RIFC return to Beirne for the first time in 3 weeks to take on North Carolina FC on Saturday night. Coming into this game, Rhode Island are in the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with North Carolina just behind in 9th. I’ve heard some talk of this game being the biggest game of the year so far. I disagree, but maybe that’s just me telling myself it isn’t that important because I sadly won’t be at this one. I will be watching from the middle of nowhere in Western New York. Hopefully the boys can keep the momentum going and get another positive result.

Per usual, I’m going to start with the good guys before touching on our opponent. RIFC are coming off of consecutive road wins at Miami FC and Birmingham Legion. For more on those games, be sure to check out Timmy’s Postmatch player ratings for both matches and my very own Postmatch Beacon for the Birmingham win. All I will say here on the Birmingham match is that we did a great job closing out the game. Birmingham tied it with an early 2nd half goal, but we responded with 2 of our own and were able to see the game out to get the 3-1 win.

This ability to see out games has been a major factor in our turnaround this season. Ever since the debacle in Memphis, we’ve been pretty solid at closing things out. And we’ve had to do this in different ways. Against Louisville, we parked the bus in the 2nd half and killed them on the counter on route to an incredible 5-2 win. We then easily closed out El Paso, followed by two comebacks against Indy from 2-0 and 3-2 down to get a draw. We got a little complacent but held on to beat Miami 3-2, and then closed out Birmingham with those two 2nd half goals. These are the kinds of results that we weren’t getting earlier in the season. Losses have turned into draws and draws have turned into wins.

Since we’ve had so much success lately, it’s easy to say we’ll set up the same way.  So that’s what I’m going to do.  I would be shocked if we don’t see the 3-5-2 again.  However, I did have a minor concern for the lineup in this game.  Against Birmingham, JJ Williams went down off the ball around the 70th minute with an apparent leg injury.  He walked off on his own power but the fact that it occurred off the ball is always worrying.  While I’ve been hard on JJ at times, we rely on his ability to hold up the ball.  He is one of, if not the best player in the league as an outlet for long balls.  Not having JJ would limit our options in build up, which could be a concern. 

I also need to give a shoutout to Zach Herivaux.  He was the hero for us against Birmingham and you have to wonder if he gets a start here.  When he was signed, I thought of him as a good player to come off the bench late in games to help close things out.  He is much more known for his defensive abilities than his goal scoring.  But I’m starting to think that he might have a good chance of becoming a starter.  As far as I’m concerned, the only player in the midfield whose name should be written in sharpie on the lineup card is Marc Ybarra.  I think there’s two other spots in midfield that are up for grabs depending on form during games and what goes on behind the scenes at training.

As for our opponents, they are coming off of an interesting 1-1 draw at home against Detroit City. North Carolina had to play the majority of this game a man down after Ezra Armstrong got his 2nd red card of the season in the 5th minute for denial of a goal scoring opportunity. This almost played into North Carolina’s hands though, as they were able to sit back and defend with Detroit finishing the game with 70% possession. They defended well and went ahead through a 67th minute goal from Evan Conway but weren’t able to hang on for the 3 points. Detroit’s Victor Bezerra scored a late equalizer to secure a point for each side.

If you thought that style of play was only reserved for when playing a man down, think again. North Carolina seem to sit back and try to beat you on the counter no matter what. I would argue this style of play hasn’t brought them a lot of success. On the other hand, it’s allowed them to be in the #DrawKings™ race, which isn’t always a bad thing. They have 8 draws on the season, tied with Sacramento for 2nd most. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you who has the most this season with 10 so far. North Carolina are also one of the worst pressing teams in the league. The numbers back this up, as their BDP is a lowly -1.9. If you want to know what this means, be sure to ask Ryan during the next Tide Talk pod, because I have absolutely no idea. Just know that it’s bad. Rhode Island’s is a 4 for what it’s worth.

Now, on to the players that we should look out for. This is perhaps the easiest part of my “job”. North Carolina often line up in a 3-4-3. The 3 attacking players are usually Evan Conway, Oalex Anderson, and Louis Perez. I would be most concerned about Conway, who leads the team with 7 goals. Rafa Mentzingen, who plays on the right side of their midfield 4, is also worthy of a shoutout as a dangerous player.

It’s worth mentioning that Rhode Island and North Carolina did play once already this season. This was back on May 4th, when we were at the height of our #DrawKings™ era (shoutout to the swifties, you all scare me). While we are certainly a different team nowadays, it was still interesting to look back and see how we set up. It ended up being surprisingly similar, with the major difference being that Mark Doyle and Prince Saydee (remember him?) started up front. Gabi Alves also started at the back in this game, but the other 8 players were our usual starters. I will say though that we were all over the place in attack and our structure was way off. It’s great to see that we have come such a long way since then.

As for the outcome of this game, I went into this thinking it would be a tough game. My initial thought was to just go with a 1-1 draw again, like I did for our last game against Birmingham. But after looking at North Carolina a little more, I think this is one we should win. I know I said I was a little concerned about JJ potentially being out but with North Carolina being so bad at the press, hopefully we won’t have too many issues playing the ball out from the back. If we do end up having JJ, it should make the game easier and you can ignore everything else I said about it. Unfortunately, injury news is hard to come by and I’m just a normal fan like everyone else. I would also look for Koke to be an additional outfield player out there in this one, infuriating some of the more uncultured members of Tide Talk. Playing out from the back can be too fancy for some, but us sophisticated soccer viewers know that it’s the right way to play the game.

I’m officially going with a 3-1 RIFC victory. We might get caught on the counter once but we should have enough firepower to get some goals, with our 3rd goal coming late in the game to close it out. Maybe we get an Isaac Angking sighting late for another goal in front of the home crowd. Thank you for reading and as always, UP THE TIDE!