RIFC laid the hammer down on Birmingham Legion with a 3-1 win on Wednesday night. The win continues our recent turnaround and keeps us as the most in form team in the league. It also pushed us into a playoff spot just above out next opponent North Carolina FC, who play Friday night at home against Detroit before heading to Beirne next weekend.

This win over Birmingham was so great that it inspired me to write about the team even more. At first I thought it may have been the refreshing beer flowing from The Guild that inspired me, but after sleeping on it, I awoke just as hyped up about this team as ever. Let’s take a look back and relive that brilliant win.

RIFC once again deployed the 3-5-2. It looked a little something like this:

The most notable thing about this lineup is of course the addition of Grant Stoneman in the back line. It is so great to have him back after about a 3 month absence. He got 8 minutes against Indy Eleven, 30 against Miami FC and now has worked his way up to being able to go the full 90. Not only did he have a solid 90 minutes, but his presence allowed Clay Holstad TO FINALLY GET BACK INTO THE MIDFIELD. I know that’s something I’ve been complaining about for weeks, even if we didn’t have a great solution back there with our injury issues. Holstad had a solid game in midfield and his pairing with Marc Ybarra helped allow for Noah Fuson to take center stage as an attacking midfielder.

Early on in the season, I thought Fuson was better suited to be playing on the wing. He definitely has enough ability with the ball at his feet to play outside and either provide crosses or cut inside. But I didn’t see him performing well enough when he played centrally, whether he started there or just naturally drifted into those positions. To his credit, he has proven lately that he can be a force centrally. As I’ve said before, he was the catalyst for our second half comeback against Indy. And he proved in this game that if he has the freedom to drift in a free attacking role, he can be deadly.

We couldn’t have asked for a better start to this one. Our first goal came in the first minute via a quick throw-in from Stephen Turnbull that Albert Dikwa chested down in the direction of Fuson. Fuson took his chance beautifully with a well-placed finish at the far post out of the reach of Birmingham keeper Trevor Spangenberg. While Fuson definitely deserves credit for supplying a fantastic finish, I think Albert Dikwa deserves some praise as well. Dikwa has really turned his game around over the past month. He is getting into better positions and is much more involved in the attack, even if he doesn’t score. I think we are finally seeing the player that we thought we would get when he first signed.

After the goal, the game would immediately open up. Birmingham had more of the possession and when Rhode Island did get forward in the first half, we were often caught out. One instance of this was Legion midfielder Dawson McCartney’s chance in the 18th minute. JJ Williams was dispossessed in the attacking half and Birmingham were able to quickly move the ball forward towards an RI defense that only had Frank Nodarse and Karifa Yao back. While we did a decent job to track back and recover, it was too late and McCartney found space just outside the box to unleash a curling effort that would clang off the crossbar. McCartney would have another chance in the 39th minute, again from the edge of the box. This one forced a diving save from Koke Vegas. It highlighted how dangerous Birmingham could be when they find space to shoot. As I mentioned in the Prematch Lookout, Legion have no number 9 to finish chances in the box. They have to find other ways to score and in this game, they were able to find space to shoot but weren’t able to convert in the first half.

That would change early in the second half, as winger Prosper Kasim (who I definitely mentioned in the Prematch Lookout, no need to go back and check) received the ball just inside the 18 and curled a wonderful shot with his left foot into the far corner. This one had me yelling at the screen at The Guild. Kasim is the USL’s Arjen Robben, only good on his left foot, and we still let him cut inside. Regardless, he deserves credit for taking his chance. Birmingham would continue to put on the pressure and had some near misses, including a shot from Derek Dodson that just went wide of the near post and a chance from a scramble in the box off of a corner that RI eventually cleared away.

The tide would turn (sorry, you’re going to see that phrase a lot in these blogs) with the substitution of Zach Herivaux for Clay Holstad in the 63rd minute. He would score just 5 minutes after coming on to the field. Birmingham midfielder Jake Rufe would attempt a terrible, lazy pass across the field in his defensive third. JJ Williams was there to intercept and carry the ball into the wide area of the box before cutting back across to the middle. He played a clever back heel pass to Herivaux, who fired a shot past the goalkeeper from just inside the box.

JJ deserves a lot of credit for this one. I have been critical of his play recently, particularly when he has the ball at his feet. We use him often as an outlet when we play long and he has been great at holding up the ball. However, I feel like when he has space to carry the ball forward, it usually doesn’t end well. This was even highlighted in this game, when he lost the ball that lead to that McCartney chance in the first half. On this Herivaux goal though, JJ did really well after his touch took him out wide to keep the ball, move inside and make that great layoff for Herivaux to finish.

Herivaux wasn’t done against his former team however. He would score again in the 77th minute to put this one away and seal the 3-1 win. Joe Brito found himself in the corner with 3 defenders around him and nowhere to go. He turned and played a hopeful ball (and that’s putting it lightly) across to the edge of the box, which Stephen Turnbull read and did brilliantly to take down. He had the ball poked away from him by Rufe but it fell to Herivaux outside the box and he unleashed a sensational curled effort that gave the keeper no chance. Rhode Island would then see the game out to push the unbeaten run to 6 games.

Overall this was a brilliant result for RIFC. Coming into this one, I really thought it would be a difficult game. Birmingham always seem to find a way to get results despite the limitations in their squad (mostly due to injuries). They created some good chances that they weren’t able to finish outside of their early second half goal. We looked like the better team overall and thoroughly deserved this win. I think most of us saw that corner up ahead earlier in the season and couldn’t wait for us to make the turn. We have finally done it and are one of the most dangerous teams in the league. Long may it continue and as always, UP THE TIDE!