ST. PETERSBURG – The Tampa Bay Rowdies have lost their first home match of the season as two counter-attacks saw Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC claim a 2-1 win at Al Lang Stadium on Saturday night.
A perfect counter-attack gave the Riverhounds the lead in the 21st minute. After swarming to block a Sebastian Guenzatti shot the side quickly switched play and ran up the field. That had the Rowdies scrambling and allowed Danny Griffin to finish it off with a simple tap-in.
10 minutes into the second half the Riverhounds doubled their lead. Again it was a counter-attack, this time finished with a perfectly placed shot from Russell Cicerone.
The Rowdies pulled back a consolation goal in stoppage time, a great run from Dayonn Harris allowed him to play the ball back for Guenzatti who calmly tapped it home, but it was too little too late.
Only desperate defense kept the Rowdies out in the ninth minute as Sebastian Guenzatti’s ball found Jordan Adebayo-Smith. Three Riverhounds defenders converged to block the shot which fell to Laurence Wyke whose shot was also blocked before Pittsburgh finally cleared.
Evan Louro continued to show why he is a leading goalkeeper in the league, rushing out just after the half-hour to pressure Albert Dikwa in a one-on-one situation making the save and getting the ball out for the corner.
The Rowdies went agonizingly close two minutes before the break as Leo Fernandes corralled an overhit cross and launched a shot that had Danny Vitello scrambling. Unfortunately, it could only find the side netting, leaving his side trailing at half-time.
Louro was at his best in the 69th minute to deny a wide-open Dikwa before making two saves on the rebound to again send it out for a corner.
A third nearly came in the 73rd minute when Alex Dixon was able to get through one-on-one with Louro but his chip went just wide of goal to give Tampa Bay a sniff of a chance.
It was a frustrating night for Tampa Bay, with overhit crosses being more common than clear-cut chances, despite having more of the ball the Rowdies never really looked like scoring.
Photo courtesy Christopher Hockman
Florida Soccer Report 