Away to Loudoun United Preview
Date: Saturday June 24, 2023
Kickoff Time: 7:00 pm EST at Segra Field in Leesburg, VA
Records: Tampa Bay Rowdies (25pt 7W-4D-4L); Loudoun United (16pts 5W-1D-10L)
Standings: The Rowdies are 4th in the East and Loudoun United are 9th in the East
Tampa Bay travels north to take on a weary Loudoun United in the suburbs of the nation’s capital. After a midweek game away, the DC United youth affiliate has a daunting task ahead of it. After facing league leaders already twice in June, the Rowdies will hope to get three points and jump up the Eastern Conference table, depending on other results, of course.
One of the hottest teams in the USL?
While the league leaders have recently come from the Western Conference, one team has consistently held them and won their other games. If you’re reading this column, you should no doubt be able to guess it’s the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The Green and Gold are well and truly past their rough start to the year and fully into Beast Mode. I will not explain this name.
However, an important crossroads has appeared on the Rowdies’ path to success. While the team has fought through similar adversity before, an injury crisis threatens to derail a good project. No fewer than six players were missing last weekend through injury. These include players as fundamental Lewis Hilton and Dayonn Harris to assumed depth pieces like Lucky Mkosana and Ariel Martinez. Zach Herivaux and Felix Schroter make up the remaining two.
All of this would be bad enough on its own. Of course, it should be remembered, two players were here on loan: Laurence Wyke and Ryan Spaulding. While Jake LaCava has seemingly returned for one more long term, the short term of the former two’s deals has been proved, as they are both now back at their parent MLS club. (Finally, Leo Fernandes is another major piece out for the entirety of 2023.)
The Rowdies have frequently had a smallish roster recently. Rather than try to make sure all spots are covered in the case of all potential injuries, it seems Neill Collins and co. have tried to focus on quality. This does really come in handy when players with special abilities change games and make the right decisions in crucial moments; but, the trade off is if and when more than one of them ends up in the training room with a boot on their ankle.
The other key ingredient to the squad has been flexibility in addition to players’ quality. It’s very important for someone to be able to fill more than one role, because the Rowdies will need them to do so at some point. Sorting out the tactics and ensuring the best system for the men available will be the task for the coaches this week. Luckily, we have already seen Tampa Bay play more than one system this year.
The good news is that, while this potential crisis rears its head, the Rowdies have two of the better possible away games on the immediate horizon. With all due respect to Loudoun United and Las Vegas Lights, any team dealing with a set of problems like this would prefer to go up against the opponents least likely to pose them further problems. Loudoun United have dangerous players, who will be covered below. But, while the brass decide whether or not to go back to the loan market, they can also hope the inherent quality of the roster will carry us through to the next month.
Does Loudoun have a hope in this game?
On the other side of this sits Loudoun United. Previously fully owned and operated by Major League Soccer’s DC United, they are now only partially owned and fully operated by our capital’s club. The possibility of more autonomy is on the horizon; but, we won’t witness it this season. For 2023, Loudoun will make do with a squad barely old enough to drink in these United States.
Taking a step away from the immediate task of this preview, I would like to reference a quote from Joseph Lowery of the Total Soccer Show, Backheeled, MLSSoccer.com, and other sites. In talking to a coach, he was told that young players are almost never used because they’re the “better player.” You’re giving them the chance because you expect them to become the better player. Come game day, though, due to their youth, they will almost certainly be worse than the player they’re replacing.
To come back to Loudoun United, let’s start with the backline. In their game this week against Birmingham Legion, the oldest defender used was 23. The youngest was 16. (The other two were 21- and 20-years-old.) In a position where experience and intelligence are the most important factors beyond in-the-moment focus, starting a 16-year-old is not likely to allow you to win much. I will take this chance to say that, as an American soccer fan, giving Matai Akinmboni lots of minutes this early in his career is both valuable and good in a sporting sense.
However, in a records-and-points sense, this will not work out. To be sure, Akinmboni will, almost assuredly, become a very good soccer player one day and, quite possibly, contribute in MLS or to the US men’s national team. His ability to contribute at either of those levels right now is simply not there. This is where he (hopefully) develops those skills. In the meantime, it’s likely that he will have a lot more learning moments than he will highlight reels. The same is true across the team, as DC plants their seeds of cooking buns in this oven of a bad metaphor.
The few exceptions to this rule are important to name. Zach Ryan, formerly of the New York Red Bulls academy, Stanford University, and New York Red Bulls senior team, is in the middle of the best professional season of his career. After doing well at all youth levels, the 24-year-old has eight goals in the league this season. That and his two assists make him one of the most potent attackers in the whole of the second division. He will be looking to add to it this weekend.
Ryan doesn’t have much on the stats sheet outside of the top line items. What that means is he will often get on the end of balls into the box or in a good area for him to finish off a chance. The creation of chances will mostly be left up to other players on the team. One of those will be Kalil ElMedkhar, who leads the team in assists, big chances created, and chances created, according to FotMob. The former University of Kentucky winger will be looking to get the ball in some space out wide from which he can try to find his strikers in the middle.
Jeremy Garay and Aidan Rocha will likely be in the middle of the Loudoun midfield, from which they will be mostly defending, but also trying to start attacking movements for United. The two of them will be crucial in preventing Rowdies build up play, needing to step out from the middle to the wings to prevent the interplay between wingback and winger that Tampa Bay has employed so successfully this year. While they’re out there, most likely, each will try to turn defense into a quick attack down the wing with either the aforementioned ElMedkhar or another DC United loanee, Jackson Hopkins.
What is most likely in these cases is Rowdies players will have the tactical nous, the years of experience, or just the physical strength to push past a Loudoun United defender and get into a position to create danger. This is no slight upon them, just a high probability. While anything can happen on any given day in soccer, it’s still highly unlikely to get a different outcome in this one.
Score Predictions from the RBLR Rowdies Podcast:
Carlos Rueda: 2-0 Rowdies
James Knowles: 3-1 Rowdies
Yurika Wheeler: 1-0 Rowdies
Special Guest: Brian Hattab (@brianhattab33) 2-1 Rowdies
