Keita's Two Goals Not Enough in 3-2 Loss to Rowdies

Armada FC Public Relations | Aug. 8, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – In their best times this season, the Jacksonville Armada FC has been an ultra-aggressive team, but that approach worked against it on Saturday evening at Al Lang Stadium in a 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies despite a two-goal effort from Alhassane Keita.

Keita, who now leads the Armada in scoring with six goals on the season, became the second Jacksonville player this season to score more than one goal in a game after Pascal Millien’s two goal, one assist effort on June 13 at the New York Cosmos. Keita’s effort helped the Armada (1W-1D-4L North American Soccer League Fall, 4-4-8 Combined) make a game out of it with goals in the 53^rd and 67^th minutes.

Every Rowdies goal the Armada conceded, the same theme was present – wrong place, at the wrong time. In Tampa Bay’s first two goals, Jacksonville goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo was caught out of position after trying to cut off the angle. Tampa Bay forward Maicon Santos, who has scored four of his six goals on the season against the Armada, took a feed from Martin Nuñez and got a perfect angle on Gallardo in the seventh minute and put the ball in the back of the net despite the ball being deflected by Gallardo.

Santos doubled up his scoring in the 32^nd minute when he took advantage of a counterattack and got in a one-on-one with Gallardo, who dove toward the ball but missed, leaving only Lucas Scaglia back to guard the net. Despite Scaglia’s best efforts, Santos chipped it over Scaglia into the goal. Santos created another score in the 50^th minute when he juked out Armada defender Fabricio Ortiz at midfield and crossed it to Rowdies forward Brian Shriver, who fired it past Gallardo to put Tampa Bay up 3-0.

In the 53^rd minute, Keita tangled with Tampa Bay defender Tamika Mkandawire inside the box, who was called for the penalty when he took down Keita. Moments later, Keita fired his penalty kick past Rowdies goalkeeper Kamil Contofalsky in the bottom left corner of the goal.

The Rowdies (2-1-3, 7-5-4) nearly tacked on another goal in the 65^th minute when Santos got Gallardo all to himself again and Gallardo dove past Santos in attempt to cut off his angle, leaving an empty net. Santos then chipped it toward the goal, but Trejo dove in to kick the ball away, and Gallardo was able to jump on the ball.

Keita cut the Rowdies’ lead to 3-2 when the Armada were awarded a free kick just outside of the penalty area and he found a breach in Tampa Bay’s wall to sneak the ball past Contofalsky and into the goal.

Even though Jacksonville finished the final 11-plus minutes of the match with 10 men when Trejo was sent off after receiving a red card, the Armada continued to keep a furious pace and still saw scoring chances before running out of time.

The Armada will return to action at 7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday when they host the Carolina RailHawks at Community First Park. Tickets, starting at $10, are available by calling 1.844.2.Armada or visiting armadafc.com.

NASL Fall Season
Rowdies 3, Armada FC 2
Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015
Al Lang Stadium – St. Petersburg, Fla.

Attendance: 5,493

Scoring Summary:
TBR – Maicon Santos (Martin Nuñez), 7’
TBR – Maicon Santos, 32’
TBR – Brian Shriver (Maicon Santos), 50’
JAX – Alhassane Keita (penalty kick), 53’
JAX – Alhassane Keita, 67’

Discipline Summary:
TBR – Martin Nuñez (caution) 37’
JAX – Akeil Barrett (caution), 38’
TBR – Juan Guerra (caution), 62’
JAX – Lucas Trejo (ejection), 79’

Armada FC Lineup (4-3-3): Miguel Gallardo, Joseph Toby (Nicolas Perea, 64’), Lucas Trejo, Fabricio Ortiz, Jordan Gafa (Lucas Rodriguez, 64’), Lucas Scaglia, Akeil Barrett (Derek Gebhard, 82’), Jaime Castrillon, Jemal Johnson, Alhassane Keita (c), Pascal Millien

Armada FC Bench: David Sierra (GK), Lucas Rodriguez, Nicolas Perea, Ramak Safi, Tommy Krizanovic, Tyler Williams, Derek Gebhard

Rowdies Lineup (4-3-3): Kamil ÄŒontofalský; Darnell King, Gale Agbossoumonde, Tamika Mkandawire, Ben Sweat, Marcelo Saragosa (c), Juan Guerra, Georgi Hristov, Brian Shriver (Omar Salgado, 78‘), Maicon Santos (Corey Hertzog, 73‘), Martin Núñez (Justin Chavez, 87‘)

Rowdies Bench: Matt Pickens (GK), Rich Balchan, Richard Menjivar, Justin Chavez, Corey Hertzog, Robert Hernandez, Omar Salgado

Post-Match Notes:

• Keita is now Jacksonville’s leading goal scorer with six on the season. He is the second Armada player this season to score more than one goal in a game. Pascal Millien was the first to do it with his two goal, one assist performance on June 13 at the New York Cosmos.

• The Armada duplicated their final score with the Rowdies, also falling to Tampa Bay 3-2 on April 25 at Al Lang Stadium.

• The Rowdies now hold a three point advantage on the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the Coastal Cup standings. Tampa Bay has nine points, Fort Lauderdale has six points and the Armada are still looking to get on the board. Jacksonville is still mathematically in the Coastal Cup race but would have to win its remaining matches against Fort Lauderdale on Sept. 16 and Nov. 1 and Tampa Bay on Sept. 26. The Rowdies would also have to lose to the Strikers on Aug. 15.

• The Armada’s newest signee, forward Derek Gebhard, made his professional debut in the 82^nd minute when he subbed in for Akeil Barrett.