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USL Tampa Bay Rowdies

Open Cup Preview: Rowdies at Orlando City

April 19, 2022 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Tampa Bay Rowdies News Release


Tampa Bay Rowdies at Orlando City SC

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Third Round

Wednesday, April 20, 7pm ET

Orlando, FL, Exploria Stadium

Tickets: Fans can purchase for the Rowdies traveling fans section here.

Watch: Stream the match here on ESPN+.

Follow along: Live updates on Twitter at @RowdiesGameday

The Tampa Bay Rowdies return to action in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup this Wednesday night against Major League Soccer's Orlando City SC. It's fitting the two teams are set to clash in the Third Round of the Open Cup, as the last and only competitive meeting between Tampa Bay and Orlando was in the Third Round of the 2014 edition of the competition.

Despite the scarcity of competitive matches between the two sides, the passion among fans on both sides of Interstate 4 has not diminished much at all over the years. A sizable group of Rowdies supporters are expected to make the trip to Exploria Stadium for Wednesday's match to cheer on the Green & Gold.

"Every game's an opportunity, but this is an excellent opportunity in terms of playing a team from a higher level. Even more important than that; it's an in-state rivalry," said Rowdies Head Coach Neill Collins. "The fans are passionate about it, and that means the players and us as a club are really passionate about it. We wanna give our fans the bragging rights, so it's a great game to look forward to."

The Rowdies advanced to the Third Round of the Open Cup after a convincing 6-0 victory over USL League Two's The Villages SC. In order to move on to the next round, the Rowdies will need to accomplish something they have to do - beat Orlando. Along with the 2014 Open Cup meeting, Orlando got the better of the Rowdies in four "I-4 Derby" preseason matches played in 2013 and 2014. Since Orlando joined MLS in 2015, the two sides have met for three pre-season friendlies. They played to a scoreless draw in 2017, while Orlando took the 2020 meeting with a 2-1 result and this year's meeting back in February in a 3-1 result.

Jake LaCava bagged the opening goal for the Rowdies in February's contest before Orlando tallied three unanswered goals to finish on top. At the time, the Rowdies were at the start of the preseason camp and Orlando was a week out from the start of the MLS season. Neither team fielded a full-strength and each were still tinkering in the leadup their respective seasons.

"We acquitted ourselves very well," Collins said of the February matchup. "We were a very different team because we were a couple weeks into preseason but I think we've shown we can have belief going in there, but equally we've gotta be at our best, because if you don't they'll punish you. They punished us a couple times that day, but we should take enough from it to know we can go there and be ourselves and focus on getting a really good performance in and seeing where that takes us."

Tampa Bay and Orlando head into Wednesday's match with a decent amount of competitive league matches under their belts. After seven matches played, the Rowdies sit third in the USL Championship's Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, Orlando occupies second place in MLS' Eastern Conference standings.

After building the Rowdies into one of the top perennial contenders in the USL Championship Collins and his staff are embracing the underdog mentality for Wednesday night. Any team that focuses on their own performance first and wins the little battles can be rewarded in the single-elimination format of Open Cup, regardless of the odds.

"That's the funny thing about cups," said Collins. "It's a cliché to take it one game at a time but if you knock one or two off, before you know it you're starting to get into the latter rounds. It builds up a lot of momentum. If we win in Orlando, then you worry about the next one. It's exciting to be back in a cup competition. We can be the underdog for once, which will be a different feeling for us and hopefully we can take advantage of that."

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