For the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the playoffs are within sight.
After a Fall Season in which the Rowdies have struggled – they are tied for seventh in the Fall – Tampa Bay has fought its way back into fourth place in the standings. Tampa Bay beat the Carolina Railhawks, 1-0, as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers lost 2-1 to the Indy 11.
That gives the Rowdies 39 points in the combined standings, one point ahead of the Strikers. If Tampa Bay can upset the New York Cosmos – second in the combined standings – the Rowdies will earn the NASL’s No. 4 seed.
“I’d like to say I was standing there cool, calm and collected, but I wasn’t,” Rowdies’ coach Stuart Campbell said of the final stretch of the match when Carolina was on the front foot and looked likely to score. “It’s nice to be here having won the game in that matter, rather than standing here wondering about the chances that we missed. I’ve got to give credit to the whole team defensively, not just the back four. They showed tonight how much this game meant to them.”
The Rowdies shut out Carolina Saturday night, and Richard Menjivar scored the only goal of the night in the 12th minute, scoring on a hard shot from 30 yards out.
“I was actually looking to pass, but I saw the window open and decided to take a crack at it,” Menjivar said. “I had a feeling it was going to go in, I hit it well and luckily, it went in.”
Think of all the things that have occurred in the fall season. A general manager was fired. A coach was fired. New signees were brought in. The team struggled to score.
“And now, it has a shot.
“If you had said to me Monday morning that come 10 minutes to 10 o’clock on Saturday night, that we’d be in control of our own destiny, I’d have absolutely snapped your hand off (to take the deal,)” Campbell said. “The whole team did great. Their effort, their application was exactly what I asked for.”
