CHARLESTON, S.C. — It was a fascinating match for Charleston Battery against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds last week. A thrilling 3-3 draw before coming into Saturday’s match against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. What is most fascinating is a few differing percentages that provide some insight into how the Rowdies can win the match.
One data point that will play perfectly into how the Rowdies play is the difference between duels and aerial duels. In all duels, the Battery won 54.6 percent but in the air only won 47.2 percent. The Rowdies have been strong in the air all year and as such this plays perfectly into their hands, the thing to be mindful of is staying away from contests when the ball is on the ground.
There’s a significant dip in passing accuracy once Charleston got into the opponent’s half. Total accuracy was up at 75.1 percent but in the opponent’s half was 58 percent. That should encourage Tampa Bay to remain patient, sit back and let the pressure come, then take full advantage of the nose bleed that seems to happen and force a mistake.
That is coupled with how Charleston takes advantage, the Battery took seven of their 11 shots from inside the box. Again the Rowdies can be patient and wait, stealing possession back, they’ll have time.
That time will come at the other end of the park where Tampa Bay can take advantage of some poor defensive work from the Battery. Charleston missed too many tackles in the draw with the Riverhounds, only successfully completing 35.3 percent of tackles.
A notable thing that will help the Rowdies is how one-directional Charleston was. The Battery overwhelmingly attacked down the left, as can be seen in the above heat map, which means that the Tampa Bay defense can pull their work towards the left to stop those attacks.
Photo: Ross Almers Photography
Florida Soccer Report 