The Las Vegas Lights are visiting the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday in their first and only meeting of the season. Here is everything you need to know:
WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 4:30 p.m. PT at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Fla.
WHERE TO WATCH: The match will be available to watch locally on SSSEN and streamed nationally on ESPN+ (subscription required).
2024 RECORDS AND STANDINGS: Las Vegas: 3-6-2 (11 points, 9th West), Tampa Bay: 4-2-4 (16 points, 5th East)
FORM GUIDE (all competitions, most recent first): Las Vegas: DDLLL, Rowdies: WLWLW
PREVIOUS MEETING: The Rowdies defeated the Lights 2-1 at Cashman Field on July 1, 2023. Cal Jennings and Jerome Williams scored for Tampa, while Timothie Zali tallied for Vegas.
GAINING MOMENTUM: The Lights have earned two tough draws over the last couple weeks, going on the road to a hostile environment in San Antonio and coming home with a point before nearly getting all three points against Louisville City. The turning point is right around the corner.
NOËL AGAIN: Another week, another goal for attacking midfielder Valentin Noël. He opened the scoring for the Lights against Louisville for his fifth league goal of the season and sixth in all competitions.
MIDWEEK MATCH: Before taking on Las Vegas on the weekend, Tampa Bay hosted Major League Soccer side FC Dallas on Wednesday in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play. Despite an 86th penalty strike by the home side, the match ended 2-1 in favor of Dallas, halting the Rowdies’ Open Cup run in the Round of 16.
ROWDIES RUNNING RIOT: Tampa Bay is coming off a massive result in league play last weekend, thrashing FC Tulsa 5-0. Defender Forrest Lasso scored twice and helped to keep a clean sheet en route to being named to the USL Championship Player of the Week. Four other Rowdies — midfielder Charlie Dennis, forward Manuel Arteaga, forward Cal Jennings and Head Coach Robbie Neilson — were also named to the USL Championship Team of the Week.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Manuel Arteaga and Cal Jennings, F
It’s hard to single out just one of this dynamic attacking duo. Arteaga and Jennings are tied for second and fourth in the USL Championship Golden Boot race with eight and seven goals, respectively. They lead the line for the third-highest scoring team in the league with 22 goals from 10 matches.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Lights FC midfielder Zander Romero
On moving forward after the 2-2 home draw with Louisville City FC last weekend…
We should have beaten that team. Anyone can say that, our coach says it a lot…but the Las Vegas Lights can beat anyone in this league. It comes from training, and we’re focused on trying to get all the little kinks out and focus on the next game. Everything is about the next game.
Lights FC defender Maliek Howell
On looking ahead to a tough match at the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday…
Before the season started, getting a point against a team like Louisville, you’d say that’s a plus and we’re looking to build off of that. Going into this weekend, Tampa Bay is another tough opponent, another big team, another big club in this league, and we’re looking to go there and grab three points because we’re hungry for that.
Lights FC Head Coach Dennis Sanchez
On turning the gears to reach a new level…
Part of it is discipline. We can continue to improve in both boxes. We’re a team that statistically has a lot of possession, arrives into the final third quite frequently, but we need to convert some of these half-chances into better opportunities. Goals change games…It’s the willingness to understand where we are in the game. Do we need to suffer? Do we need to get behind the ball? In order for us to take the next step, we need to be more clinical in the final third and have this desire to protect our goal at all costs.
