NASHVILLE, Tenn. (September 19, 2018) — The Tampa Bay Rowdies took a huge step toward reaching the USL Cup playoffs Tuesday night with a 2-1 road win over Nashville SC at First Tennessee Park.
According to Nate Silver’s 538 predictions, the Rowdies’ chances of reaching the postseason jumped from 10 percent to 26 percent after the match.
Here’s Three Things from Tuesday night’s victory…
1. A win is a win
Tampa Bay used a penalty kick and an own goal to defeat Nashville SC, but the three points count all the same. Neither goal happens unless the Rowdies put together a threatening attack and put Nashville under pressure.
Facing Rowdies fan favorite Matt Pickens on the other side of the field, it always felt like this match would center around him. Pickens had an early flash point against his old friend Georgi Hristov only five minutes into the match.
Hristov was the recipient of a brilliantly threaded through ball from Kwadwo Poku and found himself in one-on-one with Pickens. Hristov poked the ball to his left hand side to round the goalkeeper and Pickens dove through his legs for a fairly blatant penalty.
What would happen next is anyone’s guess, as Pickens was famous for saving penalty kicks in Tampa Bay and Hristov would certainly have no secrets, having taken penalties against Pickens after training sessions for four seasons.
Nevertheless, Hristov put his penalty kick right down the middle for an early Rowdies lead.
From there, Nashville had the better of the match, equalizing in the 20th minute and putting Tampa Bay under pressure for long stretches of time without scoring.
The second half introduction of Junior Flemmings turned the tide in the Rowdies’ favor for good as he created the game-winner in the 69th minute.
At the culmination of a sweeping 14-pass movement, it was Flemmings who fired a pacey cross across the face of goal which beat Pickens and was turned into Nashville’s net by defender London Woodberry. While own goals always feel a bit fortuitous, the ball had already passed Pickens and had Woodberry not made the critical mistake, red-hot Sebastian Guenzatti was waiting to tap it in at the back post.
2. Georgi is back
It’s been a somewhat trying season for Rowdies all-time scoring leader Georgi Hristov. He had the high of earning the all-time scoring title in April, but hasn’t been as influential as usual since then. Coming into Tuesday’s match, Hristov had only scored once twice since the calendar hit May. He had only started five of the Rowdies’ last 12 matches as he faced increased competition at the forward position.
It would have been understandable if frustration and a lack of confidence had set in, but a goal Tuesday night should go a long way toward kicking him back into his usual form. Hristov seems to always play well at the end of the season, so here’s to hoping last night’s goal was the first indication of many more to come.
3. The week to come
Coming off back-to-back wins for the first time since March, the Rowdies have to quickly turn their focus forward once again as they can’t afford to drop points at home Saturday against the Richmond Kickers. On paper, it’s a pretty friendly matchup for Tampa Bay, facing a team already eliminated from postseason contention and with a league-worst goal differential of -39.
Looking around the rest of the Eastern Conference schedule this week, things shape up nicely for the Rowdies if they take care of business. Tampa Bay currently sits four four points short of the playoff line.
Penn FC faces a difficult week hosting Louisville City FC on Wednesday night and then FC Cincinnati on Saturday. Charlotte also plays twice this week, visiting Charleston and then hosting New York on Saturday. Ottawa visits Louisville and Nashville hosts Charleston on Saturday, meaning the Rowdies’ closest playoff rivals have a good chance of dropping points this week.
Given how devastating dropped points would be for the Rowdies, they can’t afford to think about any of those matches though as they go for their third win in a row and fourth in five matches.
