The Tampa Bay Rowdies were able to close out the spring season unbeaten at home with a convincing 3-0 victory over the Atlanta Silverbacks. The Rowdies got the goals and the shutout they were hoping for in their match, but a hectic 3-3 shootout in New York between the Cosmos and Armada FC meant the spring title narrowly slipped out of their grasp.

Head coach Thomas Rongen rewarded the squad that performed superbly against FC Edmonton last week with another start this week. The only exception was Stefan Antonijevic, who returned to his regular starting center back role in place of Gale Agbossoumonde. After serving red card suspensions last week, leading scorer Maicon Santos and assist leader Georgi Hristov started the match on the bench for the first time this season.

The passing in the midfield area was once again crisp and the attacking unit showed positive signs connecting while moving up the field. However, the energy in the first 45 didn’t quite match the level against Edmonton and the forwards found the sound Silverbacks back line much more difficult to break down.

Despite dominating in possession, the Rowdies failed to produce many quality chances on net. The best chance of the first half came in the 37th minute when Brian Shriver found space on the right side of the penalty area to fire off a shot. Keeper Steward Ceus, though, had the angle closed down and was able to deflect the attempt away.

With some words of encouragement from Rongen at halftime the players were able to break through and find the necessary edge to take the victory.

“It was a flat first half,” said Rongen. “We addressed a few issues at halftime and the second half was much better, from an emotional standpoint. The tempo was better and obviously we were better in the final third, which was nice to see.”

Along with Rongen’s halftime pep talk, the Rowdies also received a wakeup call in the in the 56th minute. A cross from the left flank was whiffed on by Atlanta’s Matt Horth, but then fell into the path a sprinting Shaka Bangura. The forward laid out to beat left back Ben Sweat and keeper Matt Pickens to the ball and his shot bounced off the crossbar and then the far post before bouncing out of danger.

The Rowdies answered only four minutes later on a sequence that demonstrated the great awareness that Corey Hertzog and Darwin Espinal have developed with one another on the training field. Espinal penetrated the Silverbacks penalty area and beat his man to the endline before sending in a chip directly to Corey Hertzog on the near post. The ball came to him in an awkward position, but Hertzog showed great resourcefulness by redirecting the ball into the net with the upper right corner of his chest.

“All week, the coaches have been telling me to go to the near post,” said Hertzog. “When I saw Darwin taking his man on, the first thing that came to my head was to get to the near post. He shot it at me and I just tried to get anything on it. … I hadn’t scored since the first game and I’ve been working hard all season to get the second goal. It feels good to go into that break with confidence.”

After a relatively quiet night, midfielder Martin Núñez got the whole crowd at Al Lang field on their feet in the 75th minute with a sublime free kick from 22 yards out that Ceus knew absolutely nothing about. The goal was Núñez’s third of the season, which puts him in a tie with Maicon Santos.

The Rowdies continued to dominate and things only got easier after Atlanta’s Jaime Chavez received two yellow cards in the span of one minute and was ejected from the match in the 86th minute. Hristov would grab the third goal off the bench when he converted a penalty earned by Robert Hernandez in the 89th minute.

“We put ourselves in a good position going into the Fall Season,” said Rongen. “We haven’t lost at home, which is great. We’ve got a tough place to teams to play at now. There are a lot of positives from this 10-game Spring Season.”

Rongen is justified in crowing about the Rowdies home record. The Rowdies have won their last four matches in St. Petersburg and drew the one before that, earning 13 out of possible 15 points. For comparison, the club only managed 13 points at home in the entire 2014 season.

A big reason for that turnaround at home this year is the much-improved defense. The Rowdies have recorded four shutouts and are tied with the Cosmos for second fewest goals allowed (9). Veteran Tamika Mkandawire has been resolute while playing every available minute of the spring season at center back and has donned the captain’s armband for many of those minutes as well.

“We’re trying to turn Al Lang into a fortress and make it difficult for teams to come here. We’ve done that so far and long may it continue.” said Mkandawire. “I think we’ve worked very hard to keep clean sheets and to look after each other on the pitch. We defended as a team, starting from the front. I just think we’ve worked harder. We’ve got a great set of guys. We’ve been working very hard on the training pitch with all the coaches.”

The spring title may have eluded them, but there are many encouraging signs for the Rowdies heading into the Fall Season. The late surge of youngsters Espinal and Hernadez, midfielder Juan Guerra finding good form in the absence of Marcelo Saragosa for the final three matches, and one of the most consistent defenses in the league are all reasons to believe this team is a serious contender.

For all the talk of the Cosmos running away with the spring, the Rowdies only finished one point behind them on the table. A terrific showing for a totally overhauled roster that Rongen believes hasn’t hit its best stride yet. If only one or two close results (which are a frequent occurrence in this league) fall another way and the Rowdies are the ones who’ve punched their playoff ticket in June.

Rongen and company will be content to sit alone in second place heading in the Fall Season, though, as they look to secure one of the three remaining playoff berths. They’ll kick off the fall campaign against none other than Atlanta at home on July 4th.

IMAGE, TAMPA BAY ROWDIES