Matchday 22 Info:
Tampa Bay Rowdies at Indy Eleven
Saturday, July 30, 7 p.m. ET
Michael Carroll Stadium, Indianapolis, ID
Watch: Fans can stream the match on ESPN+.
Follow Along: Live updates on Twitter at @RowdiesGameday
This weekend, the Tampa Bay Rowdies are set for their first trip to the Circle City since 2019. They travel to face an Indy Eleven side that has struggled in the standings over the last two months, but wins have always been hard to come for the Rowdies in trips up to Indianapolis. In seven total away days versus Indy, Tampa Bay’s only victory was the club’s first trip there back in 2014 during Indy’s inaugural season.
“Where a team is in the standings doesn’t necessarily correlate with how difficult the matchup will be,” said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins. “On any given day, you can get the toughest game against a team you least expect it from. My expectations are we’ll have a very tough matchup. They’ve got a coach that’s working very hard to turn things around. It’ll probably be a very short time unt”Nicky showed everyone why we brought him here,” said Collins. ” He brought a real calmness, real quality on the ball. He’s got great fitness. What a great debut for Nicky. That was very pleasing to see.”
Indy snapped a five-match scoreless drought in last week’s home matchup with Memphis 901 FC but only secured a point in the match. Overall, Indy is winless in eight straight outings. First-year Head Coach Mark Lowry no doubt has impressive attacking options at his disposal with veteran forwards Solomon Asante and Stefano Pinho. The club also picked up a new option last week in a trade with Tampa Bay that saw Indy receive forward Juan Tejada and Indy send midfielder Nicky Law to Tampa Bay. Both players made their debuts for their new clubs last weekend and are likely to play key roles in the final stretch of the season.
Law entered at the half of last week’s 3-1 win over Atlanta United 2 and provided a steady influence on the match from center midfield.
“Nicky showed everyone why we brought him here,” said Collins. ” He brought a real calmness, real quality on the ball. He’s got great fitness. What a great debut for Nicky. That was very pleasing to see.”
Historic Scoring Pace
Heading into the weekend, the Rowdies sit second in the league’s scoring charts with 44 tallies through their first 21 matches. This year’s squad is outpacing all previous seasons by a large margin. At this point last year, the Rowdies has notched 33 goals, which itself was a club-best compared to all past seasons in the modern era.
“I look at previous seasons, with how well we’ve done and how strong we’ve been, and I don’t think we’ve ever created the quantity and quality of chances,” said Collins. “I believe it’s only a matter of time before you start converting when you create like that, and we have. Saturday was the most shots any team had in the league up to that point. We’ve worked hard and we’re constantly trying to get better at that part of the game.”
Stacking Up Current Unbeaten Run to Seasons Past
The Rowdies head to Indy aiming to extend their unbeaten run to 12 straight matches. If they are successful in doing so, they’ll match the second longest unbeaten run in the club’s modern era, which was recorded during the 2021 season. The longest unbeaten run of 13 matches was registered at the start of the 2019 season.
Upcoming Milestones
- Sebastian Guenzatti is two goals away from breaking the Rowdies all-time scoring record of 60 goals held by Georgi Hristov.
- Guenzatti is 2 appearances away from his 150th appearance for the Rowdies. He currently ranks second in the modern era.
- Lucky Mkosana is 4 appearances away from his 100th appearance for the Rowdies.
- Keeper CJ Cochran is two clean sheets away from his 30th USL Championship shutout.
Injury Report
OUT: Robert Castellanos
QUESTIONABLE: Conner Antley, Thomas Vancaeyezeele, Lucky Mkosana
