Rhode Island secured a 3-2 victory on the road against Indy Eleven in the club’s first ever playoff match. Despite being the lower seed, Rhode Island was heavily favored to win this game. They came out and played like the aggressor right away, with 59% possession and 11 shots in the first half, where JJ Williams scored two out of his three goals.

With the victory, Rhode Island FC have earned themselves the opportunity to play Louisville City FC at the majestic Lynn Family Stadium again this coming Saturday.

I also want to acknowledge the outstanding Rhode Island FC traveling support, who were all over the broadcast. I tip my hat to the fans that flew and/or drove to be at the match. Sights like this drew a cheer from the crowd at Providence Brewing Company during the broadcast:

Here are my player ratings for Rhode Island FC’s first ever playoff game against Indy Eleven on Sunday, November 3, 2024.

Koke Vegas (GK) — 6/10

This was one of Koke’s better performances in the last several weeks – which is strange to say when this was the most goals Rhode Island FC have conceded since Pittsburgh on September 7th. He was a calm presence as the team captain during the first half as he helped the team build out from the back. While none of his saves will be Save of the Week contenders, he made three diving saves and led the team with 12 ball recoveries to keep the defense out of tough situations several times.

On the two goals we conceded on the night – there was not much more Koke could have done. The first goal took a bad deflection around the edge of the six-yard box. The second goal, perhaps he could’ve got lucky and got a limb to it – but it was a well-taken, uncontested header from close range.

Grant Stoneman (D) — 7/10

Stoneman has rarely put a foot wrong since returning from an early-season injury in July, and tonight was no exception. Each of our defenders made big plays in this match and packed the box score with defensive stats – none more important than Stoneman’s three blocked shots. One came in the 60th minute with Stoneman as the last man back, just as Indy Eleven were beginning to apply pressure.

Stoneman even found himself in front of the Indy Eleven goal a couple of times. Don’t forget it was his headed attempt off from a corner kick that won us a penalty kick (as hit an Indy defender’s arm).

Karifa Yao (D) — 6/10

Our Defender of the Year, Mr. Yayo, had a decent match. His growing comfort on the ball continues to be a storyline for me, as I once again saw him sit on the ball, draw in the Indy Eleven press, and then play a line-breaking pass a couple of times in the first half. Like Stoneman, Yao also had seven clearances.

Yao did whiff on one overhead clearance attempt that put us in great danger late in first half stoppage time. To be fair, he eventually recovered and blocked a shot only a few seconds later into this sequence. In Yao’s defense, at the start of the season I was expecting to see something like this once every couple of games – but it has been a pretty rare occurrence.

Morris Duggan (D) — 7/10

Duggan’s defensive stats were not as loaded as some of his counterparts, but I thought he was sensational – especially in the first half. Defensively, Duggan was oftentimes shepherding the ball out of play, or holding his man up while he waited for help defense to come (which it often did – in the form of Marc Ybarra, for example).

Even more importantly, Duggan was integral in our building out of the back. He looked to dribble or pass the ball forward every single time he received it – and most of the time he had the benefit of having his pick out of Kwizera, Herivaux and Fuson to work with in build up play. In fact, Duggan led all RIFC players with 10 passes into the final third.

Frank Nodarse (MF) — 5/10

In the first half, Nodarse was essentially invisible – and that’s completely fine. The game plan was to play up the left, while Frank was on the right. In fact, the only time I really noticed Frank in the first half was when the first Indy Eleven goal took a deflection off of his outstretched leg. It’s instinct to stick a leg out in his position there, I don’t hold it against him.

Frank did grow into the game in the second half and made his impact felt. Early in the second half, when the score was 2-1, he had some good build up play down the right wing with Herivaux. Once we scored our third goal and were doing more defending, Frank became a larger contributor as well – as he led all players with nine clearances.

If I had to pick the defender who was most asleep on Indy’s second goal, however, I would say probably Frank.

Clay Holstad (MF) — 5/10

It wasn’t Holstad’s best night – but keep in mind, that’s still a very good night for most players. With most of the RIFC build up play happening on the left side in the first half, there was not a ton for Clay to do. Unfortunately, he was 0/3 on ground duels, but he was solid in his pressing efforts off the ball and in getting us out of trouble from the Indy press a couple of times.

I have my fingers crossed that his second half injury was just a knock and some time wasting. It certainly didn’t look comfortable.

Zachary Herivaux (MF) — 6/10

In the first half – when I feel that much of this game was decided – Herivaux was causing massive problems up and down the pitch for Indy Eleven. He was tied for a game-high three interceptions, and matched Noah Fuson to tie for a team-high three chances created.

Herivaux, Fuson, and Kwizera were attacking relentlessly down the left wing and were very hard to keep the ball away from. Heck, you can even throw Khano into that attacking triumvirate for his pre-pre-pre assist on our second goal:

Jojea Kwizera (MF) — 7/10

As mentioned above, Kwizera was very persistent in pushing the ball down the left wing and creating opportunities for Rhode Island FC. It was exactly what we’re used to from Kwizera. Sure, he might have lingered on the ball or been indecisive a couple of times resulting in turnovers, but it was far, far outweighed by the good that he did. Here’s an example of some of that good, with an inch perfect cross in to JJ Williams for our third goal of the night:

I was pleasantly surprised by Kwizera’s defensive involvement as well. Oftentimes it’s not necessary, but in a game like this one, every single man has to be defending like their life depends on it – and Kwizera did. I felt it during the match, but was happy to see it validated on the stat sheet, as he had the fourth most defensive actions on the team, including 4/4 tackles won.

