Laurence Wyke joins Rowdies

ST. PETERSBURG – The Tampa Bay Rowdies have added Laurence Wyke to their 2021 roster following his successful trial, the club announced on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old joins the club from Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC, where he played seven matches and scored two goals. That came a year after playing his first professional season with the reserve team playing 29 times and scoring three goals, including a goal at Al Lang Stadium in a 1-1 draw with the Rowdies.

“Laurence is a fantastic addition that completes our roster in regards to outfield players,” said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins. “He is very versatile, which is important for us as he can play anywhere on a back three and in center midfield. From what I have seen so far he has a hunger and determination that we are looking for.”

Prior to Atlanta the Englishman played at Trinity University in San Antonio before joining Furman, and thus Division I for his final two years of eligibility. The midfielder was a product of the famed Manchester United academy.

His goals return at Atlanta United was impressive, scoring twice but with an expected goals (xG) of only 0.2 so he’s multiplied his expectation ten-fold. One thing for the Rowdies to keep an eye on is his yellow card rate. In 2019 he was second in the USL Championship with 12 yellow cards, only two fewer than Louisville’s Paco Craig who led the way.

With the pick up of Wyke the Rowdies squad now stands at 22, that would leave at least one space for the side but the club hinted in its announcement that there won’t be much more.

Photo courtesy Trinity University

Rowdies survive US Open Cup cull

CHICAGO – The Tampa Bay Rowdies will be a US Open Cup entrant for 2021 following US Soccer announcing that the tournament has been cut to just 16 teams.

The original plan for 2021 was a 24 team tournament, so halving the tournament made for big cuts and led to the USL Championship having its entrants cut down to four. As a result of the decision to have the USL Championship represented by the four conference semi-finalists which includes the USL Championship Eastern Conference Champion Rowdies.

 “After meeting with the Committee and listening to our members and our medical professionals, it became clear that the difficulties of staging the Opening Round given the current environment made the decision to not play the correct one, as we will always prioritize the health and safety of the players and staff first.”

U.S. Open Cup Commissioner Paul Marstaller.

With the USL Championship Conference Semifinalists being the teams sent from the league the Rowdies are joined by Phoenix Rising, Louisville City and El Paso Locomotive. From the USL League One Greenville SC, the champions of that league will compete. Outside of USL, Detroit City FC comes in as NISA champion while eight MLS teams will qualify based on points per game in the first three weeks of the 2021 season. The final two places will go to “open division” (amateur) teams which will be decided by a random draw.

The new round of 16 will take place on May 18th or 19th, the final is due for June 29th or 30th. The US Open Cup Committee will meet one more time, April 19th to make a final decision on if the tournament can proceed.

Photo: Skotywa used under  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Former Rowdy Frank Worthington passes away

TELFORD, England, United Kingdom – Frank Worthington, who played for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1981 passed away this week following a lengthy illness.

It is commonly believed that Worthington was battling Alzheimer’s disease after his daughter released a statement in 2016 saying that he had it but that was denied by Worthington the following day.

The popular forward played 28 matches for the Rowdies, on loan from Birmingham City and scored 11 goals in just one season. That made him the Tampa Bay golden boot winner as the team finished fourth in the Southern Division and made the Quarter-Finals of the NASL Playoffs. It would be the last original-era NASL season the Rowdies managed to qualify for the Playoffs.

His arrival in Tampa was quite a sight, the paper had spelled out when he would be arriving at the airport encouraging fans to welcome their new signing. Worthington had evidently enjoyed the flight and tripped coming down the stairs, spilling a full bottle of scotch in the process. Thankfully for Rowdies fans he didn’t indulge before matches and his footwork was much better at Tampa Stadium.

The Rowdies snagged Worthington from under the nose of the Dallas Tornado, which had a significant change in the fortunes of both clubs. Without Worthington the Rowdies would have missed the playoffs but thanks to his effort qualified. Meanwhile Dallas claimed the wooden spoon in 1981 with just five wins.

