The Basics
Tampa Bay Rowdies at Richmond Kickers
Saturday, May 12 – 7 p.m.
City Stadium, Richmond, Virginia
Follow us for live updates on Twitter at @RowdiesGameday
How to Watch
The match will be streamed live on ESPN+ here. It will be available on the USL’s YouTube channel for those viewers outside the United States in regions where ESPN+ is not available.
Watch Party
Head to Big Storm Brewing Co.’s taproom in either Pinellas or Pasco on Saturday afternoon for the Rowdies’ official watch parties. If you wear Rowdies gear, you’ll get $1 off all pints. The Pinellas taproom is located at 12707 49th St. N, Clearwater. The Pasco taproom is located at 2330 Success Dr, Odessa.
Records
Richmond: 2-4-1, 7 points, 13th place
Tampa Bay: 4-4-0, 12 points, 7th place
Series History
The Rowdies are 1-0-1 (W-L-T) against Richmond all-time in a series that only dates back to last year. Tampa Bay beat the Kickers 1-0 in its home game before drawing 1-1 in Richmond on June 17 of last year. In that match, Franck Tayou scored the equalizer deep into stoppage time for the Kickers.
Rowdies Notes
The Tampa Bay Rowdies head to Richmond for their third-consecutive road match in USL play having lost the first two. Tampa Bay has one of the best home records in the league, having gone more than a calendar year since losing a regulation match at Al Lang Stadium, but playing on the road has been an entirely different story.
Since beating North Carolina FC 3-1 away from home on the opening season of the weekend, the Rowdies have lost all four of their road matches. Tampa Bay lost 1-0 in Louisville, 5-0 in New York, 1-0 in Charleston and then 3-0 at Penn FC last weekend. Tampa Bay went 3-6-7 (W-L-T) away from home in 2017 and 3-8-5 (W-L-T) in 2016.
Jack Blake’s 90th minute goal at NCFC on March 17 was the last goal scored by the Rowdies away from home. It has been 360 minutes, four full matches, since then. In that time, the Rowdies have conceded 10 goals.
Despite that four-game scoring drought on the road, the Rowdies are still third-best in the Eastern Conference with 12 goals scored, behind only New York (16) and Cincinnati (15).
Following this match, the Rowdies will make their 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup debut in a Second Round match in Jacksonville against the Jacksonville Armada FC on Wednesday, March 16, before returning home for a USL match against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on May 19.
Scouting Richmond
Tampa Bay will get the chance to face off against former Rowdies forward Brian Shriver in this match. Shriver, a Clearwater native, played for the Rowdies in 2014 and 2015, making 58 appearances and scoring four goals. He has scored twice in seven matches for the Kickers this year.
Richmond is 2-1-1 at home this season and unbeaten in its last three matches at City Stadium. After losing 1-0 to Indy Eleven in their home opener, the Kickers have beaten North Carolina FC 2-1, drawn 1-1 against the New York Red Bulls II and beaten Toronto FC II 2-1.
The Kickers are yet to keep a clean sheet this season, having conceded 13 goals. They’ve scored only eight goals, just more than one per match on average.
