by JAKE NUTTING

The revamped Tampa Bay Rowdies attack certainly looked prettier compared to last year, but it was still missing the most important thing in Saturday’s home opener: finishing. The Rowdies squandered their otherwise dominant performance against the visiting Indy Eleven by failing to produce any quality in the final third and ended their first bout of the 2016 campaign in a scoreless draw.

“I think when we go from back to front; overall we have to be happy,” said Head Coach Stuart Campbell The only thing, and it’s a big thing, is we didn’t score. We didn’t turn our domination in possession or when we broke their lines into goals.”

Center back Neil Collins and Justin Chavez were surprise starters for Campbell. Collins paired nicely with captain Tam Mkandawire, while Chavez got the nod to start as a defensive midfielder alongside newcomer Michael Nanchoff.

Things looked slightly dicey for the Rowdies in the early stages of the match as they found themselves a step behind Indy. Fortunately, the visitors lacked any potent finishing and keeper Matt Pickens did well to come off his line and boot away their only dangerous effort during the period.

Going forward, forward Tommy Heinemann found himself close on two enticing through balls from the midfield. The best chance of the pair was in the 19th minute when opposing keeper Jon Busch charged all the way to the top of the box to snuff out Heinemann in the nick of time.

Past the 15th minute mark everything was going the Rowdies way. The attacking midfielders, Kalif Alhassan, Junior Burgos and Eric Avilla (all newcomers to the team) finally settled in and managed to string together some pieces and put Indy on their back foot.

After pinning Indy down in their end for a sustained period, the Rowdies finally got a shot on goal in the 39th minute. Alhassan sent a high-arching pass to an unmarked Heinemann on the far post and he hit the volley with pace, but a defender was able to run over and dive into position to block by the time the ball reached striking distance.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Rowdies committed more to playing the ball on the wings and found some success in doing so down the right hand side with Darnell King. The right back was left wide open to streak down the right flank several times, but his final ball never found a teammate in a good position.

“We looked to free up our full backs,” said Campbell. “We wanted our wide players to start wide and roll inside and create the space because as soon as Indy turned the ball over, they got back quick. When Indy did advance into our half, that’s when we had to go quick. At times we did, at times we had too many chances where one passed one too many times.”

The best chance of the game for Tampa Bay came only seven minutes into the second half. After a nice interchange down the left flank, Alhassan made a penetrative run and slipped a pass back for Heinemann. He quickly fired a shot with his first touch from five yards out, but it was directly at Busch and the keeper made the save look easy.

Indy came up with two quality chances against the run of play only to be thwarted by Pickens. Second half substitute Gorka Larrea whipped in a cross that looked to be curling on frame and Pickens came up huge with a reflex save. After a couple deflections, the ball fell to forward Eamon Zayed, who volleyed a shot on net that Pickens had no issue knocking away.

In search of a spark, Campbell brought on last year’s super sub Darwin Espinal and Georgi Hristov in the final stages of the match. The two showed positive play — Espinal in terms of aggression and Hristov with smart possession play — but their efforts never amounted to serious threats on goal.

“We tried to be too intricate,” admitted Campbell. “Sometimes you’ve just gotta pull the trigger or flash it across goal. But I was pleased with the way we progressed into that final third. As I look back, we had some good chances that you expect to score at least one of them. If we do that, then Indy have to open themselves up and come at us.”

There were clear signs of encouragement for Campbell the Rowdies in their first action of the year, although there will clearly be things to keep improving upon as the season progresses.

“I think just everybody takes a big breath because there’s been such a build up to opening day,’ Campbell said about moving forward. “We were so desperate to put in a performance, and I think we did put in a performance. It’s just with the first game and all the hype, everything can settle down and focus on a good game next week.”

The Rowdies head down south next weekend for their first match up with expansion side Miami FC, who were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw when after allowing the Fort Lauderdale Strikers to notch a goal in stoppage time.