The Tampa Bay Rowdies and their high-flying offense are back in the playoffs yet again, primed for another deep run in the USL Championship. It’s the fifth consecutive year for the boys to clinch homefield advantage in the playoffs, and this year could be the club’s best shot to take home the title.
To open the postseason, the No. 2-seeded Rowdies will face No. 7 Birmingham Legion FC in a loser-goes-home quarterfinals elimination match under the lights at Al Lang Stadium. The game kicks off at 7:30 pm this Saturday, October 21 and tickets are available here.
What the Rowdies have done this year is incredibly impressive, leading the Eastern Conference in scoring with 60 goals in 34 matches, and league-wide, their 19 wins in the regular season are matched only by No. 1 seed Pittsburgh River Hounds SC. Doubly impressive is the fact that the Rowdies did all of this despite losing last year’s league MVP Leo Fernandes to injury in the preseason (he just returned at the end of the regular season) and losing their head coach midway through the season, as Nicky Law took the helm when Neill Collins left in July to take over at Barnsley FC in England.
So, how did the Rowdies get here? 2023 is year four of what’s been an incredible run for the Rowdies and their fans. In 2020, the Rowdies won the Eastern Conference title and were set for a chance to win the overall USL Championship before the game was canceled because of covid. The last two years, in a bid to show they were no fluke, the Rowdies once again dominated the regular season, before ultimately losing hard battles deep into the playoffs.
So now, only one title remains elusive: the USL Championship. If the fourth time turns out to be the charm, it will likely be the explosive Rowdies offense that leads the way. This was the second year in a row that the Rowdies finished the regular season as the highest scoring team in the conference, and the club has two of the USL’s top 11 overall scorers, with Cal Jennings having notched 19 (second in the league) and J.J. Williams sitting on 12 goals (11th).
This Saturday’s tilt against Birmingham will be a key indicator of how the team has prepared for the postseason, and the raucous home crowd is sure to give the Rowdies an edge. For tickets to the heavyweight playoff bout, visit rowdiessoccer.com.
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