Worthington was a hero to fans everywhere he played, he’s most known for his time at Leicester where he played 210 matches and scored 72 goals. He won the English Second Division (now Championship) twice, with Huddersfield Town in 1969-70 and Bolton in 1977-78, upon Bolton’s promotion to the First Division (now Premier League) he claimed the golden boot with 24 goals, keeping the team up with a 17th place finish.

Worthington managed to play eight matches for England and scored twice, all matches coming in 1974 but he did not go to the World Cup as England did not qualify for the tournament with qualification games coming before the former Rowdy played.

He is survived by his wife Carol whom he married in 1986 and children Frank and Kim (Now Malou).

Photo: NASL (Original)

Former Rowdy Adrian Alston reveals that he invented the Cruyff Turn

SYDNEY – The Cruyff turn, the infamous spin after a faked pass made famous by Johan Cruyff at the 1974 World Cup was actually invented by former Tampa Bay Rowdies player Adrian Alston, according to a recent interview he gave to Australian soccer podcast Shim, Spider and so much Moore.

Alston was also playing at the 1974 World Cup, representing Australia in its first appearance on the big stage while playing his club football at Luton Town in England. He made the exact same move for the Socceroos in a match against East Germany five days prior to Cruyff infamously used it against Sweden.

“He might have practiced it before but he didn’t actually do it until he saw mine to perfection and then you can really see how someone does it properly. He was in his hotel room apparently, watching our game against East Germany and he said to his roommate, ‘I think I can do that’.” Said Alston in the podcast episode.

That move has remained one of the most common dribbling maneuvers to beat a defender since 1974. But all the credit goes to Cruyff despite Alston being the first player to use the move in a competitive match, leading to calls that he should receive credit.

What most frustrated Alston wasn’t so much that Cruyff gets credit but that Cruyff wasn’t kicked at by his defender.

The Alston Turn would grace the hallowed turf of Tampa Stadium just three years later when the Socceroos veteran signed for the Rowdies. He played 1977-78 with the Rowdies playing 19 matches and scoring eight goals.

Photo: FIFA

Rowdies open preseason with win over Tormenta

ST. PETERSBURG – A strong first-half performance was enough to get the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2021 off to a perfect start as they beat South Georgia Tormenta 2-1 at Al Lang Stadium on Saturday night.

Goals to Sebastian Guenzatti and Jordan Abedayo-Smith proved enough for Tampa Bay to get the win and hold off a late-charging Tormenta. The from Abedayo-Smith came only 15 days after his signing was announced, getting his career in green and gold off to a perfect start.

Genzatti scored the opener on the half-hour mark, after receiving a pass from Abedayo-Smith he got around his defender and shot it past the keeper.

Not even five minutes later the Rowdies lead was doubled as the new forward signing was able to run onto the ball and bury it with his first-touch, putting Tampa Bay firmly in charge of the match.

The torrent of goals continued in the 38th minute as South Georgia pulled one back. That goal came as the result of miscommunication in the box and Marco Micaletto capitalized to keep the Ibis’ in the match.

Goalkeeper Evan Louro was key for the green and gold throughout the match, just one minute before the opener he made a strong save before launching the counter. In the second-half he was on his toes to keep the lead intact.

Tormenta made eight changes late in the match which gave them an edge on fitness but it was the Rowdies who had better chances. Juan Tejada was especially dangerous in the final minutes, getting two chances late but couldn’t capitalize.

Despite the closeness of the final score the Rowdies always maintained some measure of control in the match and were good value for the win. Tampa Bay’s next match will come on Saturday the 27th against Inter Miami CF.

Photo: Lincoln City FC

Randy Arozarena reunites with younger brother

ST. PETERSBURG – Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena has reunited with his younger brother Raiko who has signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, also owned by the Rays ownership group.

Raiko joins the team as a goalkeeper, presumably to provide cover for Evan Louro, joining the club from Mexico where he has been the last three seasons. The goalkeeper has been playing for Cafetaleros de Chiapas in the third division, the Liga Premier de Mexico failing to impress enough to make the move to Cancun when the club moved it’s senior side to the Mexican Riviera to be a founding member of the Liga de Expansion MX, the new second division which cannot promote to Liga MX.

