ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (February 25, 2017) — The Tampa Bay Rowdies closed the 2017 Rowdies Suncoast Invitational in an encouraging manner, topping the Montreal Impact 2-1 in a tense and entertaining match at Al Lang Stadium on Saturday night.
Joe Cole and Deshorn Brown, a training guest, scored the goals within six minutes of one another late in the first half. Montreal’s lone reply came from the penalty spot in the 71st minute.
With a month still to go before the Rowdies lift the curtain on the 2017 United Soccer League regular season, the pieces are starting to fit together for Head Coach Stuart Campbell’s side.
“It’s nice to get a win, even though in preseason, the result isn’t the most important thing,” Campbell said. “It’s about the performance, the amount of work and improving the players’ fitness. You could see how hard the players worked tonight. For many of them, it was their first 90 minutes of the preseason.”
Getting the first win of preseason wasn’t an easy task. With Major League Soccer’s opening weekend just a week away, Montreal Impact Head Coach Mauro Biello fielded a full-strength lineup likely similar to that which will face the San Jose Earthquakes next week.
Montreal is coming off a season in which it finished as runners-up in the Eastern Conference, but the Rowdies stood up to the task and put on a well-rounded performance to score a few goals and severely restrict Montreal’s offensive chances.
“The movement that Montreal has and the attacking quality they use, they’re a very good team,” Campbell said. “We limited them to very few chances. I can’t remember many clear-cut chances they had. That’s one of the best teams in MLS. If you finish above Montreal, you’re not going to be far from winning the championship.”
After a back-and-forth first half that showed flashes of quality but with chances lacking, the Rowdies opened the scoring in the 34th minute with a quickly-taken free kick.
Deshorn Brown drew a foul just outside the 18-yard box, and, before Montreal could set up defensively, the Rowdies took the free kick with Brown feeding Joe Cole wide of the 6-yard box.
Cole’s shot on goal was deflected past Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush by Laurent Ciman and Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute.
Just six minutes later, Cole nearly scored his second of the match, but Bush made a big save. Brown pounced on the rebound and smashed it with his left foot to double Tampa Bay’s lead before halftime.
Despite the normal second-half substitutions that come standard in preseason matches, the Rowdies maintained control of the match save for Piatti’s penalty in the 71st minute, sealing a positive result.
“We wanted to go out and get a result, but really we wanted to put on a good performance,” Campbell said. “It’s fantastic to go out there and beat an MLS team that had a very good year last year and will no doubt have another very good year this year.”
Tampa Bay is back in action next week when it travels to Tampa to take on the University of Tampa Spartans on Saturday, March 4. More details on that match will be made available soon.
The Rowdies open their inaugural USL season March 25 against Orlando City B at Al Lang Stadium. For tickets, call (727) 222-2000 or click here.
Scoring Summary
Rowdies: Joe Cole – 34th Minute (Assisted by Deshorn Brown)
Rowdies: Deshorn Brown – 40th minute
Montreal: Ignacio Piatti – 71st minute (Penalty Kick)
Caution Summary
Rowdies: Georgi Hristov – 74th minute
Rowdies: Kyle Porter – 75th minute
Rowdies: Martin Vingaard – 77th minute
Rowdies: Luke Boden – 85th minute
Impact: Victor Cabrera – 89th minute
Starting Lineups
Tampa Bay (4-2-3-1): GK Matt Pickens (Akira Fitzgerald 69′); D Kyle Porter^ (Justin Chavez 83′), Damion Lowe, Neill Collins, Luke Boden; M Martin Vingaard, Michael Nanchoff; M Darwin Jones, Joe Cole (Georgi Hristov 73′), Leo Fernandes (Alex Morrell 37′); F Deshorn Brown* (Martin Paterson^ 58′)
Montreal (4-3-3): GK Evan Bush; D Hassoun Camara (Chris Duvall 68′), Laurent Ciman, Victor Cabrera, Ambroise Oyongo; M Hernan Bernardello, Marco Donadel (Louis Beland Goyette 46′), Patrice Bernier (Nick DePuy 68′); F Dominic Oduro (Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla 68′), Matteo Mancosu (Anthony Jackson-Hamel 87′), Ignacio Piatti
^trialist
*training player
