This USA Cup team traces its roots to the Rowdies, sort of

Posted Jun 25, 2009 by Tom McEwen

Updated Jun 25, 2009 at 04:44 PM

The thing about this is that this is a doggone good team, a hard-working team, a team that kept the ball away from Spain, then blocked and deflected shots before they got to the goal tender, that flat outplayed the undefeated Spaniards for the complete 2-0 victory in the Confederations Cup semi-final Tuesday.

  “They were perfect, perfect. They were ready, conditioned, out ran and outhustled the favored Spaniards. They deserved to earn one of the great sports victories in our lifetimes,” said Francisco Marcos, Tampa’s resident soccer guru.

Well, I know we got Rodney Marsh here,  and Cornelia Corbett, Perry Van Der Beck, Farrukh Quraishi, and so many others of the old Tampa Bay Rowdie ancestry around, but, Francisco was our first and now is back from Portugal to stay in his Tampa home. He is sending son Julian to Florida State.

The Spanish coach, Vicente Del Bosques, said it well when he declared, “we played a very difficult rival who took us head on.”

The Americans scored in the 27th minute, then again in the 74th of the 90. It was one of the greatest American soccer win in history, and terrifically significant, for this Federations Cup play in South Africa precedes the FIFA Club World Cup there in 2010. The USA squad was a complete and total underdog. Spain, the European Cup champs, had won 15 straight international games and were unbeaten in the last 35, dating to 1993.

The American seemed faster, more determined, in this one, and now face defending champ Brazil in the Cup Finals Sunday. It will be televised. The games are remarkably fast, with little kicking of the ball back and forth and approaching midfield; the part of the game that bores Americans. When the wonderful Tampa Bay Rowdies were in their heydays, plenty of us impatients thought the soccer field should be shortened, or the goal widened.

Van Der Beck is assembling a team this fall to in a revival of the Rowdies league next year.

Yes, the Rowdies are coming back. Yes, a new stadium for them still is planned in the Carrollwood area, on Bern Laxer’s old farm there, or nearby. Oh, yes, there have been objections already from neighbors, but soccer seems about to return to this place of so much popularity.

And, yes, Quraishi, of Brock Communications, said he’s behind it, and he is soliciting letters of support for another World Cup Bid for 2018 or 2022. And no, we can’t have the lousy deal we got the last time we went after and got the Cup for Florida. Games were planned for old Tampa Stadium until the Cup boys came and said there was not enough room on the sidelines between the field and the concrete wall. Cornelia
Corbett and I and Rick Nafe were there the day of that lament. No, there would be no change. The matches planned for us went to Orlando.

Orlando, which did nothing for the Jim Smith-led delegation that would win the Cup for Tampa in Zurich. It was a blow, but, the Cup did come to Florida and all the riches it brought along.

Van Der Beck made a couple of new points. Sure the roots, he said, of all this, trace to the Rowdies and their years here in the old league.

“We learned to love the game, the players, the fans, he said. “The kids began to play, and still do. Leagues were formed and now we are going to do more of it next year. The Rowdies (Oh, the Rowdies, are a kick in the grass), became an institution. They are still remembered for their success in marketing and in song, and in play. And so many stayed and became good citizens.’’

True. Don’t know of any in jail.
 
“It was a matter of advancing by building blocks,’’ said Quraishi. “They have stood in place. So, now we can go at again.”
 
And, by the way. You don’t need much more than a soccer ball, or something similar, and desire.
 
“Let me add this,’’ said Van Der Beck. “The sport really has caught on, to play, to compete. Today, the ball, the uniforms, the shoes are so different at the top. They are wonderful. And now, the American team is pretty much American. In other times, we’d use a lot of players from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean for our teams. Not now, not since the days of the Rowdies (Oh, the Rowdies’) and the Cosmos, of the pioneers like Rowdies owner George Strawbridge, and Lamar Hunt, and Joe Robbie.”
 
Be a proud moment, if it happens, when the new Rowdies of Van Der Beck and whoever owns the team can tell the band, yes, the Rowdie band in the north end zone, to strike up the Rowdies song so that the old Rowdies can assemble at center field and try to sing once again.