Matchday 19 Info:
Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Detroit City FC
Saturday, May 13, 7:30 p.m. ET
Al Lang Stadium, St. Petersburg, FL
Tickets: Click here to purchase tickets for the match or stop by the stadium box office starting at 4 p.m. on matchday.
Ruffs & Rowdies Night: Hang with your pup and watch the match together in the Bayshore Lounge inside Al Lang for Ruffs & Rowdies Night this Saturday. Purchase Ruffs & Rowdies tickets here.
Pre-Game Fan Zone: From 5:30 to 7:30 outside of Gate 2 at every home match this year, fans are invited to the Rowdies Pre-game Fan Zone featuring a DJ, face painters for young fans, interactive soccer games for fans of all ages, shaved ice from the club’s new partner Kona Ice, and many more activities.
Watch: Stream the match on ESPN+.
This Saturday, the Tampa Bay Rowdies are solely focused on maintaining the momentum from the positive performances in their last two outings. The Rowdies are aiming to claim their third straight win as they host Detroit City FC, who the Rowdies defeated 1-0 just two weeks ago in Detroit.
“Maintaining is an important word,” said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins. I think we’ve had two very high level performances. Part of the challenge in itself is just the consistency of doing it again. That’s what we expect. On top of that, there’s always room to improve. We could have been more clinical the last two games so we’d like to see ourselves taking more of those chances.”
Converting on multiple chances may be the goal this weekend, but Detroit are unlike to make that easy on the Rowdies. While Detroit sits second from the bottom in the Eastern Conference standings, they are among the most stingiest of sides in the USL Championship. Detroit’s keeper Nate Steinwascher’s 31 saves is tied for second most in the league and Detroit has yet to concede multiple goals in a single match this year.
“Of course you’d like to take every chance but that very rarely happens,” said Collins. “I think we could have made last week easier. You just never know what to expect from the last gameDetroit and ourselves have had some really tight games. There’s no reason to say this Saturday won’t be anything else. Hopefully we can keep making those opportunities and we’ve got the guys on the team that have proven at putting them away.”
Spaulding Fitting In
Ryan Spaulding hasn’t even been an official member of the Rowdies for a full month yet it feels as if he’s been here all along. Making his third league start for the Rowdies last Saturday, Spaulding broke open the scoring in the 10th minute with a give-and-go exchange with Charlie Dennis and a pinpoint cross for JJ Williams to finish off. All the Rowdies were awarded with USL Championship Team of the Week spots for their performances against Phoenix.
“It’s always great to get your first points for the team and it’s always great to be able to do that in front of the home fans,” said Spaulding. “Hopefully that just continues to progress, I continue to get more, and we continue to get more wins as a team. It’s been a pretty seamless transition for me. The guys on the team are great. They did a great job of welcoming me in and making me feel like a part of the team.”
Injury Report
OUT: Leo Fernandes (Achilles/Out for season), Lewis Hilton (ankle)
QUESTIONABLE: Jake Areman, Zach Herivaux
