by JAKE NUTTING

Carelessness was the story of the night for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in Minnesota on Wednesday night, as they allowed the home side to secure a 2-0 victory through their only two shots on target.

After a sloppy start to the match for both sides, the Rowdies were the ones to be punished for their giveaways. Under pressure in his own defensive end, left back Walter Ramirez made a major mistake in trying to switch the field and ended up gifting the ball to Minnesota’s Ben Speas on a platter. Speas made easy work of the opportunity, penetrating into the box before ripping a right-footed shot past Matt Pickens.

Despite going down, the Rowdies maintained possession, pressing into Minnesota’s end multiple times only to come up short. PC tried his luck after controlling a cross just outside the box, but his powerful attempt took a deflection off a diving Aaron Pitchkolan and clanged off the crossbar. PC then helped create the second-best look on goal for the Rowdies in the first half moments before the whistle when his cross to the near post was guided just wide by Carlos Preciado.

Looking to find a finishing touch, head coach Stuart Campbell inserted Joe Cole for the second half. Cole’s presence almost immediately lead to an equalizer in the 51st minute. Justin Chavez headed a ball down for Cole in the center of the box and the veteran got a off a decent shot on net, but he was denied by a spectacular sliding block from Damion Lowe.

Lowe had a hand in thwarting another promising chance for the Rowdies four minutes later. After initially misjudging a bounce to allow Georgi Hristov with a run in on goal, Lowe raced back and pushed Hristov to displace him as he went to take his shot that safely trickled into the arms of Sammy Ndjock. Hristov appealed for a penalty but the referee kept the whistle at his side.

Another turnover in the back dug the Rowdies even deeper in the 62nd minute. Stefan Antonijevic was unable to control an errant pass back from Cole and Speas pounced on the offering once again, this time centering to Pitchkolan, whose effort fell directly for Christian Ramirez to bang home on the far post.

The Rowdies continued pushing for something on the night and picked up an advantage late in the match when Jack Blake received a red card for tackle on Cole at midfield. The man advantage went squandered, though, as Tampa Bay’s ineffectiveness in the final third sunk them. Preciado threatened to cut the lead in half in the 88th minute with a shot from the center of the box, but Ndjock did well to swat the Colombian’s attempt away from danger.

The loss leaves the Rowdies in desperate need of a win on Saturday. They have now only won once in their last six matches, so with second-place FC Edmonton coming into Al Lang this weekend the Rowdies can ill afford to let any more points slip away.

IMAGE, NASL