WHO:

Tampa Bay Rowdies, 6-4-6, 22 points, 9th place Eastern Conference

WHAT:

A regular season USL match

WHEN:

Saturday, July 7, 2018, 7:30 p.m.

WHERE:

Al Lang Stadium, 230 1st Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701

WATCH:

The club’s sponsored watch party is at HopCat on Bardstown Road this week, and they’ll have Falls City’s Louisville City Golden Ale on tap. If you can’t make it there, you can probably watch it at Against the Grain, Saints, Falls City Taphouse, or Molly Malone’s, too.

TV: WBKI
RADIO: 840 WHAS
STREAM: ESPN+

WHO, AGAIN?

Times have really changed since the last time Louisville City played Tampa Bay. Back in March, everyone expected the Rowdies to be the class of the league. Louisville City gutted out a 1-0 victory at Slugger on the back of a goal from Oscar with about 20 minutes to play. Since then, they’ve lost five more games, fired their manager, promoted one of their centerbacks to manager, lost Marcel Shaefer to a non-playing role at Wolfsburg, signed Kwaduo Poku and Stefano Bonomo, and are still a bit of a mess. Between their general malaise and Louisville City’s sudden uncertainty thanks to O’Connor’s departure, this should actually be a genuinely interesting game.

Collins was named coach on May 18. Since then, the Rowdies have won twice, drawn four times and lost once, the two wins coming against points dispenser Toronto FC II. That’s pretty much treading water. City’s in a bit of a slump themselves, which hasn’t been helped at all by injuries, schedule congestion, or James O’Connor’s departure. The good news is the team actually got a week to rest their legs and train on a “normal” schedule. A match like this one will be their first test of how they’ll play with Luke Spencer, George Davis, IV and Paolo DelPiccolo at the helm.

The Rowdies can still score, but they’ve also conceded 22 times this season. They’ve got a 15% conversion rate, which is pretty high. Louisville City’s struggles to defend in the second half of games needs a solution, because a team like Tampa Bay can definitely exploit that. These guys are good, but they’re underperforming. Let’s go win a damn soccer game.

VAMOS MORADOS, VAMOS A GANAR!