Marc Ybarra (MF) — 6/10

Ybarra didn’t jump off the pitch on either side of the ball, but he was still an important part of a great team performance. In fact – Ybarra not having a flashy game is a big part of what allowed Fuson and Herivaux to wreak havoc as they did. He had one or two out-of-character-moments – like a long ball attempt that went to absolutely no one – and a couple of “fouls” (Indy players go down very easily) in bad positions.

JJ Williams (F) — 9/10

If Williams scoring a playoff hat trick in just 62 minutes isn’t going to earn the highest score to date, then what is? I could’ve scrapped the rest of the blog and written 1,800 words on JJ alone.

JJ had the team’s third “put the team on my back” performance of the year, joining the elite group of Noah Fuson and Clay Holstad. JJ came out and gave 110% for every single ball that was within a 20-foot radius of him. He might not have won every single one, but he made the Indy Eleven team work hard for it.

The mighty Ball-Knowers Council convened last week and ruled that our penalty woes had been solved by JJ – and he proved us right 19 minutes into this match. The placement wasn’t even that good, but he hit this ball like he wanted it to burst out the back of the net and hit some unsuspecting Indy fans (and the way he was running his mouth after all three goals… he probably did want that).

JJ’s second goal was just pure determination and striker’s instinct, as his first attempt was blocked but he beat several Indy Eleven defenders to the second attempt. The third was a peach of a ball from Jojea Kwizera, but you can see JJ calling for the cross seconds before Kwizera picks his head up – JJ knew he was going to beat all three of the Indy Eleven defenders to score that goal. His confidence is soaring at the best possible time.

Noah Fuson (F) — 8/10

Noah Fuson did exactly what you’d expect the 2024 USL Golden Playmaker winner to do in this game: he made plays… goldenly (I will be leading a campaign to give this award a better name in 2025).

As I’ve already mentioned, Fuson could not be contained in attack and was especially dangerous when pairing with any of Herivaux, Kwizera, or JJ Williams. He directly created three chances for the team, including his assist on JJ Williams’ second goal which was a cutback pass inside the box. He could easily have had a goal or two of his own – including a very good opportunity at the start of the second half which he put over the net – and could’ve assisted on a couple more as well.

No pass was sweeter than his blind turnaround pass from the center of the park to send Kwizera running and led to RIFC’s third goal of the game.

Like Kwizera, despite all of Fuson’s incredible attacking output, he actually made some important contributions on defense as well. Fuson had three clearances in the match, including a crucial intervention in the 8th minute of second half stoppage time to preserve Rhode Island’s lead.

Subs

Albert Dikwa (F) (62nd minute) — 4/10

This was a truly fascinating substitute appearance. If you have the 2023 Golden Boot Winner on the bench, you bring him in regardless of game state, (we were up 3-1 at the time) and give him the chance to run at tired legs – but it does feel a bit like bringing in a starting pitcher, instead of reliever, to finish a game when you are clinging to a lead.

I think the sub was at least partially to protect JJ Williams – who played only 62 minutes, but put about a month’s worth of wear-and-tear on his body with all of the battling he did in this game.

Dikwa’s job was pretty much to waste time, and he did it quite effectively at times, but then made strange decisions or had mental lapses at others. As a result, Dikwa was dispossessed three times in just 28 minutes and lost 9 out of 11 duels.

Joe Brito (MF) (68th minute) — 7/10

Brito, on the other hand, was like prime Mariano Rivera closing out this match. He was not only engaged on defense, but he put in one of the best time-wasting performances I’ve seen all year. And I don’t even mean the “dark arts” kind of time-wasting – which Brito is no stranger to – but he was actually doing it with the ball in play. He recovered the ball three times in his relatively short cameo, and won 4/4 ground duels.

To provide one example, Brito single-handedly killed about 15 seconds of clock from THIS position, surrounded by six Indy defenders who desperately wanted the ball:

Stephen Turnbull (MF) (83rd minute) — 5/10

Unfortunately, Turnbull was involved for just a couple of minutes before he appeared to suffer an injury to his shoulder or collarbone. Wishing the best for him – although it didn’t look great.

Kofi Twumasi (D) (83rd minute) — 5/10

Twumasi also didn’t have much to do – but could have a bigger role to play at Louisville next weekend if Turnbull is not available.

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For reference, my rating scale is as follows:

• 1/10 – Abysmal. You might as well have me on the pitch.
• 2/10 – Very bad
• 3/10 – Bad
• 4/10 – Below Average
• 5/10 – Average. The player didn’t necessarily stand out, but did their job.
• 6/10 – Good
• 7/10 – Very good
• 8/10 – Great
• 9/10 – Outstanding
• 10/10 – Transcendent performance. Watch out, because Real Madrid may come knocking.