The pair grew up in Cuba, where baseball is king, ironically the two used to play the other sport, with Randy being a big soccer player in his youth but the two switched as they got older and found professional careers in their new sports.

“I‘m very happy that we’re going to be close to each other,” said Randy. “I know he’s worked and he’s sacrificed a lot to get to the position that he’s in, and I’m looking forward to see him play in a different level in a different place.”

2020 was a big season for Raiko, who played 20 matches, establishing himself in Chaipas and garnering attention from the Rowdies scouting network.

The Rowdies will no doubt be hoping having a familiar face will allow Raiko to settle quickly, and will be hoping his 2021 can match his brother’s 2020 season.

Photos: Chiapas and Tampa Bay Rays

Inter Miami begins preseason with cloud over Blaise Matuidi signing

MIAMI – 2021 is underway for Inter Miami CF but preseason training got started this week with a big shadow. Major League Soccer announced last week that it was investigating the club for irregularities in the signing of French World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi.

Preseason getting officially underway this week was a milestone for the club as it was the first chance players got to impress new Head Coach Phil Neville taking in the training and meeting his players.

“They want to be better and they’re a hungry set of players. Even though [Monday] was officially the first start, for me I’ve been watching them for a while now. We’re ahead of the curve physically, tactically and technically. The boys are ready. As a coach, preseason is probably the most enjoyable. You can get to connect with your players. The sooner we can connect as a team, the sooner they understand my philosophy, the better we’ll be as a team.”

Inter Miami CF Head Coach Phil Neville

Questions came in at the first media availability about Matuidi but Neville didn’t have much insight into the matter. That makes sense, it happened before he was even thought of as being connected to the team but he confirmed that the club is hoping to have the matter sorted within a week.

The investigation around Matuidi’s signing comes from the unique contract rules that Major League Soccer has. Matuidi is signed to a targeted contracted position, thus meaning he counts against the league salary cap. When the signing happened it was surprising that he took a contract of under $1.6 million but that was what the contract stated and all contracts are public per the MLS Union rules.

MLS is concerned that Matuidi is getting paid outside of the contract, if that turns out to be the case it’s not clear what sanctions will be handed down. At the very least it will put Miami in a cap crunch, moving Matuidi to a designated player spot would then lead to the team having too many such players in the team.

Gonzalo Higuain, Rodolfo Pizarro and Matias Pellegrini are all designated players so a change will have to happen. Pellegrini is the most likely since he is only 20, so could be moved to the new Under-22 program that MLS is starting this season. Although it’s unclear if non-American players count for this.

Pellegrini has certainly caught the eye of his head coach in the opening days of camp, a good sign for the Herron’s chances after he struggled last year.

“What I said to him on Day One is he has to start enjoying his football again — playing with freedom, like he used to do as a kid. When you’re relaxed, you’re happy, you play your best football. Ultimately, he didn’t play his best last year. He was new to the country. He was a boy coming to a new country, new culture and to MLS, which is a different style of football. What he said to me was that he wants to work as hard as he can. And I’ve seen a boy that’s shown all those qualities. He’s still young and needs time to develop.”

Neville

Miami will train in its own complex for the next 17 days before beginning a tour of the state for training and friendlies. This will be a vital time to prepare after a disappointing 2020 season.

Photo courtesy Inter Miami CF

NWSL Challenge Cup schedule released

Just one day after announcing the format for the 2021 National Women’s Soccer League Challenge Cup the NWSL announced the schedule for the tournament on Tuesday.

Orlando Pride will begin the tournament against another debuting team, Racing Louisville, giving the NWSL expansion team its first home game on April 10th. Forcing Pride into its away jersey design thanks to no longer being the only purple team in the league. The match will attract a lot of attention as it will be the first competitive match for Louisville.

On the 14th the Pride will return home, taking on Sky Blue FC at Exploria Stadium, that match will have a national audience as it will air on CBS Sports Network. With the regional divide last season it will be the first match the two teams have played since 2019 when the Pride beat the New Jersey side 1-0.

