The time has come. We have finally arrived at the game so many of us have been looking forward to. The home derby against Hartford Pathetic. El Clamico. There have been differing opinions here at Tide Talk about the importance of this game but I am here to tell you, this means more. Just as this is a different game, this is going to be a bit of a different blog. I’m not going to spend as much time looking at our opponent. I’d rather spend more time looking at what this game means in the bigger picture. So let’s get the preview part out of the way.

Hartford Pathetic are coming into this one 11th in the Eastern Conference on 22 points. They have only won twice since our last meeting, a 1-1 draw on June 1st. The most recent win was 2 games ago when they beat Detroit City 1-0. More importantly, they’ve played 10 games away from home this season and have only claimed 4 points. They won their first match of the season at El Paso and they got a draw at Birmingham Legion last time out. That’s it. They’ve lost the other 8 games away from home. Truly pathetic away form.

I guess I have to mention some of their players now. The ones to look out for on the attacking front are Michee Ngalina and Deshane Beckford. Ngalina leads the team with 7 goals and Beckford has 3. Mamadou Dieng is also one to look out for, as he has started to get more playing time up front as of late. Veteran goalkeeper Renan Ribeiro is also solid. He has had an interesting career, starting in his native Brazil before moving to Portugal. That is of course a very common start to a career path, but Ribeiro kind of disappeared for a few years before signing with Hartford. This makes sense, as he must have been really desperate to sign for a trash club like Hartford Pathetic.

That’s all the time I really want to spend on that joke of a team. I want to focus more on RIFC and the narrative around this derby. We are coming off a disappointing midweek loss at Indy Eleven. Khano made 6 changes to our starting 11 and it didn’t work. This makes it pretty clear that our focus was more on this weekend’s game. I would expect and hope that we will see the 11 that has worked so well for us lately. The only concern is that Frank Nodarse came off against Indy Eleven as a 6th substitute due to a head injury. He’s been our best and most consistent defender this season, so losing him for this one could be a major blow. If he isn’t available, I would like to see Gabi Alves take his spot at LCB with Yao in the middle and Stoneman on the right of the back 3.

The big debate that’s been going on since the lineup was announced before the game Wednesday night is which of the two games should be prioritized more. I get why this debate has been so divisive. I’m actually still on the fence as I write this. If you read the Prematch Lookout, you might remember I made the point that the loss Wednesday night felt like a missed opportunity because a win would have really solidified us in that race for 4th in the Eastern Conference. 4th of course would get us a home playoff game. It might have been more beneficial to focus on Indy Eleven as they are ahead of us in the standings.

On the other side of things, there is the idea that derby games just mean more than any other regular season game. I tend to agree with this. Even though this derby is in it’s infancy, it’s a game that pretty much the entire fanbase has been looking forward to all year. Both clubs have embraced the rivalry. Especially RIFC, as the social media team has done a great job promoting this game. I’ve heard the argument made that this rivalry was created out of thin air by the clubs. This is definitely true. But so what? Rivalries are important for all sports, especially soccer. These rivalries have to start somewhere. Of course we aren’t going to have any history. It’s our first season in existence. But that should make this game all the more important. It’s the first home game against our rival in the club’s history. This is the start of something big.

All of that being said, I’m not saying that it was ok to basically concede the Indy Eleven game in order to focus on this one. I would have rather seen us make maybe 2 or 3 changes. 6 felt like too much. I also want to make the argument that even if we went with our full starting 11, it doesn’t guarantee that we would have won. Indy Eleven played us well and their tactical set up caused us issues. We would have had a better chance of winning for sure, but there are no guarantees in this league. The other thing I didn’t like though was that the loss kind of killed our momentum going into this game. However, if there’s any game that should help us turn that momentum right around, it’s a derby. I know the players will be up for it and a nearly sold-out crowd as of this writing will make a big difference as well.

Before I go, I wanted to also look back at our first game against Hartford Pathetic. It was a 1-1 draw, but I’m not even that concerned about the result. The experience going to the game was the more important thing to me. I was on one of the two buses packed with supporters that traveled to that awful city. Despite having to be in Connecticut, it was a great experience and a great moment for the club and us supporters. It really felt like we were part of something big. I know we all felt that as soon as the team started playing this season, but there’s an indescribable feeling you get when you come together and support your home club in a derby. I can’t put into words how excited I am to have the experience again on our home turf on Saturday night.

Lastly, you’ll recall I mentioned earlier the great work the social media team has done in promoting this derby. Hartford Pathetic, living up to their name, have really only responded with an image of a ship with Hartford colors sailing towards Providence. Since that post, they’ve started to focus on their next home match, where some random food “influencer” is going to curate the food. He started out reviewing fast food on YouTube. Another gimmick that they need to put butts in seats at that lame excuse for a soccer-specific stadium. Back on the subject of ships though, I shouldn’t have to point out to anyone that Rhode Island has experience in dealing with enemy ships that come into our waters

UP THE TIDE AND HUCK FARTFORD PATHETIC