Valentin's late tally earns Rowdies a tie

Honors ended even in the first meeting of the season between the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies and Miami FC as Julian Valentin earned a point for the visitors in the 81st minute of a 1-1 tie at Lockhart Stadium.

Chad Burt's corner from the right found Valentin unmarked in the penalty area 12 yards from goal, and his powerful header found the bottom right corner of the net, just eluding Miami goalkeeper Caleb Patterson.

"We worked on set pieces on Thursday, we worked on set pieces again Friday when we got here, what we wanted to do with certain things on corners and it was nice to get a goal from a corner," Rowdies coach Paul Dalglish said. "Chad's delivery was first-class and it was nice to get one of those balls in the back of the net."

That was the only Rowdies effort that eluded the Miami keeper, who was excellent in preserving a point for his side late as Long Tan and Aaron King were denied the chance to give the Rowdies a late victory.

"He was absolutely magnificent," Dalglish said of Patterson. "One the road you will take any points you can get, but at the end of the day when you count the amount of top saves their goalkeeper had we're disappointed not to be going home to Tampa with three points."

Miami (0-0-3) took the lead in the 40th minute, with former Major League Soccer MVP Christian Gomez driving home a shot from the left from 20 yards that appeared to take a slight deflection to leave Rowdies goalkeeper Daryl Sattler flat-footed as it beat him at the near post.

Early in the second half, though, Gomez was sent off, reducing the Blues to 10 men. After losing possession to Aaron Wheeler in midfield, the Argentine ploughed dangerously through the back of Wheeler's legs to try to win the ball back, and he was shown a red card.

That allowed the Rowdies (1-1-1) to get on the front foot and throw players forward in attack, but it wasn't until late that they were able to sustain strong pressure on the Miami goal.

After Valentin tied the game, King beat his defender on the right side of the penalty area and the ball came to Tan cutting in, but his shot from just outside the 6-yard box was blocked by the onrushing Patterson. Moments later, King played a good give-and-go with Wheeler, but Patterson's left foot kept the striker from his second goal, and Tan's effort on the rebound was blocked by a lunging defender that allowed the Blues to hold on for a point.

"We were just unlucky tonight that we couldn't take our chances," Dalglish said. "But regardless of the scoreline it was much more pleasing tonight that we carved out so many clear-cut goal-scoring opportunities."

The Rowdies will now host the Austin Aztex in their home opener next Saturday at Steinbrenner Field at 7:30 p.m.