If there\u2019s one number that sums up the dominance with which the Tampa Bay Rowdies have begun the 2026 USL Championship, it\u2019s zero.<\/p>\n
As in, the Tampa Bay Rowdies have trailed for zero seconds across 13 games in the league and Prinx Tires USL Cup. <\/p>\n
On Saturday night, the opening goal didn\u2019t arrive well into the second half against Louisville City FC at Lynn Family Stadium, but MD Myers\u2019 nifty piece of footwork to retain possession and create space for a finish just inside the six-yard area gave the Rowdies their 13th consecutive opening goal of the game this season. A second from Max Schneider in stoppage time closed the door on a 2-0 victory that extended Tampa Bay\u2019s lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to nine points while extending one of the most impressive starts to a season in league history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u00a0did\u00a0a good job\u00a0keeping our composure tonight,\u201d said Rowdies Head Coach Dominic Casciato. \u201cObviously\u00a0Louisville\u00a0are\u00a0a very good\u00a0team, regardless of their recent results.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0a very good\u00a0side. I thought we came here and dominated the game.\u00a0I thought we looked after the ball really well.\u00a0We were very composed in\u00a0possession,\u00a0and\u00a0I think the first goal\u00a0is probably\u00a0a great example\u00a0of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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SETTING TEMPO: The Rowdies are only halfway to matching the Championship\u2019s longest undefeated streak to start a season, with the Richmond Kickers producing a 22-game run at the start of the 2022 season, but the tempo they\u2019re setting in terms of points-per-game is among the elite starts we\u2019ve seen in league history. The best of those through 11 games was by Real Monarchs SLC, which won 10 of its first 11 games \u2013 and ultimately 12 of its first 13 \u2013 in 2017 on the way to winning the Players\u2019 Shield.<\/p>\n
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NUMBERS DON\u2019T LIE: The Rowdies\u2019 have more than met the eye test in terms of being the best team in the league this season, but those are backed up by remarkable attacking and defending numbers that say this side is a complete package. Not only does Tampa Bay rank third in the league with a 17.77 Expected Goals mark, it leads the league with a 6.81 Expected Goals Against mark, making for a +9.16 Expected Goal Differential. The side has almost doubled its opponents\u2019 shots on target (50-28) while facing the fewest shots in the league overall (91).<\/p>\n
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FINDING THE BALANCE: What we were watching closely on Saturday was how two sides that are elite at winning possession high up the field would match up. Even on the road, though, the Rowdies\u2019 composure in possession was remarkable. Holding almost two-thirds of possession, the Rowdies were able to neutralize Louisville\u2019s typical home advantage in field tilt, edging that battle as both teams recorded 37 recoveries apiece. Louisville\u2019s six shots were tied for the second-fewest on record at home in its history as Tampa Bay proved the more dangerous side throughout.<\/p>\n
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The Rowdies will be the first to tell you that they haven\u2019t accomplished anything yet \u2013 a sign of the buy-in the squad has delivered in Casciato\u2019s first full season at the helm \u2013 but what Tampa Bay is doing right now is worthy of recognition. After what Louisville City accomplished a season ago \u2013 becoming the first team in a decade to go through a regular season with only one loss \u2013 the Rowdies have a clear opportunity to take aim at that sort of history.<\/p>\n
They won\u2019t take any of that for granted, but the Rowdies are the team you need to be paying attention not only now but for the rest of this USL Championship campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0obviously a great result to come here and win,\u201d said Casciato. \u201cI think this team\u00a0still has a long way to go, and\u00a0I\u00a0think we can get\u00a0better and better.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a good result tonight.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0pleased with it.\u00a0We\u2019ll\u00a0look back at it and try to get better for next Saturday, because that\u00a0has to\u00a0be our mentality regardless of the result and regardless of who we play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s one number that sums up the dominance with which the Tampa Bay Rowdies have begun the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[115,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-294334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}