by JAKE NUTTING

With the first leg of their preseason involving MLS competition and an annual match up with the University of South Florida now behind them, the Tampa Bay Rowdies have crossed the Atlantic for a 10-day trip to England where they will play three matches against a mixture of first-team and reserve players from Nottingham Forest, Notts County and Stoke City.

It’s the first time the modern Rowdies have made their way to England. It’s a trip that the original Rowdies did several times back in their heyday, though, and one member of this year’s traveling party, Assistant General Manager Perry Van der Beck, donned the green and gold as a player in many of those previous matches across the pond.

Van der Beck could likely experience déjà vu when the Rowdies face their first English opponent, Nottingham Forest, on Wednesday considering he participated in an exhibition with the club when they were at the top of the pecking order of European soccer in October of 1980.

“It was a great experience,” Van der Beck says of the match played at Forest’s storied City Ground. “It just shows the history and the tradition the Rowdies have had over the years.”

Nottingham Forest was the toast of the sport when the Rowdies came town that year. Led by the charismatic Brian Clough and his shrewd assistant manager Peter Taylor, the club had rapidly ascended the ranks and captured back -to-back European Cups (the precursor to today’s UEFA Champions League) in 1979 and 1980.

“It was very interesting watching them work inside their technical area,” recalls Van der Beck. “Not so much what they were saying to their players, but how their players respected their direction. They were a very, very accomplished team for good reason. It was an honor to play against them. You think back and realize you played against one of the best teams not only in the UK, but all of Europe.”

That October matchup, though, was not the first time the Rowdies had faced Forest that year. Two months after claiming their second European Cup by dispatching Hamburg, Forest battled the Rowdies in front of a crowd of over 20,000 fans in a July exhibition at the old Tampa Stadium.

“When they came over here and we played them it was during the summer, so obviously the weather still favored us. It was hot for sure. We played to a 1-1 draw. And then we returned the favor by going over there for a match.”

Knocked out of the NASL playoffs in the Conference Semifinal early in September, the Rowdies quickly embarked on a six-game tour of the UK — with stops in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. Van der Beck nearly missed out on the rematch with Nottingham that closed out the tour.

“It was after the season and I’d left the team to go on tour with the U.S. team, but we also happened to be in the UK. So our coach Gordon Jago called me up and said he’d like to see me come and play for the Rowdies if it works out in the schedule and luckily it did for that match. I was up in Manchester so I had to make my way down to Nottingham and… it was not a good result,” Van der Beck says with a chuckle.

The scoreline from that day, a 7-1 result in favor of Forest, certainly lines up with Van der Beck’s description

“This was the last game of the tour. The Rowdies had played a bunch of teams in the U.K and were coming off a long season in the NASL. I think the guys were probably thinking about vacation at that point,” he explains.

While some of the Rowdies may have been daydreaming about sunny beaches on that day in the North of England, Van der Beck has vivid memories of the physicality and intensity Forest players brought to the match.

“I went to slide tackle this forward, a guy by the name of Ian Wallace. He was a Scottish international. Back in the day the fields weren’t what they are now. They were full of thick mud and there really wasn’t a heck of a lot of grass on them. Anyway, I just remember doing a slide tackle and his stud went right into the side of my knee. And this was only 15 minutes into the game. Here I am in my 50s and that’s something I haven’t forgotten at all to this day. It was a very physical game. That’s the way they played.”

Van der Beck and the Rowdies won’t have to worry about less than ideal fields this time around. They’ll be utilizing Forest’s more modern training ground during their first five days in England before moving on to train at St. George’s Park for the remainder of the trip. St. George’s Park serves as the primary training facility for England’s national team and also hosts world-class clubs when they are in town.

“I know the players, the coaching staff, and the whole organization look forward to this trip. It’s not just something we look at as ‘hey it’s just preseason.’ This is all about building for the start of our season. It’s very important for us that we get this kind of competition. As you can see, we played against D.C. United, Philly and then Montreal, and there was real progression. That’s what we’re working towards.”

Getting an up close look at how top-class players prepare, testing yourself against higher competition, and immersing yourself in the culture of soccer-mad countries as a young professioinal are all methods of development Van der beck can personally vouch for. Drafted by the Rowdies straight out of high school, he elected to head to England and train with Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Millwall in the offseason.

“I remember at that time Arsenal was one of the best teams in the UK. They had guys like Graham Rix, Liam Brady, Alan Sunderland and Brian Talbot. So I’m training on one field and you look over at the other field and you see the first team. So obviously none of this was a chore. It was honestly living the dream, playing professional soccer and getting the opportunity to train with one of the best teams.”

“I know that helped my development,” he continues. “You’re there in that atmosphere that is very difficult to describe unless you’ve experienced it. It’s not just training everyday with these guys. It’s going to the matches everyday on the weekend and seeing the crowd, watching the skill at that level, all of that at my age was pivotal.”

The start of the 2016 NASL season will be a little over two weeks away when the Rowdies return from England and Van der Beck says he and the rest of the organization are encouraged by what the roster they have built has shown halfway through the preseason.

“We’re confident but as the saying goes, even if it looks good on paper, you still have to go out every game and prove it,” he admits.”No matter when we play, or who we play, they all count.”