By Andrew Bell
Louisville City FC fell 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday night in a lively away game chock full of fouls, chances for both sides and a few final third woes for LouCity.
The Rowdies opened the scoring in the 39th minute when a long ball from Tampa Bay center back Aaron Guillen was brought down by forward Cal Jennings. LouCity goalkeeper Oliver Semmle came out of his box to meet the attack but was beaten to the ball and rounded by Jennings, who passed into an open net.
In the 46th minute, fewer than 30 seconds into the second half, LouCity found its answer from Wilson Harris. The 23-year-old forward drove inside from the right wing to the top of the box and slotted the ball away low with his weaker left foot.
Tampa Bay netted its winning goal in the 61st minute after a low Rowdies cross was met by Jennings, who was making a near-post run. Jennings lost his mark, opened his body up and redirected the ball to the back of the goal.
For the next half hour, LouCity hunted for an equalizer, coming close on multiple occasions yet lacking the finishing touch.
“I thought we started the game really, really well,” head coach Danny Cruz said about his team’s performance on Saturday. “We created a couple of good opportunities. And then we switch off there. Then one ball over the top and when you give a forward like Jennings that much time and space, he’s gonna do what he did with it.
“I thought we started the second half really, really well, obviously. After we got the goal there in the first minute [of the second half], I think we dropped off a little bit and our intensity dropped, and that hurt us. We started taking a few punches, they started creating a few chances and obviously they ended up scoring the second goal.
“I think there’s a lot of positives to take from the game but it certainly wasn’t the result we were looking for.”
The loss keeps LouCity fourth in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference on 43 points, with the gap between City and fifth-place Memphis 901 closing to just a point. Maintaining top-four in the East remains a priority for the boys in purple, as a finish there would grant City a home game to start the playoffs.
The win for Saturday’s opponent and Eastern Conference rival Tampa Bay keeps the Rowdies second, but moves them within range of first-place Pittsburgh, which has 54 points through a game more than Tampa Bay. Three points would have been huge for City on Saturday, but the boys in purple will get a chance to even the score in its last game of the season, which comes against the Rowdies.
What Semmle signifies
Some might feel as though Tampa Bay’s first goal could have been prevented if Semmle didn’t come so far out of goal. Jennings, who had beaten his man and received the ball well, found the LouCity goalkeeper in no-mans land and easily touched the ball past him. Semmle, caught between a rock and a hard place, had to either count on Jennings taking a heavy touch or a LouCity center back catching the lightning-quick attacker to disrupt his shot. Semmle’s decision to count on the former came down to unlucky timing in a situation where the 25-year-old usually excels.
Semmle, indispensable between the sticks for LouCity this season, didn’t let the error define his performance against Tampa Bay. The USL rookie goalkeeper worked busily to keep his team alive, even amidst an onslaught of chances for the opponent.
In the 50th minute, Tampa Bay’s attackers ran at LouCity’s back line with a numerical advantage and dished the ball to Rowdies midfielder Dayonn Harris, who was in on goal from the right side of the box. Semmle rapidly closed the space between him and the ball, eliminated the angle, and made himself big to come up with the stop.
Again, in the 54th minute, Semmle bailed his team out by dropping low and using his feet to save a rifled shot from the left side of the box. Not even a minute later, Semmle made a phenomenal save at full stretch. Following the attacker’s movement with the ball from left to right, Semmle quickly planted his feet and dove against his own momentum to parry away the attempt.
Even before LouCity conceded, Semmle made a huge save in the 20th minute. As City’s defense struggled to get bodies behind the ball during a Tampa Bay counter attack, a Rowdies player was given time and space to take a snap shot from the top of LouCity’s box, which Semmle saved low and with a strong hand.
Despite Semmle’s acrobatic efforts, Tampa Bay’s second goal seemed inevitable. In fact, because Semmle had to make so many saves leading up to the dagger, Tampa Bay’s winner was no surprise. Still coming off an emotional high from its equalizer, LouCity played a high line and continued to send players into the final third to build on its momentum. Between LouCity’s back three of Wes Charpie, Sean Totsch, and Kyle Adams, 30 final third entries were made in the second half, causing City’s defense to be short handed at times on Saturday.
Spurred on by the home crowd and energized by their own pacey attacks, the Rowdies exploited LouCity’s defensive gaps.
LouCity’s defensive robustness since last season has dropped off slightly. After LouCity’s 34 regular season games in 2022, the team had conceded just 28 goals. This time around, City has conceded 33 goals through 28 games. However, LouCity’s number of conceded goals this season doesn’t emerge as an outlier among teams in the top eight of either USL Championship conference. So far, eight teams have conceded more goals and seven have conceded less than City out of the top eight in the Western and Eastern conferences.
Difference makers
On paper, LouCity’s offensive production against Tampa Bay was solid. The boys in purple put up 14 shots Saturday, five more than their average away from home and more than their overall average of 12.7.
Contributing heavily to these numbers was Harris, who worked on and off the ball to create shots and chances for himself and his teammates. On the night, Harris took three shots, with two landing on target and two being from within the opposition’s box. Harris’s 46th-minute finish exuded precision and confidence, as the 23-year-old dribbled from the right flank to the top of Tampa Bay’s box, let the ball roll from his right foot onto his left, and scored clinically between the post and the goalkeeper’s outstretched fingers.
Harris’s goal was his sixth of the season, the most on his team despite missing six games due to injury earlier this year. Although Harris was efficient and tenacious, it wasn’t enough to counteract some of LouCity’s bigger issues on Saturday.
Against Tampa Bay, LouCity won 45% of its ground duels and just 42% of its aerial duels. LouCity’s failure to gain the advantage in either duel category certainly contributed to the team’s 45% possession on the night. This season, LouCity has averaged 53% possession per game. Even away from home, the boys in purple have been averaging 50% possession. LouCity is used to controlling the game, no matter the environment. But against Tampa Bay, the Rowdies’ possession-heavy tactics allowed them control over the game’s tempo.
Tampa Bay’s possession advantage may have added to LouCity’s frustration on the field, and consequently, discipline issues on the night, as the boys in purple racked up 17 fouls and five yellow cards.
Some LouCity’s best chances came late in the game, but the Florida humidity appeared to zap the focus and sharpness out of any shot that City took. In the 71st minute, forward Maarten Pouwels entered the right side of Tampa Bay’s box and squared the ball to Ray Serrano. With the ball slightly ahead of him and Rowdies defenders converging, all Serrano could do was poke the ball tamely to the goalkeeper.
Despite some of LouCity’s electricity leaving toward the end of the game, the boys in purple showed fight, improving its second half stats in crosses, corner kicks, successful dribbles, and shots on target compared to the first half.
Next weekend, LouCity will look to bounce back against San Diego Loyal at Lynn Family Stadium. The home game for City will come after a two-game stretch of away matches in difficult environments, including Tampa Bay on Saturday and Colorado Springs last weekend. With just six games left of the regular season, LouCity will aim to make the most of its upcoming match before hitting the road again for three straight games.
