Saint Louis FC lost 4-1 against Tampa Bay Rowdies and extended its winless streak to 9 games. Two goals in 3 minutes put Tampa ahead and Saint Louis couldn’t recover. The starting lineup had 3 changes. Tomas Gómez, Matt Bahner and Sean Reynolds replaced Jake Fenlason, Bradley Kandem Fewo and Paris Gee.   

Tampa Bay controlled the possession in the first five minutes and Saint Louis couldn’t get out of its half of the field. Saint Louis started to take possession and had a chance to score in the 12^th minute but Lewis Hilton’s shot from outside the box was blocked. Tampa scored its first goal in the 33^rd minute through a header from Sebastian Guenzatti after Leo Fernandes beat Matt Bahner and his cross found Guenzatti. Three minutes later, Lucky Moksana got a rebound inside the box and passed it to Guenzatti who had time to turn around and shoot for the second goal. The first half ended 2-0.

On the second half Saint Louis was expected to attack and look for changes to reduce the deficit but Tampa had the best changes and Tomas Gómez had two saves in the 57^th and 59^th minutes. Kyle Greig had a change in the 63^rd minute but his shot was stopped by goalkeeper John McCarthy. Leo Fernandez scored Tampa’s third goal in the 78^th minute after a pass from Shawn Barry. Kyle Greig scored for Saint Louis in the 87^th minute. It looked like the game was going to end like that, but Tampa scored one more through Caleb Richards in the 90^th minute. New players Masta Kacher and Collin Fernandez had some minutes in the second half and showed interesting things.

Another loss and the team continues its bad streak. Defense was beat by Tampa in a lot of 1 and 1 duels and on the goals left spaces that allowed Tampa to cash in. On the first goal there were three players near Guenzatti but somehow he ended alone for an easy header. This isn’t the solid team we saw at the beginning of the season and results are now urgent. Next week, Saint Louis will host Bethlehem Steel FC.