Confidence key for Rowdies to find victory

Mired in a winless streak that spans eight games, including a defeat that must have felt like a stomach punch just three days ago, the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies face in-state rival Miami FC at 4 p.m. today at Steinbrenner Field in a game that feels like a must-win.

But according to newly acquired midfielder Jonny Steele, if you were on the Rowdies' squad, as he was for the first time Wednesday, you wouldn't know how badly the team has struggled since its 2-1 victory against the Puerto Rico Islanders on May 29.

"I didn't even know they'd gone that many games without winning," Steele said.

Rowdies coach Paul Dalglish believes that maintaining a positive energy and maintaining a belief within the squad will be a big part of getting the team back in the win column.

"You've got to," Dalglish said after the team's 1-0 defeat to Rochester on Thursday. "You've got to be positive. If you're a winner, if you have a tough mentality, this is where you show you're a winner and this is where you show your tough mentality. Not just the players, but me as well. This is where you prove that you're a winner and you have the mentality to be successful."

The team seems to have absorbed his message.

"There's always the next game," winger JJ Adjeman-Pamboe said. "You've got to try and put out what happened the last game because it's a new day. You've got to play fresh, be positive and confident."

With the number of injuries the side has suffered, which has played at least some role in the team's lack of form, the Rowdies could point at the absences of co-leading scorer Aaron Wheeler, key midfielders Jeremy Christie and Scott Buete and fullbacks Gordon Kljestan and Erik Ustruck. Dalglish, though, won't allow those to be used as an excuse.

"The easy thing is to complain and to say, 'Oh, we've got injuries, oh, we're unlucky,'" Dalglish said. "That's excuses. We're going to find solutions and come back against Miami. There's not been one game this season where people have come here and the guys have gone into a game as anything other than being the aggressor and trying to win the game.

"That's what winners do and that's what we've got to do."