Memphis 901 FC 4-1 Tampa Bay Rowdies: Brilliant Memphis movement leads to offensive explosion
Forest Lasso’s early sending off made things especially difficult for the Rowdies
The Tampa Bay Rowdies suffered their first defeat of the 2024 USL Championship campaign on Saturday, falling 4-1 to Memphis 901 FC. The match is likely a one-off for what is normally a very composed veteran Tampa Bay team. However, we still need to break it down.
The Rowdies played the majority of the match a man down after Forest Lasso was sent off in minute eleven for being the last man back on a Memphis attack.
But even before that, Memphis movement was leading to Tampa Bay losing their shape too easily. What was particularly shocking was the ease with which Memphis scored two goals right after descending off and how the rowdies at times in this match despite having veterans squad that is accustomed to winning loss their composure .
Photo from Memphis 901 FC Twitter
Tampa Bay looked the better side for the last 15 minutes of the first half and got a goal from Manuel Arteaga in that period and almost got an equalizer right before halftime.
What was stunning was how poorly the Rowdies came out in the second half. Marlon scored a wonderful goal minutes into the second half. Until Rowdies Head Coach Robbie Neilson inserted Charlie Dennis and Nick Moon ( both working their way back from extended injuries) around 65, It felt like Memphis was just toying with Tampa Bay. The score was 4-1 at that point and beyond the obvious talking points of the sending off and defensive frailty, we saw multiple bad decisions from keeper Jordan Farr for the first time all season.
Memphis was good going forward and had a cutting edge to them today, having seemingly turned their season with a 3-0 win in Birmingham last week. The Brazilian trio of Marlon, Nascimento and Bruno Lapa were brilliant. In Fort Lauderdale when we had a similar trio in 2015 (Stefano Pinho, PC and Marlon Frietas) we dubbed them the “Trio de Janiero.” This trio has looked every bit as good as that trio the last few weeks (though it must be noted Pinho is still going strong scoring goals now for Birmingham Legion).
But back to the Rowdies. The most glaring thing from my vantage point was the lack of composure and consistent play in midfield, for the first time since the match in Pittsburgh a month ago. Jordan Doherty in particular had a shocker, one of the worst matches I have ever seen him play in his two stints with the club. The good news is, even a man down, it felt like Moon and Dennis stabilized the match when coming on, and that last twenty minutes may give us the taste of the sort of control Tampa Bay can have even when down a man, down the road this season.
Thanks to Memphis 901 FC for providing us with the below quote from Coach Stephen Glass upon request. And as always thank you to the Rowdies who send us coaches comments every week here at The Florida Soccer Report.
Memphis Coach Stephen Glass
“We started the game great. Obviously we caused them a problem with the movement up top. It’s great to take the bull by the horns and take care of it. You can get in positions to score goals and when it doesn't happen you can get criticized but when the players execute the way they did it’s fantastic. I’m glad that they enjoyed a great day. Now we need to prepare for dallas. We’ll enjoy it but we need to move on because there's a very good chance if we can do that we’ll be playing Tampa again very soon. So we just prepare for the next one.”
Tampa Bay Coach Robbie Neilson
“I thought the boys were great after conceding the first two goals,” “We had a period where we were dominant, we were in control and we also managed to get the goal through Manu… The second half always starts with a bit more energy for the team with 11 players but, again, it’s a difficult one. Their player has a wonder strike and it comes right off the bar and falls right to the striker. When you play with ten men you have to ride your luck at times, especially for such a long period of time.”
I thought it was a harsh call as I put on Twitter but at the same time Lasso allowed the referee to have the opportunity to make a decision and in that case often times the red card is going to come out. It was early in the match, probably should’ve just let him go. He didn’t have control of the ball and was going to end up moving away from goal.
Memphis looks like they're finally pulling things together. Santos has a ton of talent, and when he's running hot, he's very hard to handle. I did think that Lasso getting sent off was too harsh, and not sure what is going on with the keeper. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise after all the way things went in San Antonio