ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Seven minutes after coming on as a halftime substitute, Tampa Bay Rowdies trialist goalkeeper Nico Campbell faced his first big test as Atletico Mineiro’s Patric Cabral lined up a free kick on the right.

Cabral’s near-post delivery found the head of Rodrigo Prado, skipped off the turf, past Campbell’s left hand and into the back of the net. Campbell slumped to the turf.

“As a goalkeeper, as a trialist, you don’t want to let anything in,” Campbell lamented after Saturday’s Florida Cup contest. “Even if it’s a cracker, a good goal, you don’t want to let it in. So of course I’m mad about that, but I moved on quickly from it and the game went on.”

For hundreds of players like Campbell, who are looking to earn their first professional contracts this preseason, moments such as this don’t often make or break a team’s decision on whether they want to offer a contract. The PDL’s No. 2-rated goalkeeper in 2016 after a standout season for the Des Moines Menace, Campbell has looked solid in the two halves of action he saw over the past two weeks for the Rowdies.

Coming in after a strong career for the University of Valparaiso, the Jamaican is working on trying to lock up a place behind returning Rowdies starter Matt Pickens. A PDL All-Central Conference selection for the Menace last year, the experience he took from the day-in, day-out rigors of competing in Des Moines have helped make his first professional training camp a little less daunting.

“That helps build your confidence,” Campbell said. “When you play a lot of games, you keep getting good training and coaching, that helps you get there. When you do that more often, when you get to these stages, it would be a step up, but it wouldn’t be very difficult to go there.”