Orlando Pride Schedule Revealed for 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup
Graphic: Orlando Pride

There will be a second home match in a row for Orlando when Washington Spirit come to town on the 21st. Spirit finished the 2020 Fall Season in third place, topping the competitive North East group and will be a stern test for the Lionesses.

The last match of the group stages will be a road trip as Orlando Pride head to Sahlen’s Stadium to play North Carolina Courage. All of Pride’s points from 2020 came against the Courage with a scoreless draw and a 2-2 draw proving vital to keep the women in purple off the bottom of the table. This match will be aired on CBS Sports Network.

All matches not aired on CBS Sports Network will air on Paramount +, the rebranded CBS All Access, with in the United States and on Twitch internationally. Only four matches for the entire tournament will air on CBS Sports Network so Orlando has been given a big honor of playing in half of them.

The top team in each conference will compete in the final, which will be on May 8 and aired live on CBS.

Photo courtesy Orlando Pride

NWSL Challenge Cup structure released

The National Women’s Soccer League announced the structure for the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup on Monday. The tournament will feature Orlando Pride for the first time after the Lions had to sit out of the 2020 tournament.

Orlando has been is in the Eastern Division with North Carolina Courage, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit and the expansion Racing Louisville. They will play each team once, with two matches at Exploria Stadium.

There will be a one-off final for the trophy, with the winner of each division playing off for the final. The venue for that final will be set by the league at a later date, presumably the highest points tally of the finalists will have hosting rights.

With sponsorship from Secret the NWSL will continue the Rookie class program allowing first year players exposure and sponsorship money tied with the event.

“We’re ready to build on our success of the last year and I couldn’t be more excited to open the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup presented by Secret the same way we left off in the summer of 2020, watching Houston and Chicago showcase the very best in women’s professional soccer.”

NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird

The league will shortly announce the full schedule for the Challenge Cup and the regular season, which will be back to a full season. Each team will play 24 matches, potentially with a break for the postponed Tokyo Olympics.

With expansion in 2021, the NWSL Playoffs are also expanding with six teams qualifying and the top two teams getting a first-round bye.

The NWSL regular season should begin in May with the Championship Game slated for Saturday November 20th.

PHOTO: NWSL

Canada leaves it late to down Argentina

ORLANDO – Canada waited until stoppage time to overcome a determined Argentina side for a 1-0 win at Exploria Stadium on Sunday night. With the win the side stays alive in the She Believes Cup.

Sarah Stratigakis scored the winner after a long free-kick from Janine Beckie found Jessie Flemming who played it into the box. Startigakis slid into the ball stabbing it home to avoid having to settle for the point.

It could have been a two-goal win with another chance late in the match, Deanne Rose used her speed to get to a lose ball and then swung it into the box. That ball fell for Beckie who squared for Evelyne Viens who headed wide.

Highlights: Argentina v Canada, She Believes Cup, Exploria Stadium – February 21 2021

The win was the first for Bev Priestman after she replaced Kenneth Heiner-Moller who left the team last summer to return to his native Norway.

There were three debuts for Canada with Samantha Chang, Jade Rose, and Jordan Listro making their first appearance for the senior side. In addition Viens made her second appearance and goal-scorer Stratigakis made her third.

“It wasn’t our prettiest game, but I think as a group we found a way to win and that’s what the best teams do. We got to see more young players in the lineup and for the group we got to see them face some adversity and some frustration through playing a tough opponent. That happens in tournament football, but we knew the goal would come through the group being patient and believing in themselves.”

Canada Head Coach, Bev Priestman

Canada could have opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when Jessie Fleming was able to get on the end of a botched clearance, but her header was well saved by Laurina Oliveros.

READ MORE: Early and late goals send USA past Brazil

It was a case of missing opportunities, the biggest coming in the 50th minute when the ball was loose in the box but it was Oliveros who was quickest to react.

Argentina nearly opened the scoring in the 65th minute as Soledad James got on the end of a cross and headed to goal only for the crossbar to deny her efforts.

Photo: Canada Soccer

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