DETROIT — A long night at Keyworth Stadium ends with Detroit City Football Club claiming three points, defeating Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-0 on Saturday evening. Ates Diouf opened the scoring half an hour into the match, and Darren Smith added another just eight minutes later. Midway through the second half, rain arrived, causing a weather delay that lasted over 90 minutes. After the delay, both teams played a conservative final 20 minutes, allowing Detroit to secure the three points.
Head coach Danny Dichio continues to tinker with the lineup, as he has once again made a few changes from last week’s lineup that drew 1-1 at North Carolina FC. Carlos Saldaña once again got the start in goal, but the players in front of him were different for the first time in a few matches. Haruki Yamazaki, Michael Bryant, Devon Amoo-Mensah, and Matt Sheldon were the four defenders for the evening. Kobe Hernandez-Foster, Ryan Williams, Alex Villanueva, and Jeciel Cedeño made up the midfield, and the two attackers for the evening were Darren Smith and Ates Diouf.
Detroit controlled this match to start, which included two good goal-scoring opportunities from Le Rouge. The closest came from Kobe Hernandez-Foster in the ninth minute as his shot from outside the box flew just over the crossbar.
A free kick from Detroit City in the 27th minute found Darren Smith in the box, who headed it and forced the Tampa Bay keeper into a great save.
Off a turnover in the midfield in the 30th minute, Kobe Hernandez-Foster fed the ball to Ates Diouf, who was on the counter-attack and finished the job, putting the ball past Tampa Bay to give DCFC the 1-0 lead a half hour into the match.
Detroit City doubled the advantage just eight minutes later, as Matt Sheldon played a perfect ball to Darren Smith, who put it in the back of the net to double Detroit City’s lead.
For Smith, it was his second goal in two matches for Detroit City, and his first back-to-back goalscoring games since April.
Coming out of the half, Detroit City continued putting on the pressure, as in the 51st minute, Darren Smith found the back of the net for the second time on the night, but the goal was called back for offside.
After more than 90 minutes of a weather delay, play resumed just after 10 pm. It would be a very defensive battle to close out this game, as both sides struggled to create any scoring opportunities in the attacking third.
Detroit City made two changes in the 88th minute as Abdoulaye Dion and Jordan Adebayo-Smith came on for Ates Diouf and Darren Smith. Detroit’s final change of the night came in the first minute of stoppage time as Bilal Obeid came on for Kobe Hernandez-Foster.
Le Rouge would claim the three points on the night, moving them into fifth place in the Eastern Conference. With another clean sheet added to the stat sheet, Carlos Saldaña has made it four clean sheets in the last six matches across all competitions.
Le Rouge continues the home stand at Keyworth next Saturday, August 30th, for an inter-conference battle against San Antonio FC. Tickets for all Detroit City matches are available at www.detcityfc.com/tickets.
For more information about Detroit City FC, visit detcityfc.com and follow @DetroitCityFC on X and Facebook and @detroitcityfootballclub on Instagram.
Detroit City Starting XI – Carlos Saldaña, Haruki Yamazaki, Michael Bryant, Devon Amoo-Mensah, Matt Sheldon, Kobe Hernandez-Foster (90+1’), Ryan Williams, Alex Villanueva, Jeciel Cedeño, Darren Smith (88’), Ates Diouf (88’)
Detroit City Substitutes – Shane Wiedt, Jay Chapman, Abdoulaye Diop (88’), Carlos Herrera, Sebastián Guenzatti, Dominic Gasso, Bilal Obeid (90+1’), Jordan Adebayo-Smith (88’)
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Primary Media Contact: Jarrett Maki (Sports Information Director, jarrett.maki@detcityfc.com)
