Rowdies Make Season Debut Saturday At Al Lang Stadium

ST. PETERSBURG, FL —After the 2020 season ended somewhat anticlimactically, the Tampa Bay Rowdies return to the field this weekend with some new players and looking to take care of some unfinished business.

Tampa Bay will host Charlotte Independence at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Al Lang Stadium in the USL opener for both teams. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that only the Rowdies' approximately 2,000 season-ticket holders will be allowed into the stadium in order to maintain social distancing. But larger crowds are anticipated later in the season.

It will be the Rowdies' first match since the title game that never was. Last Oct 31, Tampa had been scheduled to face Phoenix Rising in the USCL Championship, only for the game to get canceled when members of the Rowdies organization tested positive for COVID-19.

Instead of rescheduling the match, the league decided to end the season for health and safety reasons, simply declaring Tampa Bay the Eastern Conference champions and Phoenix the Western Conference champions.

"When you finish a season, there always is an end point, and you can put the season to bed," Rowdies Scottish manager Neill Collins said in an interview on the team's Twitter page. "I think that's what was one of the biggest disappointments for them. They weren't able to settle it on the field."

Fifteen players return from that team, which went 10-3-3 last season, including the reigning USL Defender of the Year Forrest Lasso. Forward Sebastian Guenzatti is back up front. He has scored 32 goals in 74 games over the last three seasons for the Rowdies.

Gone are the likes of midfielder Malik Johnson, forward Kyle Murphy and defender Alex Davey. But defender Conner Antley, forward Steevan Dos Santos and midfielder Laurence Wyke have been brought in as replacements. Another interesting addition is backup goalkeeper Raiko Arozarena, brother of Tampa Bay Rays rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena.

"We had a lot of time (in the offseason) to get in shape, we got a lot of scrimmages in, so that's good. The team is ready, ready for the weekend, ready for the whole (season)" Guenzatti said in an interview posted on the Rowdies' Twitter page.

Guenzatti continued: "The new guys who came in are doing an amazing job covering for the guys who left last year. We did an amazing job last year. But I think the guys who came in are ready for the challenge for this year, which will be even bigger than last year."

The Rowdies also will be sporting a new crest, aka logo, on their white alternate uniforms this season. Unveiled on April 23, the crest features the traditional "Rowdies" wordmark that the club has used since 1975, but ads the bust of a mustachioed gentleman, which is in honor of the early English players who established modern soccer and a tribute to the club's original mascot Ralph Rowdie.