The sting went all the way to the end for the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
The Rowdies saw a lead slip away in the final moments of their final game of the season Sunday evening. Tampa Bay dropped a 3-2 game to Jacksonville.
Tampa Bay led 2-0 after 20 minutes and 2-1 after 80, but still lost with goals in the 82nd and 83rd minutes. The Rowdies went ahead on goals by Martin Vingaard and Keith Savage. But the Armada came from behind to close out the season.
“We made a lot of changes, but I still expected to go out there and get the result we wanted,” Rowdies coach Stuart Campbell said. “We wanted to finish the season with a victory.”
The Rowdies were handcuffed by a number of key absences and also gave goalkeeper Chris Glodack his professional debut in the match. Tampa Bay’s top three offensive players this season, Joe Cole, Georgi Hristov, and Eric Avila, were all unavailable for the match. Right back Darnell King was also unavailable for the Rowdies.
“Martin’s goal was a great one,” Campbell said. “And Keith’s was a very nice header. It was about time we scored one from a set piece.”
Even with the abnormal lineup, Tampa Bay was still just eight minutes away from closing the season with a 2-1 win before the trouble started.
A Jacksonville corner kick was cleared partially by the Rowdies in the 82nd minute, but fell to the Armada FC’s Jemal Johnson 12 yards out from goal. With time to pick his spot, Johnson played a delicate chip that looped over Glodack’s head and toward the goal. Tampa Bay’s Walter Ramirez was unable to clear it from the line.
Less than a minute later, directly from the restart, the Armada FC’s Derek Gebhard cut in from near the corner flag and found a streaking Zach Steinberger for the go-ahead goal.
“The two goals that we conceded in about a minute, that’s extremely frustrating,” Campbell said. “The second goal came from a set piece that we should have defended better and then we just didn’t click back on in time for the third goal and it cost us.”
Tampa Bay finished ninth in the combined standings and tied for 11th in the Fall Season.
