USL Championship Matchday 14
Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Indy Eleven
Wednesday, June 25, 7 p.m. ET
Al Lang Stadium, St. Petersburg, FL
2025 League Records:
Rowdies: 2W-9L-2D, 8 pts, 12th East (1-4-1 at home)
Indy: 3W-4L-5D, 14 pts, 9th East (2-1-2 on the road)
Tune In: ESPN2
School Supply Drive: The Rowdies have teamed up with the Pinellas and Hillsbourough Educations Foundations to host a school supply drive at Wednesday’s match. Fans who donate four or more items will receive a ticket voucher for a future 2025 match. Donations can be dropped off outside Gate 2. For a list of requested items, visit rowdiessocer.com/-school-supply-drive.
Children’s Book Drive: Help put a book in the hands of a child in need this summer by donating new books for beginning readers to young adults. Books can be dropped off on the east side of the Al Lang Stadium concourse under section 301.
The national spotlight turns to Al Lang Stadium this Wednesday as the Tampa Bay Rowdies host Indy Eleven for a matchup set to air nationally on ESPN2. Tampa Bay comes into the match looking to pick up a much-needed win after a 2-1 defeat in Pittsburgh over the weekend. Following Wednesday, the Rowdies have a break in action before returning to the field for the Third Round of the USL Jägermeister Cup on Friday, July 4, at FC Naples.
“We definitely don’t want to go into the break with a negative result, but that’s the same as any other week,” said Rowdies Interim Head Coach Steve Coleman. “We want to be taking away the points that we deserve to take away, so the performance has to be our focus. The momentum we built doesn’t stop because we lost one game, but the momentum can only continue to build when we win games consistently. The break will be a chance for us to rest our legs for a bit, but it’s important we finish heading into the break in the correct manner with the positive result that we’re after.”
Build a Foundation
The Rowdies have dropped two of their three matches in June so far. In both of those defeats, the Rowdies fell behind by two goals early in the match by conceding back-to-back goals in five-minute spans. Heading into this week’s match, 8 of the 23 goals the Rowdies have conceded in league play this year have come in the first half hour of a match. That’s a trend the squad will need to reverse in order to start climbing up the table and into the playoff picture in the second half of the season.
“How you start every game is about concentration and the mentality and how approach everything from the first minute,” said Rowdies midfielder Lewis Hilton. “There are a lot of good teams in this league and it’s hard to keep coming back from behind and giving yourselves a mountain to climb. We definitely want to start the game well and build that foundation for a 90-minute performance.”
After last week’s loss in Pittsburgh, the Rowdies currently have the worst goal differential in the league and they are the only squad yet to record a shutout this season. Only Hartford and Phoenix have conceded more goals, and only Pittsburgh and Las Vegas have netted fewer goals.
“We’ve given ourselves too much to do in a number of different ways,” said Coleman. “Pittsburgh was frustrating because the two goals conceded put us on the back foot and then we started to find our way into the game after that. But we have to find our way into the game much earlier than that an try to be on the front foot in our own way. We need to make sure we’re on the front foot and play the game that we want to play it rather than chasing the game as we have done recently.”
Series History
Wednesday will mark the 20th competitive meeting between the Rowdies and Indy. Ten of the previous matchups between the two sides ended in a stalemate, with the Rowdies holding the edge with six wins in the other nine results. The Rowdies swept Indy in last year’s regular season series, outscoring Indy 5-0 over the two matches.
Rowdies Availability Report
OUT: Niyongabire
QUESTIONABLE: Fernandes
