Nashville SC vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies: Defensive mistakes doom NSC in 2–1 defeat
NASHVILLE — The good news is that for most of Tuesday’s match against Tampa Bay, Nashville SC were the better team. The bad news is that, for all their dominance, NSC had two major defensive lapses, and that was enough to send the Boys In Gold home with zero points on a night they really needed a result to bolster their position for the USL playoffs.
Seven minutes in, it felt like we were watching a horror movie we’ve seen too many times this season. Tampa Bay wins a (correctly given) penalty on a bang-bang play and Nashville SC goes down early. Instead of bunkering in for a 90-minute fight for three badly needed points, NSC spends the entire match climbing out of a hole it dug in the first 15 minutes of the match.
But to Nashville’s credit, they answered the bell and took control of the game, peppering in cross after cross into the penalty area. Then, in the 20th minute, Tampa Bay gave Kosuke Kimura just a little too much time on the ball a little too close to the penalty area, and he made them pay for it. Kimura sent in an early cross that went over the heads of two Rowdies defenders and found Lebo Molot running onto it at the far post.
Moloto delivered a low and unstoppable first-time shot to the near corner. The result was an equalizing goal.
Nashville stayed on the front foot for the next 50 minutes of play, controlling possession and sending in plenty of crosses — many of them dangerous. A Tucker Hume chip of keeper Daniel Vega was heroically cleared off the line. An unchallenged Lebo Moloto header five yards from goal was saved by Vega at point blank range.
Nashville were knocking at the door, and the game was begging for the Boys In Gold to deliver a winner.
Instead, in the 69th minute, Junior Flemmings sent in a relatively unthreatening cross that London Woodberry headed into the back of his own net for reasons known only to London Woodberry. It was as if he were trying to clear it over the byline for a corner kick; the only problem with that was that Woodberry was not to either side of the goal, but directly in the middle of it.
Conceding that goal seemed to kill off Nashville’s fighting spirit at last. It was all NSC could do for the final 15 minutes to keep Tampa Bay from doubling its lead. Moloto had a chance to bury a deflected shot in stoppage time, but his volley was well over the goal.
The loss means Nashville stays in ninth place in the Eastern Conference — one spot out of the playoffs, if the season ended today. Next up is fourth-place Charleston Battery, 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at First Tennessee Park.
