It was supposed to be about Puerto Rico on Saturday night. It was the club’s fourth game ever, and first trip to the Bay Area. The parking lot was full of orange shirts and flags representing the American territory; Univision came to cover the madness.
But the party was cut short for the fans of the visiting team. Well, to be honest, you can’t cut short a Puerto Rican party. The Puerto Rican party never stops, but The Rowdies welcomed the newcomers with a 3-0 smashdown, kicked off in the 10th minute by international superstar Joe Cole. ESPN took the highlight reel and made Cole's goal number one on the top 10 plays, so now Cole can send it back to his native England to show those Brits he can still compete.
Cole stunned even the Rowdies fans with his flying bicycle kick goal that he scored in the upper 90 of the goal. Thanks to the internet, it's really easy for you to see the goal for yourself.
“It was nice,” Cole said. “It’s always nice to score the first goal in a game and it was a lovely goal. It’ll be a nice one to watch and send home for everyone to watch.”
A lovely goal it was, but not to be outdone, teammate Eric Avila curled in a monster beauty to get the Mob partying again, and to put the Rowdies up 2-0.
The second half? Well, that's a little fuzzy, I'm not going to lie. 45 minutes of a futbol fiesta will do that to you…
Puerto Rico probably had a few chances, but I’m so used to having a goalkeeper — and part-time brick wall that would make even Donald Trump sweat his wig off — making saves, I barely notice them anymore. I do remember goalkeeper Matt Pickens faced just two shots all night and saved both of them to post his fifth clean sheet of the season. Berlin Wall, eat your heart out.
You can’t cut short a Puerto Rican party. The Puerto Rican party never stops.
But the biggest highlight of the second half was coach Stewart Campbell’s cut-throat decision to overload Puerto Rico with even more offense in efforts to score another goal. Sit back and protect a two-goal lead? Not his style.
“We’ve had too many ties, especially at home, so I wanted the guys to go out and there and bounce back,” Campbell said.
Freddy Adu and Tommy Heinemann were late-game additions and it paid off because 15 minutes after entering the match, Heinemann made a statement by ending the game with a 90th-minute goal.
So, what more could a guy ask for? I watched the Rowdies put a WWE-sized smackdown and their top player score the absolute goal of the season, all while enjoying the greatest atmosphere sports has to offer. You can’t write a better story. Believe me; I’ve tried. Attendance was just shy of 6,000 Saturday night and it didn’t even take a famous rapper to draw them in. Obviously, there’s something good going on: Wins, fans and excitement. It's nice to see a winning Tampa Bay team these days. It gives you something to cheer for.
Except for the beer prices, which went up to $7 since last game. Come on, guys.
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2016.