ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Half-an-hour into the Tampa Bay Rowdies’ third game in nine days on Sunday night at Al Lang Stadium, the hosts were clearly in need of a spark.

It came in the form of Malik Johnson, and a tactical decision by Head Coach Neill Collins, and was enough to see the hosts reach the halfway point of the regular season undefeated.

“It was just the thought of giving Malik an opportunity out there,” Collins said postgame of the decision to switch Johnson from the left wingback position to the right. “He’s done really well out on the right, we’ve seen him cause teams problems on the left and we made the change and as the game opened up Malik got more of the ball and him and Jordan Scarlett seemed to have a good relationship down there. They’ve built some chemistry.”

After going behind early to in-state rival Miami FC on a classic counterattack goal by Sebastian Velasquez, the Rowdies’ best chance to equalize in the first half originated from the same area Johnson was about to take over. A nice move inside from the flank by Musa Dumbuya and slipped pass to Juan Tejada produced an opening in the right side of the penalty area, only for Miami’s debutant goalkeeper Martin Gammiero to get off his line and smother the Panamanian’s finish.

After Johnson and Dumbuya switched positions, however, things really began to tilt in the Rowdies favor. The final 10 minutes of the first half saw pressure start to build as the young Canadian went after Miami left back Othello Bah. Before halftime, Bah had received a yellow card for bringing Johnson down just outside the penalty area, and Miami at times looked to double-team him to try and negate his influence.

The pressure on the right side continued into the second half. Twice, Johnson broke free but was unable to find the final pass from the right side of the penalty area. On the third attempt, as the defense gave him room to deliver from wide on the right side – lest they close too soon and get beaten off the dribble again – Johnson’s aim was perfect. So was Lucky Mkosana’s header at the near post as it picked out the right corner of the net to give the Rowdies their equalizer.

“We know Malik can play both sides, as can [Dumbuya] and Seb Dalgaard, but I think the game from that point started to settle down for us and started to take a bit more control,” said Collins of making the move to put Johnson on the right. “It was nice to see Malik get 90 minutes in a very positive performance.”

It’s been anything but nice for opposing defenders to see Johnson square up to them over the past year-plus. After an injury setback delayed his arrival on the field in both the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the 21-year-old has been a key pressure point coming off the bench so far this season. With a quick first step that he’s now catching more defenders off guard with regularly, Johnson has – according to Opta – completed 91 of 154 dribbles since July 1, 2019.

That’s more completed dribbles than any other player in the Championship over that span, and has turned into five goals, seven assists, 31 chances created, and eight big chances created for his side. There’s still more to work to do for Johnson to become a finished product – finding a better final ball or finish would put his numbers closer to those with similar baseline dribbling numbers like Tyler Pasher, Junior Flemmings and Cristian Parano in the league’s elite – but it’s clear he’s closing the gap as quickly as he burns opposing fullbacks.

In some ways, that matches the way Collins is looking at his squad as it reaches the halfway point of its season. The Rowdies have accomplished a lot already with the second-best points total in the league but both they and Johnson have maybe only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

“I think from a points perspective, 18 points in eight games, excellent. Unbeaten, excellent,” Collins said in assessing his team eight games in. “But, from a technical point of view and a performance point of view we’ve just scratched the surface in terms of the performance, which I think’s a positive in a way that we know we’ve got a lot of room to grow.

“We’ve got really, really honest players, and once they keep building the chemistry and the confidence, I expect to see performances increase. Hopefully, that matches with where the points continue to increase.”