by JAKE NUTTING

Joe Cole tried his damnedest, but not even his second-half brace on Wednesday night against Indy Eleven was enough to salvage a result for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, as a late concession sunk them both in the match and possibly the race to clinch a postseason spot.

With everything to play for, the Rowdies somehow lacked urgency in the opening half hour and, for the second straight match, quickly found themselves in a two-goal hole.

Indy’s Duke Lacroix first turned on the afterburners to blow past Keith Savage and slip by Tamika Mkandawire just outside the penalty area with a slick nutmeg before slotting a shot into the bottom left corner in the 16th minute.

Lacroix then embarrassed Tampa Bay’s back line to set up Indy’s second goal in the 33rd minute. A sharp cut inside by the speedy attacker out on the left flank enabled him to race by Darnell King and turn the ball back toward the endline. Eric Avila came in to close the chance down, but Lacroix managed to dish a pass (through the legs of Mkandawire once again) for a totally unmarked Jair Reinoso to blast across the line.

“With what was at stake, we didn’t show enough aggression or enough tempo in our play until we were 2-nil down, which is mind-blowing, really,” said Rowides Head Coach Stuart Campbell. “That start we had to the first half cost us the game tonight. … We knew what was at stake and we went out there as if we were the team that was set in the playoffs. It’s very, very frustrating.”

Like last week’s comeback draw in Miami, the Rowdies finally appeared to get the message that they were meant to be fighting for the final postseason spot.

Just two minutes after Reinoso doubled the lead, Martin Vingaard provided the Rowdies with their first threat on goal when he collected a clever pass from Cole and fired a blistering shot from the edge of the box that clanged off the crossbar and fell back into play.

The Rowdies continued to push for something to hang their hat on during the halftime break and appeared to find it when Cole put the ball into the back of the net twice, but both chances were correctly called back as offside.

Cole’s persistence paid off only eight minutes into the second half, though. Georgi Hristov controlled a loose ball inside the box and rifled a shot that required a diving save from Keith Cardona, but Cole was the only player to follow the shot and was more than happy to clean things up with a simple finish.

Continuing to grow in confidence, Cole pulled the Rowdies level with a sublime strike in the 68th minute. Indy made the mistake of gifting the ball back to the English veteran after initially clearing his free kick into the box. and he made sure they regretted the error by picking out the top corner of the far post with expert precision.

As was the case last week, the third goal eluded the Rowdies despite dominance in nearly every facet. Cole was the only player to register a shot on goal in the final 20 minutes of the match. Unlike Miami, though, Indy exploited Tampa Bay’s ineffectiveness and stole all three points with a goal against the run of play in the 85th minute.

While the Rowdies were pushed up the field searching for a winner, Indy took advantage of lax defending to seal the match at 3-2. A seemingly innocuous build up for Indy turned lethal in a hurry, as an unchallenged Nicki Patterson was left to bury a 20-yard shot.

“It’s absolutely devastating,” Campbell said. “We had them penned in for longer than 30 minutes in that second half and I really thought we were going to go and get the third goal.

“I’m really disappointed with their third goal. We’ve gotta go and step. We have to step. The lad controlled it, he didn’t really look like he wanted to shoot at first, but then it just seemed to open up to him and credit to him, he’s hit a great strike. But I think we’ve got to step to the ball to really narrow the angle down.”

Now trailing Minnesota United and Rayo OKC by three points in the combined standings with just six points left up for grabs, the Rowdies must hope that neither team earns a win in their final two matches. One more three-point result for either side would mean the Rowdies could only hope to pull even on points and sneak into the postseason if they somehow make up ground in the tiebreaker of goal differential. Minnesota and Rayo OKC have a differential of +6 and +3 respectively, while the Rowdies are now even at 0 after the Indy loss.

The Rowdies play their home finale against Ottawa Fury FC this Saturday before closing out the Fall Season with a trip to Jacksonville Armada FC next weekend.

IMAGE, PATRICK PATTERSON/UNUSED SUBSTITUTES