PREVIEW | Indy vs. Rowdies
The Tampa Bay Rowdies visit Indy Eleven at Carroll Stadium on Saturday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Tampa Bay can potentially move into second place in the Spring Season standings with a win.
Rowdies Notes
The Rowdies, like Indy, are coming off a midweek loss in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday night. Tampa Bay (3W-3D-1L, 12 points) seemed to be heading to extra time in Pittsburgh against the Riverhounds, with the score knotted at 0-0 before Robert Vincent scored a stoppage-time winner for Pittsburgh.
Goalkeeper Matt Pickens has kept back-to-back clean sheets in Tampa Bay’s last two NASL matches and has only allowed one goal in league play this season. He debuted in stoppage time against the Jacksonville Armada FC on April 25 and has played 270 NASL minutes this season, allowing just one goal, scored by Carolina on May 2. As a team, the Rowdies have not allowed a goal in 264 NASL minutes.
Maicon Santos and Martin Núñez are tied as Tampa Bay’s leading scorer, with two goals each this season.
Scouting Indy
Indy enters this match at the tail end of a tough Spring Season, having won only once this season. Like the Rowdies, the Eleven (1-3-3, 6) were eliminated from the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday night, suffering a 2-0 extra time defeat at home to Louisville City FC in the third round. The match was tied at 0-0 until Louisville City goals in the 115th and 119th minutes doomed the Eleven to defeat.
Indy’s only win this season came on April 19, when Sergio Peña’s 89th- minute goal lifted the Eleven past the San Antonio Scorpions on the road in Week 3. Since then, Indy has only picked up one of 12 available points and is currently riding a three-match losing streak in NASL play.
Peña leads the Eleven in scoring this season with two goals.
