Rowdies News Release
SMITHFIELD, RI - The Tampa Bay Rowdies fell 3-1 in their first-ever trip to Rhode Island FC on Saturday night at Beirne Stadium. With the result, Rhode Island pulled even with Tampa Bay at 46 points in the Eastern Conference standings. However, the Rowdies remain ahead in fourth place based on head-to-head tiebreaker and still have a game in hand on Rhode Island.
"In terms of actual effort, the players gave it all, but we're just losing concentration in vital moments," said Rowdies Head Coach Robbie Neilson. "We need to get better at that. We're going through a tough run at the moment, but we just have to regroup and get back to the basics of what we've done well for the whole season. We need to make sure we do the basics, concentrate throughout the game, and then we'll get back to winning ways."
Rhode Island broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute. Under pressure, Rowdies defender Freddy Kleemann played a pass into the box for keeper Jordan Farr, whose attempted clearance was swatted out of the air and redirected into the goal by Rhode Island's Zachary Herivaux.
Tampa Bay's first threat on goal of the night came just a few minutes before the halftime whistle. Midfielder Leo Fernandes, who became the club's modern-era appearances leader with his 174th appearance on Saturday, probed Rhode Island's goal with a long-range free kick that had pace but was well-handled by keeper Koke Vegas.
The hosts doubled their advantage in the 69th minute when Noah Fuson sent a chip from the left edge of the box that skipped off the turf and sailed past the outstretched arms of Farr at the far post.
The Rowdies immediately responded to Fuson's strike two minutes later. Substitute Damian Rivera initiated the sequence with a threaded pass between two defenders for teammate Manuel Arteaga, who swiftly cut to his right before poking the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal.
Unfortunately, the Rowdies could not build upon Arteaga's team-leading 16th goal of the season. Rhode Island pulled ahead by two again in the 85th minute, as Fuson slipped a pass into the box for forward JJ Williams to bury into the back of the net.
Next up, the Rowdies travel to face first-place Louisville City FC on Saturday, October 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
"We've got a huge game next week going up to Louisville," said Neilson. "It will be tough, but it's an opportunity to go up there and show what we can do. The last couple of weeks we haven't shown who the true Rowdies are, because the rest of the season we have shown that. We got ourselves in a good position because of that, but we have to have belief. You have to be resilient as well when you go through tough periods to make sure we stick to our principles and we do things properly."
Scoring Summary
RI - Herivaux, 22'
RI - Fuson (Williams), 69'
TBR - Arteaga (Rivera), 71'
RI - Williams (Fuson), 85'
Caution Summary
TBR - Hilton, Yellow Card, 27'
RI - Williams, Yellow Card, 29'
TBR - Niyongabire, Yellow Card, 65'
RI - Holstad, Yellow Card, 77'
RI - Ybarra, Yellow Card, 81'
Lineups
Rowdies: Farr, Doherty, Kleemann (Moon, 74'), Guillen, Niyongabire, Hilton, Bender (87'), Bodily, Perez (Worth, 87'), Fernandes (Rivera, 58'), Arteaga
Rowdies Bench: Breno, Bubb, Munjoma, Worth, Moon, Rivera, Mustali
Rhode Island: Vegas, Nodarse, Yao, Stoneman, Turnbul (Duggan, 66')l, Holstad, Herivaux (Brito, 84'), Ybarra, Dikwa (Doyle, 37'), Williams, Fuson
Rhode Island Bench: Lee, Dugan, Brito, Panayotou, Shapiro-Thompson, Twumasi, Doyle
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