May 22, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Tampa Bay Rowdies News Release
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla – The Tampa Bay Rowdies run in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup came to a bitter end at Al Lang Stadium on Wednesday night. Despite putting the Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas under a barrage of pressure and creating a number of scoring chances, the Rowdies ultimately fell 2-1 in the Round of 16 matchup.
“I thought we were absolutely outstanding,” Rowdies Head Coach Robbie Neilson said of his squad’s performance. “I thought we totally dominated the game. It’s probably the best we’ve played since I’ve been here. We took thirty shots, which is the most we’ve had all season. We just didn’t seem to convert those chances.”
Dallas keeper Maarten Paes had a big hand in Tampa Bay being unable to convert on their opportunities on goal. Paes finished the night with 8 saves. In total, the Rowdies peppered Dallas’s net with 10 shots on target, hitting the post three times and seeing four shots blocked by a defender.
“I thought [Maarten Paes] was outstanding,” said Neilson. “Probably man of the match for them. From our perspective, we were super delighted with the players’ performance. I thought they were super aggressive, pressing, aggressive with the ball, creating chances. It just wasn’t to be tonight.”
Tampa Bay forced Paes into a save only two minutes into the match, as former FC Dallas Homegrown player and current Rowdies defender Eddie Munjoma nodded a header toward the near post off a cross from the corner. Paes managed to parry it away just in time. Four minutes later, forward Cal Jennings probed the goal with a strike from the top of the box that had the keeper beat but clanged into the post. Four minutes after that, midfielder Blake Bodily looked for goal with a headed effort but saw his attempt sail just over the crossbar.
Dallas opened the scoring shortly after Tampa Bay’s early flurry of chances. On Dallas’ first shot of the night, Patrickson Delgado found a window of space to blast a one-timed effort through a crowd of bodies in the box. In the 26th minute, Logan Farrington doubled the lead for the visitors with a left-footed strike to the bottom left corner.
“Obviously they have quality players, and if you turn off for one second, they can punish you,” said Rowdies captain Aaron Guillen. “We had a couple chances prior to that, if we could capitalize that then it’s a completely different game. It’s just a game of football that you need to…