Fresh off the Rowdies 10 day trip to Portugal Head Coach Thomas is feeling upbeat about his squad’s progress.

“From a results standpoint we were very happy. From a team bonding and a continuation of fitness we were very, very happy.”

Tampa Bay left Portugal with two wins, one draw, and one loss under their belt. The only down note that Rongen mentioned Tuesday afternoon was the performance in the final game of the trip, a 1-1 draw with Alcanenense of the Portuguese third division.

“I wasn’t particularly happy with the way we performed in our last game, just from a playing standpoint. And that will come over time when guys play more together, that’s still a process that will probably take a little bit longer than some people might think.”

Rongen brought up fatigue after playing several matches in a short period of time as another possible factor for the lackluster performance. Despite this there were many positives for the club to take home, particularly the solid performances from the group of first time professionals, made up of Darwin Espinal, Zac Portillos, Marquez Fernandez, Jeff Michaud, and Chris Glodack. Espinal in particular shined with two high quality goals that demonstrated awareness, aggressiveness and superb technical ability.

“… Darwin, who had a great trip in Portugal and he becomes better and better each and every day. And that’s one of the things that we like in our young players. They’re all very coachable and are making progress.”

The trip also went along away towards the process of building team chemistry on and off the field. This is a crucial factor in the preseason considering that with almost 20 new players on the roster the team is basically an expansion team according to Rongen.

“I think we’ve made some great strides. The first thing is to obviously get fit. Second thing is to create a good atmosphere in the group. So Portugal was great for that. We did a lot of team bonding, which is important. And we’re also trying to fine tune our starting XI, there’s no doubt about it”

That starting XI is not quite locked in yet. Fans should expect more tinkering and experimenting over the next few games before the team heads up to Jacksonville to close out the preseason. Rongen is hoping to have settled on a starting XI by that time in order to give the group at least two solid matches prior to the Spring season kick off in San Antonio. After Portugal there are 7 or 8 players in his eyes who have established themselves. So only a few more spots are up for grabs. Rongen is more than happy with this kind of competition so close to the season.

“That’s great because competition is healthy. We’ve got quality and we’ve got depth at all positions, which is good to see.”

Interesting notes that came from our conversation with Coach Rongen