FC Tampa Bay packs their bags and hops on a plane flight up to the wild north to face the NSC Minnesota Stars in the first matchup between the two teams this season. With their most recent victory, Tampa Bay now has nine points and is currently fifth in the NASL in points, with a game in hand over two of the teams ahead of them in the standings.
|
TEAM |
GP |
W |
T |
L |
GF |
GA |
PTS |
|
Carolina RailHawks |
8 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
18 |
8 |
19 |
|
FC Edmonton |
7 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
10 |
13 |
|
NSC Minnesota Stars |
8 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
12 |
9 |
12 |
|
Puerto Rico Islanders |
6 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
|
FC Tampa Bay |
7 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
7 |
7 |
9 |
|
Fort Lauderdale Strikers |
7 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
9 |
11 |
7 |
|
Montreal Impact |
6 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
7 |
8 |
4 |
|
Atlanta Silverbacks |
7 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
11 |
2 |
With a win, FC Tampa Bay could move into the top half of the table, which is exciting considering that they only ended a 5 game winless streak on Saturday. NSC Minnesota, on the other hand, had a 4 game lossless streak come to an end on Saturday when they lost to FC Edmonton.
After their most recent shutout, Tampa Bay has nearly matched (3) the number of shutouts they had all last season (4). For his work in net rookie goalkeeper Jeff Attinella (who was pressed into service following a season-ending injury to first-choice keeper Daryl Sattler) earned NASL Defender of the Week honors. FC Tampa Bay has allowed fewer goals than any other team this season.
One of the defenders is very familiar with Minnesota. Andres Arrango, signed by Tampa Bay in the off-season, spent the entirety of last season playing for the Stars and logged more minutes on the pitch than all but one of his former teammates.
The match starts at 8:30 PM and can be viewed for free at FCTampaBay.com. We can only hope they don’t all come back sounding like they were extras in Fargo.