It took a two hour lightning delay, three red cards, and eight minutes of stoppage time for the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Indy Eleven to end in a 2-2 draw on Saturday night.

The opening 20 minutes for the Rowdies were disturbingly similar to the Open Cup loss to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Wednesday. Coming off short rest, Thomas Rongen elected started Juan Guerra in place of Marcelo Saragosa in midfield and Rich Balchan for Darnell King at right back. The Rowdies struggled to develop any rhythm with the ball and therefore could not get anything going in Indy’s end of the field. The team never really turned the corner in this area and at the final whistle had only managed to force keeper Kristian Nicht into one save.

To their credit, Indy came out with much more energy in the opening stages and played some threatening balls out of the midfield and into the Rowdies penalty area. Center backs Tamika Mkandawire and Stefan Antonijevic dealt with them all well until the 22nd minute. Forward Brian Brown ran onto a teasing ball into the box and did well to collect it before playing it back for midfielder Dylan Mares. Neither Guerra, Richard Menjivar, nor anyone in a yellow shirt picked up on the trailing runner and Mares was free to pick his spot in the far corner to beat Matt Pickens.

Before the game could restart match officials suspended the match for lightning in the area. A little over two hours later, the skies were clear and the teams were given the go ahead to resume play.

The Rowdies were marginally better coming out of the break. Resulting more from what seemed like hesitancy from the home side, the Rowdies were able to play the ball in their opponent’s end for the first time. In the 28th minute, Corey Hertzog fired off the Rowdies first shot from inside Indy’s penalty area. Unfortunately, the shot posed no threat and sailed far over the crossbar. The two forward wings, Hertzog and Darwin Espinal had quiet matches and hardly connected with center forward Maicon Santos in any meaningful way.

Despite the struggles, the Rowdies were able to get on the board by way of a fortuitous deflection. In the 40th minute, midfielder Georgi Hristov, who produced some solid and intelligent play at certain points of the match, played a terrific cross field ball to find an unmarked Balchan. The defender took a hopeful blast that deflected off the inside right boot of an unaware Cory Miller and trickled past the even unaware Nicht to equalize.

Indy was able to regain some composure at the start of the second half and began to press the Rowdies in their own end once again. The choppiness of the game really picked up at this point in the game, with the Rowdies being getting the whistle blown against them far more often. A free kick 22 yards from the Rowdies net in the 57th minute was placed on frame to challenge Pickens for the first time since before the lightning delay.

10 minutes later the Rowdies would capitalize on a set piece of their own in a rare moment of class in the attacking end. Hristov sent in a beautiful corner kick that Santos rose to meet at the near post. The forward deftly redirected the header to the far post and over two Indy defenders and past an off-guard Nicht.

After that lovely sequence, total bedlam ensued.

In the 74th minute, substitute forward Robert Hernadez committed a foul on Miller and the defender took issue. He got off the ground and bumped his chest into Hernadez from behind. In turn, Santos took offense at Miller’s offense and charged in to separate the two with his hands. Indy center back Greg Janicki then got in the fracas and more shoves were thrown. In the end Miller and Hernandez were given yellows, but Santos received the worst of it with a straight red.

Darnell King came off the bench after the ejection to help shore up the defense and keep the slim lead intact. The Rowdies did well keeping their shape against the attempted surges from Indy and looked to be on the precipice of stealing all three points heading into stoppage time.

Then came more of that bedlam.

In the 89th minute, Antonijevic earned the second ejection of the night for the Rowdies when he was given his second yellow for apparent time-wasting. That’s going on word from inside the stadium because the time-wasting wasn’t caught on camera and the broadcasters never remarked on the reasoning for the yellow.

Center back Gale Agbossoumonde immediately came on after the ejection in his first competitive appearance for the Rowdies. The Rowdies needed all the help they could get with the fourth official indicating seven minutes of stoppage time.

Indy looked frustrated in the dying moments of the match and struggled to penetrate the penalty area. In the end, they wouldn’t need to penetrate when defender Kyle Hyland fired from 35 yards out as the clock ticked past the seventh minute of stoppage time. The shot was hit with tremendous pace and snuck just bounced off the bottom of the crossbar to find the back of the net.

Before the final whistle, Hristov was shown a red card for apparent dissent, likely while making his feelings known about the extra time that allowed Hyland to shoot and score.

The draw doesn’t officially eliminate the Rowdies from the Spring title race, but it does virtually give the Cosmos a lock on the short season. Heading into these final two Spring matches and the short summer break, the Rowdies focus should turn to the trouble areas that have cropped up throughout the short spring.

Does this core group of forwards have a player that will step up and become a consistent scorer? How can this midfield begin to impose itself on a weekly basis and provide quality service to the player up top? These issues need to be addressed if the Rowdies are going to separate themselves from the pack of NASL teams beneath Minnesota and New York fighting for the remaining playoff spots.

First though, they must overcome the suspensions of the three pivotal players and deal with a potentially lethal Edmonton side at Al Lang next week.

IMAGE, TAMPA BAY ROWDIES