Tampa Bay Rowdies post perfect May with 5-game win streak
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - This season, Tampa Bay Rowdies forward JJ Williams just wanted to win.
"Finally, I want to be in a place where you can win a bunch of games. That's a massive thing for me," he said.
In fact, Williams wanted to win so much that he signed with the Rowdies in the offseason and took his chances with a team that is usually near – or at the top – of the USL Championship standings.
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But at the beginning of the season, Williams found himself on the bench, rather than on the pitch.
"It's a tale as old as time, certainly in my five years with the Rowdies, of guys that have had to spend that time on the bench," said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins.
Needless to say, when Williams eventually saw the field, he wanted to leave little doubt that the field was where he belonged.
"It's a great lesson for anyone that's finding themselves on [the bench] that if you put the work in, you can quickly turn things around," Collins added.
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After cracking the starting 11, Williams started to shine and scored five goals in five games in the month of May, including the team's third ever hat trick in the team's 5-1 win over Detroit City on May 13.
"For me, that process was just focusing on myself and controlling the controllables every day," said Williams. "I did that, and I'm just trying to continue to do it."
As much as a catalyst Williams has been for the Rowdies, his success has been just a piece of a puzzle that has catapulted the Rowdies from the bottom of the standings to the top.
"When you start a winning streak, it always has to start somewhere," said Collins.
That "somewhere" for the Rowdies was May.
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Through five games, the Rowdies posted a perfect (5-0-0) record in May and jumped up the standings from second to last, to second place.
"Intensity is kind of the name of the game for us," said Rowdies midfielder Ryan Spaulding. "I think when we're all on it, it's tough to beat."
The results may not have been there for the Rowdies at the start of the year, but the players and coaches believed they would come, eventually.
"This May showed it, but I think we're capable of even more throughout the rest of the year," said Spaulding.
With the wins finally coming, players like Williams believe they won't stop coming anytime soon.
"We are not even close to our potential," he said.
Meanwhile, the Rowdies face a tough task on Saturday with first-place Sacramento Republic coming to town for a 7:30 p.m. match at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg.