We did it everyone. RIFC won their first ever playoff game, taking down Indy Eleven 3-2 in an exciting (and very stressful) affair. The win means RIFC are heading to Louisville on Saturday after Louisville City took down North Carolina FC 3-2. The loss of course sends Indy Eleven packing. Let’s take a look back at how it all went down:

The game started out scrappy and both teams seemed a little tentative. I think that was to be expected with both teams expecting a tight game and with RIFC being in their first ever playoff game. Everything really kicked off around the 18th minute when this happened:

Indy Eleven midfielder Brem Soumaoro committed a handball offense in the box and JJ Williams buried the ensuing penalty kick. I think the handball was a pretty clear call as Soumaoro’s arm was in an unnatural position. The argument against it being called would be that the distance between Soumaoro and the ball when it was headed in his direction was pretty small. But I think if a player has his arm away from his body like that, there really isn’t any way you can say it shouldn’t be a handball. JJ did really well to bury his penalty there and he definitely got some confidence from the one he scored last week against Miami FC.

The game was pretty even after the goal and Indy Eleven definitely grew into the game. They would get an equalizer in the 35th minute through Aodhan Quinn:

I think we could have done better there to clear the ball away. Clay Holstad’s header went right to Quinn and Jojea Kwizera couldn’t get over quickly enough to get the block. Clearing our box has been a persistent problem this season and it reared it’s head here. I don’t blame Koke on this one, as he really didn’t have any chance after the ball took a deflection on the way through.

The game would only stay level for 3 minutes though as we were able to strike right back through, you guessed it, JJ Williams:

We were killing Indy down our left attacking side and the quick throw in from Kwizera there got it all started. All four players who took up positions on our left side were involved in this one. Kwizera, Herivaux, Fuson and of course JJ with the finish. Indy had no answer and we almost had a third goal from JJ right before halftime. The game ended up going into the half 2-1 and it seemed like the right outcome based on the chances each team created.

The 2nd half started out with more of the same from RIFC as we continued to be rampant down our left side. JJ Williams would get his 3rd goal in the 52nd minute through another great move:

After watching these goals back, this was my favorite. Once again, the same 4 players got involved in this goal as our last one. Noah Fuson played an incredible ball from the center circle out to Jojea Kwizera on the wing. Kwizera and Herivaux linked up and the cross from Kwizera was perfect. JJ was a beast in the box and buried his header. Our 3-1 lead here was definitely deserved.

JJ came off just after the hour mark and our attack wasn’t the same. Indy Eleven did well to fight back and eventually got their 2nd goal in the 76th minute:

Aodhan Quinn put in a great one time cross after the corner was headed back out and Douglas Martinez did well to head it in. The game was nervy after the goal and 9 minutes of stoppage time didn’t help. RIFC were able to hold on though and we came away with a win in our first ever playoff game.

After looking back at the tape, we were deserved winners in this one. But before getting into why exactly, we have to look at our starting 11. We set up in the same way we did in our previous game against Miami FC, but if you need a reminder:

This is the 11 that I had predicted/hoped for in the Prematch Lookout. I thought it made sense to keep the same 11 from our previous match. It definitely worked well for us here and as I said several times as we were looking at our goals, it was our left side that dominated this one.

Fuson, Kwizera, Herivaux and JJ were our best players. There honestly isn’t that much else to say about it. I’ve said it several times in this blog already. Whenever we got the ball, we looked to play it out wide to the left and had a ton of success. I think this is why Clay Holstad didn’t have much of an impact. Frank Nodarse also didn’t get forward too much but looked solid defensively in his RWB spot.

It wasn’t a perfect performance however, as Indy Eleven did well to keep themselves in the game and take advantage of some deficiencies in our defense. Their first goal came because we weren’t able to clear the ball away far enough and it landed at Quinn’s feet. We weren’t quick enough to close him down and he was able to fire a shot in towards a bunch of bodies in the box. At that point, anything can happen and a deflection helped the ball get past Koke.

Similar to the issue of not closing down, I think we had issues tracking late runners from midfield. Indy Eleven were able to create some chances from this and we were a little lucky that they weren’t able to take advantage. Their 2nd goal came after a ball was once again headed back out towards Quinn. This time, Quinn played a one time cross into the box. So on both goals, we struggled to fully clear the ball away and gave them chances. This is something we will need to clean up moving forward.

I also wanted to touch on our substitutions in this one. As I mentioned earlier, we took JJ off just after the hour mark and brought in Albert Dikwa. We weren’t able to replicate our attacking moves with Dikwa in instead of JJ. My assumption is that we took JJ off because he’s banged up. I don’t think he’s injured to the point where he can’t play but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s dealing with something that affected his ability to play 90 minutes.

Clay Holstad came off for Joe Brito in the 68th minute and he seemed to be struggling a little bit before he went out. Similar to JJ, I don’t think there’s a serious injury here. But we definitely will need Clay next week so hopefully he’s doing ok. Our last two subs were Stephen Turnbull and Kofi Twumasi for Jojea Kwizera and Zach Herivaux. It was interesting to see Twumasi here as he hasn’t played significant minutes in months. His last appearance was 7 minutes against Loudoun on October 13th. Aside from a 1 minute cameo against San Antonio a couple of weeks before that, he hadn’t played since June. I think Twumasi played well and helped us see out the game. I’m not opposed to seeing more of him if needed.

The biggest concern here though is with Turnbull. He came off injured shortly after he came on and we had to finish the match out with 10 men. Even though Turnbull has seemingly lost his starting role at RWB to Frank Nodarse, I think he’s still an important player for us. Having Turnbull as an option at RWB allows us to move around some of our other versatile players.

At the end of the day, this was a very good playoff performance. And it was great to watch this game at Providence Brewing with everyone. I was definitely stressed after we went down to 10 men due to the Turnbull injury but I’m proud of the way the team closed it out. That is definitely something they’ve learned as the year has gone on. I think this game was a real testament to the work that Khano Smith, the rest of the staff, and the players have done throughout the season.

We have a massive challenge coming up with our trip to Louisville. I’ll be back later in the week to try to figure out what it’s going to take for us to get the win. When I wake up Tuesday morning after the Postmatch Pod and Quahog Corner Monday night, I’ll be turning the page.

Well, this weekend but you know what I mean. UP THE TIDE!