IMAGE, DAVE MARTINEZ, EMPIRE OF SOCCER

by JAKE NUTTING

Given his position as head coach of the New York Cosmos, it goes without saying that Gio Savarese is no fan of the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

However, his frustrations with the Rowdies reached a new height on Saturday night, after his team rallied from down 2-0 at home to win a match that saw nine yellow cards and a player from each side thrown out with a red card.

With the tone of a disappointed dad more than a rival coach, Savarese laid into the Rowdies for what he viewed as improper behavior in their third and final meeting with the Cosmos of the regular season.

“I think today we saw a team that is much better than the way they behaved,” Savarese said. “This team, against us, it’s like they’re looking always for an excuse to say why they’re losing.”

The Rowdies had strong protests to two penalties awarded to the Cosmos in the match, which erased the two-goal lead the visitors had snatched within the first 15 minutes. Rowdies assistant coach Raoul Voss was tossed from the match after the second penalty in the 65th minute, and some heated words were exchanged between him and what looked like the entire Cosmos bench as he made his way to the locker room.

Savarese didn’t want to hear any of it.

“We’re tired, I’m tired….” he continued. “They have a better team than just complaining so much. They’re a much better team. When they want to play, they’re a much better team. In the first half in Tampa [last month], we had a difficult time to find the ball. But, like in Tampa and here… I mean, they cannot always look for an excuse.”

Savarese’s harsh criticisms could have something to do with the public letter that Tampa Bay Rowdies owner Bill Edwards penned on the level of refereeing in the NASL after the controversial draw between the two teams three weeks ago. Both sides were irate with the referee in the that match — with Savarese even chasing the referee toward the locker room after the final whistle — but it was Edwards and the Rowdies who kept pressing the issue online days after the match.

“There’s going to be moments that I’m not going to agree with the referee in some of the things that I see and some of the decisions that they make, but for me, usually, it’s kept there,” Savarese explained. “I might be a little upset, but it’s not going to go more than it has to go.”

While Savarese might prefer to keep things in the past, some of his players had no problem admitting they felt the scales had been balanced out after Saturday’s win. A questionable penalty call late in the match three weeks ago that allowed the Rowdies to equalize in the final minutes was still forefront in their minds, even after clinching the season series against their rivals.

“They can say what they want but now they know how it feels, because we went there and we only got a point out of it on a dubious PK call too,” said defender Hunter Freeman. “That’s soccer, it comes around both ways, and for us it was on the right end tonight.”

In the end Savarese believe’s his team’s superiority over the Rowdies when it comes to pushing past grievances with the referee is what helped them prevail on Saturday and throughout the year in their matches with the Rowdies.

“Today we were better and we won,” Savarese put it bluntly. “We did what we had to do, regardless if the ref was a little bit for us or for them, it happens. We have many games that have gone the other way, like that [previous] Tampa game at the end. I think Tampa is a good team, they should focus on keeping on playing.”