Rowdies Have A Shot At Title In NASL Final

With 12 victories and seven draws in 27 games this season, the Tampa Bay Rowdies are hoping for win #13 in the final game of the regular season against the Carolina RailHawks in Cary, NC.

Lucky #13 would happen on the RailHawks home field. The Rowdies clinched a spot in the NASL playoff semifinals with a 1-1 home draw against these same RailHawks.

Actually, a win could push the Rowdies into a first-place finish, depending on how San Antonio Scorpions fare in their final against Minnesota. A Tampa Bay loss or draw would give the first-year Scorpions the league regular season championship.

Regardless of the outcome of the game with Carolina, the Rowdies will have a first-round bye and host one of the two semifinal matches.

Tampa Bay has finished fast in 2012, and goes into the final regular season with an unbeaten streak of 10 out of their last 11 matches. That includes five wins, the last a 3-0 victory over FC Edmonton, which was the Rowdies’ 10th shutout of the year.

In that win forward Daniel Antoniuk connected a powerful header on goal, after a great free kick by midfielder Luke Mulholland. Mulholland picked up his fifth assist in the season when he assisted on Andres Arango’s header against Carolina.

“This bye for us is huge going into the playoffs,” said veteran goalkeeper Jeff Attinella. “When you play a one-game elimination quarterfinal, anything can happen and last year is an example of that when we lost to Minnesota. In a home-and-home series like the semifinals and final, usually the best team comes through with the win.”