North Carolina FC 4 – 2 Tampa Bay Rowdies
Cary, NC—Before the start of the 2019 USL Championship season, no one was entirely sure where North Carolina FC would be in the Eastern Conference standings in the dog days of summer. Sure, games like the mid-week tilt against the Tampa Bay Rowdies might get an extra couple of extra circles on the calendar, even by last year’s standards, when NCFC a playoff spot was far from certain. But for Dave Sarachan’s group, collecting all three points against the Rowdies would mean moving into second place.
Dre Fortune (8) celebrated another early goal for North Carolina FC against Tampa Bay.
The Dead Whales had more reason to feel confident going into Wednesday night’s match: they were building a win streak that included a rout of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds last weekend. They also beat Tampa Bay in their only other game this year 3-1.
North Carolina took control of the game from the kickoff, forcing the attack-minded Rowdies to play heavy defense through the first 20 minutes. Dre Fortune, the USL Championship Player of the Week, continued his good form with a great finish off of a nifty play between Nazmi Albadawi and Justin Rennicks. Albadawi slipped a pass through to Rennicks, who carried the ball toward the goal line and turned with a backheel to get free of his defender. His ground ball through the box found Fortune, who found the bottom right corner to put NCFC up 1-0.
Tampa Bay leveled the game against the run of play in the 32nd minute when Kwadwo Poku came through midfield with the ball and sent a pass through to a breaking Sebastian Guenzatti. His crossing shot deflected off of defender Aaron Guillen and went through Alex Tambakis’ legs. The goal got the Rowdies back on their game and the two sides traded chances as the first half wound down.
Sarachan made a couple of tweaks to the formation at halftime, notably having Donovan Ewolo and Steven Miller swtich sides to help free up attacking space. The adjustments paid off just five minutes into the second half. Fortune took a corner kick that skipped through the penalty area right to Miller, who set up in the middle of the 18-yard box. Miller’s easy finish put the home team back in the lead.
An attacking team by nature, Tampa Bay was forced to open up even more to look for an equalizer. This gave North Carolina more open space to work with on the counterattack. Their pressure forced the Rowdies into a mistake when Manny Perez, who came on for Rennicks in the 71st minute, ran the ball to the end line and cut back to make an attack run at the goal. His shot from the edge of the six-yard box caught Tampa Bay defender Pape Diakite, who was smothering Ewolo in front of the goal, and deflected past Macklin Robinson for an own goal in the 76th minute.
Team Captain Steven Miller had another multiple-goal game, bringing his team-leading total to nine.
Just three minutes later, Miller got his brace courtesy of a sensational combination play. Fortune handed the ball off to D.J. Taylor, who blew by two Rowdies defenders into the penalty area. Taylor had plenty of space around him, but he didn’t have a favorable angle on goal. Drawing defenders toward him, he flipped the ball back to Miller, who was wide open at the penalty spot, courtesy of Ewolo drawing the rest of the defense. “The ball was cut back. D.J. did a great job on the second one getting in line getting his head up and on the cut back and Donovan pulls the whole back line with his run I’m wide open for a pretty simple finish from there,” Miller said of his second goal.
“It’s nice to see that things we’re working on in training has come to fruition.”
North Carolina was up 4-1 with a little over ten minutes to go. Still, the Rowdies hung on and created some opportunities for themselves in the late stages of the game. Juan Tejada worked himself into an open space on a Leo Fernandes corner kick and headed the ball past Tambakis to make the final score 4-2.
“I think we could have killed off the game better,” Sarachan said in his post-game remarks to the media. He also noted that his club was playing on very little rest. “Let’s keep in mind that a lot of these guys played 90 minutes on Saturday. So they had to really dig deep against a team like Tampa that was fresh and didn’t play. And I thought they handled that part pretty well.”
Final Notes
- Goals tend to come in bunches for NCFC this year. They’ve scored nine goals in their last two games and are second only to the New York Red Bulls II in goal differential (24 and 29 respectively).
- Next up for North Carolina is a trip to Louisville FC who, like NCFC, is in good form lately with a three-game win streak. North Carolina won their earlier meeting on the first game of the season.
- Dave Sarachan said that Ben Speas and Yamakani Chester, both of whom suffered head injuries, were close to returning to the lineup. Team staff continues to evaluate their recovery progress.
- Justin Rennicks recorded his first assist with NCFC with his helper on Fortune’s goal.
Lineups
North Carolina FC: A. Tambakis; A. Guillen, S. Brotherton, A. Comsia, DJ Taylor; G. Smith, N. Albadawi (D. Wapiwo 79’); S. Miller © D. Fortune (A. da Luz 87’), D. Ewolo; J. Rennicks (M. Perez 71’)
Tampa Bay Rowdies: M. Robinson; C. Richards, M. Kone, Pape Diakite; L. Fernandes, A. Tinari (Mkosana 66’), J. Tejada, D. Oduro (T Morad 80’), K. Poku; S. Guenzatti©, J. Siaj (M. Johnson 61’)
Score:
North Carolina FC: 4
Tampa Bay Rowdies: 2
Goals:
NCFC: D. Fortune (19’ J. Rennicks), S. Miller (50’ unassisted), TB Own Goal (76’), S. Miller (79’ D.J. Taylor)
Tampa Bay: S. Guenzatti (32’ K. Poku), J. Tejada (90’ L. Fernandes)
Discipline
North Carolina FC: none
Tampa Bay Rowdies: P. Diakite, YC, 72’
Attendance: 2,833
Photo gallery: North Carolina FC v Tampa Bay Rowdies
All photos by Victoria Klum.
