Rowdies to be tested by Whitecaps’ defense

Posted Jun 4, 2010 by Nick Murray

Updated Jun 4, 2010 at 06:29 PM

The FC Tampa Bay Rowdies might face their toughest road test of the season on Sunday when they travel to Vancouver to face the Whitecaps.

The Whitecaps are undefeated at home in five league games this season, but more impressively have yet to concede a goal at Swangard Stadium. That will pose a challenge to the Rowdies, who have scored 11 goals in their last four games as part of a seven-game undefeated streak.

“We have brought in for this season some very good defenders,” Whitecaps coach Teitur Thordarson said. “They have really worked well together, but it’s not only about the defenders, it’s about the whole team, the whole team is defending well and working hard, so that it the main thing.”

In that regard, it’s no surprise that defender Nelson Akwari and defensive midfielder Luca Bellisomo were the club’s two nominees for the league’s Player of the Month award. But the depth of the Whitecaps squad, one of the largest in the league, means that while Rowdies coach Paul Dalglish has an expectation of how Vancouver will try to play, who will take the field is hard to peg.

“The thing with Vancouver is they’ve got that many players, you never really know who’s going to play,” Dalglish said. “There’s certain things that we worked on today with the games we’ve got coming up in mind. There’s a few things we weren’t doing well enough in the last few games for me, but the one thing other than concentrating on them, I think they’ll be pretty worried watching the game-tapes seeing how many goals we’ve scored in recent games.”

Certainly, the Rowdies ascent up the table has caught the eye of Thordarson.

“Their results have been pretty impressive,” the Icelandic coach said.

He believes, though, that after a positive performance against Toronto FC in its final Nutrilite Canadian Cup contest on Wednesday that his side will be ready for the challenge the Rowdies pose.

“We will continue to try to play our game and make teams adjust to our way of playing,” Thordarson said.

USTRUCK RETURNS: Rowdies defender Erik Ustruck, who hasn’t played since suffering a high ankle sprain in the Rowdies 1-1 draw with Miami FC on May 1, returned in a limited fashion to full practice on Friday, and depending on how he progresses could be available for the Rowdies home game against the Montreal Impact on June 12.

FOLEY UPDATE: Dalglish said that there were still some things that needed to be ‘ironed out’, but he was very hopeful Steve Foley would officially join the team as an assistant coach.

Foley spent some time at Rowdies practices since coming to Tampa from Ipswich Town. Dalglish has been highly appreciative of the insight and knowledge he has brought to the team.

“He was the first choice from the minute I got the job, I hold him in very high regard,” Dalglish said. “I know the players in the short time he was here think the world of him, so hopefully we can get the little loose ends tied up in the next couple of days and get him out here as soon as possible.”