It was a scoreless affair as RIFC got a 0-0 draw at Loudoun United. A point seems like the fair result based on the performances of each team. However, there were some red flags in our performance that are making me concerned for the stretch run of the season. I’m going to change things up here and start with what happened in this game before getting into our lineup and my concerns moving forward.

Just trying to get the excitement up for a 0-0 draw but there’s only so much you can do. I’ll start by saying that our performance was just ok. I think we played well enough defensively but our attack was disjointed. We were probably the better team in the first half but not by a whole lot. The frustration really started to set in when we had this chance that Albert Dikwa skied over the bar:

It was a great pass out to the wing from Koke and a great touch by Mark Doyle to get around his man before putting it on a platter for Dikwa. Unfortunately, the finish wasn’t there and that ball might still be in orbit. It goes without saying but we have to do better when we have chances like that.

It was really more of the same for the rest of this one. We had a couple chances and Loudoun had a couple chances. Both teams were relatively solid defensively and as the second half started, I said to my fellow blogger Timmy that this game was screaming 0-0 with maybe a late goal to get someone 3 points. This is where I admit I was totally wrong coming into this one because I predicted a 2-2. I thought we’d see some goals but hey, at least I called a draw correctly. Here’s some archive footage of me preparing for the Prematch Lookout last week:

There’s really only two other moments I wanted to touch on this game. The first being this save from Koke:

Loudoun’s Abdellatif Aboukoura cut inside and sent a curling shot towards the far post but Koke made a nice save. I was concerned for us when Aboukoura came on because he’s been a dangerous player and I thought he could be a difference maker for Loudoun. He almost did make the difference with what would have been a really nice goal but you have to give Koke credit for making that stop.

Lastly, right as we approached stoppage time of the 2nd half, Loudoun were awarded a penalty. I’m just going to leave this clip here:

I don’t know about you, but to me that’s not a penalty. Luckily for us, the penalty wasn’t taken well and Koke did a good job to make the stop. For me, it was justice served because there’s no way we should have lost the game on that. Before all was said and done, JJ Williams would send his own rocket into orbit right at the end of stoppage time when we had numbers in attack. It really epitomized what was a frustrating night for us. Overall, as I said at the top I think the draw was probably the right result but our performance here was still frustrating.

Now is the part where we get to look at our setup and what it means moving forward this season:

It was the standard RIFC lineup with the major exception being that Morris Duggan got the start on the left side of our back 3.

Starting with Duggan, I wrote in the Prematch Lookout that I was curious to see if he was going to start in this one. I felt that since we brought him in on loan, we must have been planning to not only give him a lot of minutes but probably start him most games. After two appearances off the bench, it appears he’s now ready to start. I would have been thrilled with if not for the fact that he started in place of Frank Nodarse. I am a huge Nodarse fan and I would argue that Frank has been the best and most consistent defender on the team this season. Actually, I’d go as far as to say he’s been the best player in the whole squad over the course of the year. I completely understand that Duggan is left footed and therefore best suited to be on the left side of the back 3, where Nodarse has been playing. But if we brought in Duggan to replace Frank, I don’t see how that makes any sense. Duggan was good in this game, but not good enough to justify replacing Nodarse. Admittedly, this was one game and I may be completely overreacting. It’s possible Khano just wanted to give Frank a game off. Time will tell though and we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out for the rest of the season.

Once again, I have to talk about Mark Doyle and JJ Williams. I feel like Doyle has gotten some unnecessary criticism from some of us fans, including myself at times. I’ve been arguing for JJ to start over Doyle in recent weeks. Neither has been scoring goals but I just felt that JJ brought something different that Dikwa and Doyle don’t have with his hold up play. JJ is a great outlet for long balls when we can’t pass around an opponent’s press. That part of his game has been vital to us in turning our season around. However, after seeing this game, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m ok with Doyle playing over JJ.

I think what this comes down to is what we value in our forwards. Doyle gets himself into good attacking positions but hasn’t been able to finish. He does help create chances though, as evidenced by his pass to Dikwa that should have been buried. As for JJ, he hasn’t been getting himself into those positions to score. Again, his physicality and hold up play have helped us but a major part of his job has to be to get goals. And that right there, leads into the big red flag that’s making me concerned as we head towards the end of the season.

Our forwards need to score goals. This sounds pretty obvious, but I think it still needs pointing out. Dikwa has 7 goals this season, Doyle has 2 and JJ has 1. This just isn’t good enough. I love that we’re getting some goals from elsewhere, with Nodarse having 5 and Noah Fuson having 4. But those goals, especially in Nodarse’s case, are a luxury. We shouldn’t be relying on a defender to be our 2nd leading goal scorer.

For me, part of the problem is that our forwards aren’t always in the box enough to get on the end of things. Dikwa and Doyle both like to drift wide and JJ often moves back towards midfield to pick up the ball. We need someone to stay within the width of the penalty box and be a poacher. Dikwa was supposed to be that guy for us but he’s been inconsistent this year. Doyle seems capable of it but he hasn’t produced either. And you would think with all of JJ’s physicality he would be able to get some headed goals and out-muscle some defenders in the box but he hasn’t done it. I’m starting to get worried that if one of our 3 forwards doesn’t start to get rolling, we could be in big trouble.

Hopefully, one of our forwards

Lastly, we should look at the current standings:

There’s a few things to point out here. First, we’re still in 8th place after the draw but Pittsburgh is only 3 points behind and we’re playing them in two weeks. Also, Detroit City, Indy Eleven and Birmingham Legion all lost. This keeps the race for playoff positioning really tight. Lastly, our recent form hasn’t been great. That one win was against Hartford Pathetic and outside of that we have draws with Detroit, Oakland and Loudoun as well as a loss to Indy. I also have to point out that the draws with Detroit and Oakland were both only secured with late goals on our part.

And that gets us to the last big point I wanted to make here. Our form has dipped recently and I think we’re at a point now where something has to give. We had a rough start to the season but turned it around with a great 8 game unbeaten run. Now it seems like we’ve come back down to earth and I’m left wondering who this team really is. The reality is, we’re probably somewhere in between the early RIFC and the 8 game unbeaten RIFC. Hopefully we can regain some form so that I don’t end up at the end of the season feeling like this:

Be sure to check out Timmy’s Player Ratings and Andrew’s debut on the Postmatch Pod for some more on this game. As always, I’ll be back later this week to preview a massive game at home against Birmingham Legion. Thanks for reading and UP THE TIDE!