ST. PETERSBURG, FL – The Tampa Bay Rowdies suffered a defeat to Birmingham Legion FC 2-0 on Saturday night at Al Lang Stadium. Birmingham’s Neco Brett notched a brace to seal all three points for the visitors.
“Credit to Birmingham. We knew they were a really strong team with a lot of top players at this moment in time and I thought they showed that in spells,” said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins. “… When you concede the goals that we conceded, you’ve got no chance of winning a game of football. Two goals that are schoolboy errors on our part.”
Rowdies keeper Phil Breno was forced to make two saves in the opening minute of the match. Breno made an initial stop on a long-distance effort from Enzo Martinez. The rebound fell for forward Juan Agudelo, but Breno stood his ground at the near post to deny him.
Birmingham opened the scoring just as the match appeared to be heading for a scoreless stalemate at the halftime break. After the Rowdies failed to adequately clear a corner kick opportunity for the visitors, Prosper Kasim launched the ball back into the box for Brett to head into the bottom right corner.
Felix Schröter had the best look on goal of the second half for Tampa Bay. Only four minutes after entering as a substitute, Schröter brought down a clever chipped pass into the box from Ariel Martinez but the German sent his effort over the bar.
As the Rowdies pushed for a late equalizer, Birmingham struck again on the counter attack. Collecting a ball down the right flank, Matthew Corcoran dribbled into the box before slipping a pass across goal for Brett to redirect into the back of the net.
“We’ve set very high standards here and we’re way off them now,” said Collins. “There’s multiple reasons for that. Not excuses, reasons. It’s the people in the locker room that are going to change that, from the staff to the players. We’ve got a lot of things we need to solve, but we’ve been in spots like this in the past and we’ve solved them. As long as people keep working hard and coming in with the right attitude, we’ll continue to solve them.”
Scoring Summary
BHM – Brett (Kasim), 45+5’
BHM – Brett (Corcoran), 83’
Lineups
TBR: Breno, Antley, Lasso, Guillen, Dalgaard, Hilton, Herivaux, Johnson, Ekra, Martinez, Jennings
BHM: Van Oekel (Spangenberg, 32’), Kavita, Smith, Crognale, Alves, Asiedu, Corcoran, Martinez, Brett, Agudelo, Kasim
