Pre/In/Post-game: Tampa Bay Rowdies vs FC Edmonton 4/14 7:30pm EST

I believe it's the other way around. More eye balls on the product is better for the league, even attendance.

 

Agreed. More people watching the better.

 

I would like that. If we lose however we are in trouble.

I hope Shane Hill isn't starting.

 

I sincerely hope Shane Hill does not start. I think we win this 2-0 or 2-1. But will take ANY win.

 

Gutsy victory tonight. Good to get three points in front of the home crowd. Hopefully the team will continue to gel.

Positives:

Mulholland again was the best player on the team. Workrate, skill, and composure. Just needs a bit more skill around him.

Atinella stopped shots when he needed to do so. Helped he was a bit lucky, too.

Yamada's blast saved all us Rowdies fans from a horribly frustrating draw.


Negatives:

Shane Hill taking free kicks. Why?

The defense nearly giving the match away repeatedly.

Both goalkeepers punting the ball the length of the field.

Go Rowdies. Get three more on Wednesday.

 

Pitch looked decent. Mob was great.

I sat by the sideline, and it was "stuffy" as all heck with euro snob fans and just casual fans. I think I'm going back to sit next to the mob. I couldnt nag on Shane Hill, taunt FC Edmonton players, and the high school referee we had last night.

Atmosphere was nice. Concessions were good. Overall a great time.

 

I agree with your positives and negatives.

I'll say that Hill and Yoshii need to be benched. Hill looked tired out there, and yoshii missed on 2 great opportunities to score. I say bench them bc I feel they do not add anything to the starting team.

Luke was a beast with Ambersley, and I think don't know why RH took him out and put Matt "Red Shoes" Clare in. That baffles me.

Attendance was good, but It appeared to me we had more people last year at the home opener than this year. I could be wrong though.

 

JP better get his play up to snuff, I was not impressed last night. Liability on the back line.

 

He did get burnt at times.

2nd half was a failure from a D standpoint. Missed tackles, missed clearances, etc. We almost gave the lead on 3 occasions. We just need to tighten up.

If Yamada is playing a flex position, modify our set up to a 3-5-2. Get Hill and Yoshii out, put Yamada in the middle just to go forward.

 

Hill is a lumbering ox. A yellow card (and then a red) waiting to happen. He can't beat anyone one on one.

Agree with the comment about Yoshi...although I would add Ambersley, too. Neither looked dangerous. Maybe it is just early season jitters, but we need a striker who really finish.

Some others have talked about moving Yamada up to midfield. I like that ideae a lot. I can see where we are trying to play a possession game, but are missing that player who is comfortable on the ball in the Dmid and won't just hoof it down the field.

Defense did scare me at times last night, but bottom line is if you don't score goals (and we should have scored more) then the defense is under pressure.

 

Good win, if not stress free. We should have definitely scored more goals and Edmonton were probably unlucky to not have scored, Stuart Campbell's great clearance off the line aside.

Three points is in the bag, though. That's what matters right now. The team will continue to gel and improve.

Shane Hill is a liability. Slow, bad first touch, gets beat one v one constantly, very poor passing beyond 5 yards. Why was he taking free kicks? Who the ******** knows, but fans are already tired of seeing him out there. He needs to be benched until he improves. No business starting on this team at this level.

What can I say about the attendance? It was terrible when you consider the Rowdies are officially back, the weather as gorgeous and there were no other major distractions in the Tampa Bay area.

Move the team to Tampa, period. End of discussion. If last night's attendance does not convince them then nothing will.

The fans that DID come out were as always very into it. That's great and all, but 3k for a home opener when we drew 4k last season and after the supposed buzz over the return of the Rowdies is embarrassing.

 

We had a great time last nite. I so happy that the season's started.

The Mob sounded great and I loved the tifo. Nice work Mob!

Bring on the Railchickens!

 

Nah, we're talking about attendance because it is very, very difficult to argue that this team WOULDN'T average a fair % higher if they were in Tampa. All else being equal.

I love downtown St. Pete more than I thought I would. Games at Al Lang aren't bad while the team figures out where they will build their own stadium, if ever. But that doesn't matter for squat. Of course you and I are going to go to games no matter where they are, but until and unless the Mob ever increases our numbers to a couple K we can't float this team all by ourselves.

In the meantime only drawing 3k fans to a home opener after finally acquiring the Rowdies trademark is astonishingly bad.

Obviously, there are no options in Tampa. They'd have to build which would require taking a chance. Something I'm not convinced they are willing to do.

It's really a shame because in many other ways they have made some nice improvements to how they are doing things. The game day atmosphere was much, much better last night. The stadium itself was much better branded, the vibe was good.

They just aren't selling tickets. We dropped 25% attendance from last year's home opener. In no way, shape or form is that good. It's quite the opposite.

 

I've disagreed with Charles over the years but he's right in 2012. This team is better off in Tampa. I've always been a huge ALF supporter but we've had the team there for two season and multiple lackluster showings by the fans. It's down right embarrassing.

Die hards and the mob like us can't support this team by ourselves and we all have been saying that since our first season. We need to be aggressive and market. Takes money to make money. Hit every demographic. Why doesn't the FO do it? There has to be a reason, and I want to know.

Shane Hill has already reached Stanley Nyazamba's status and it's our 2nd game in. What will happen if Shane Hill costs us a game with either his touch, decision making, or a foolish challenge? He needs to go. I don't care if he's the coaches son. Like we all agree: he's a liability.

Overall I'm stoked about the 3 points. I hope we can do it again against the Failhawks. It's just this attendance issue is the pink elephant in the room.

 

We still would be talking about this. What about when there's a USLPro team in Tampa next year. Will attendance be an issue? F*** yeah it will.

We need butts in the seats. We need more fans, and we need more excitement about this team. If it doesn't happen we'll be out a team or be playing the 3rd division.

 

Says the guy who trolls the Orlando board to insist that the Lions are inferior.

At least they know how to sell tickets

 

You've said a lot of dumb things.

That's one of them.