Tampa Bay Rowdies v Charlotte Independence statistical preview
The Tampa Bay Rowdies open their 2021 season against the Charlotte Independence at Al Lang Stadium on Saturday night. While there’s no statistical data from anything recently, looking at last year can provide some insight into areas for the Rowdies to exploit.
One notable datapoint from last year was the aerial duels success rate, the Independence only managed a 46.5 percent success rate compared to the Rowdies managing 57.6 percent. That would imply that the Rowdies would be well positioned by sending the ball in the air, getting control and playing out from there.
With a desire to go aerial that may tempt Tampa Bay to send in crosses and it has 24.6 percent success in that area. That is only marginally better than Charlotte’s 23.4 percent, both are actually good numbers at this level but it may suggest the air would be best serve for launching, rather than finishing a home attack.
There’s a desire to attack that comes from Charlotte, they go forward with their passes more often (37.5 percent) than the Rowdies do (34.7 percent). That may lead to opportunities for Tampa Bay to pick up possession, they were strong at tackling last year with a 68 percent success rate. The Independence don’t pass as much as other teams, just 397.3 passes per game (by comparison the Rowdies made 441.4) that will play into the Rowdies hands as they can use their tackling strength to regain possession.
Once the men in green and gold gain possession they’re loathe to give it up, managing 51 percent last year and once they do they often make it count, scoring on average a goal a half, usually either with the head (11) or with the right foot (13).
Charlotte is patient, 22 of its 28 goals came from inside the box, so with that the Tampa Bay defense should get in the way in the box, especially focusing on the right foot, with 12 goals coming from the right boot of the Independence players last year.
Part of that defense will be strong but not crossing the line, the Rowdies didn’t pick up a red card all last season but did give away plenty of fouls, 222. By comparison Charlotte only conceded 178 fouls.
The Rowdies listed Juan Tejada, Luiz Fernando and Lucky Mkosana as questionable for this match.
This article originally featured at Florida Soccer Report.
