There will be a day and a time – and, realistically, a blog – to reflect on all of the good times from Rhode Island FC’s inaugural season that culminated in a run to the USL Finals. But for today, just let me be sad about it. This is right up there at the top of the list with my personal most traumatic sports losses.

In 2013, the Bruins were in control and less than two minutes away from forcing a Game 7 against the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals before a historic collapse. In 2019, Spurs were on the receiving end of a questionable refereeing decision 23 seconds into the Champions League Final, and never looked like getting back into it.

On Saturday, Rhode Island FC kicked off against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC at 10am and just looked lost from the second that the whistle blew.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the roughly 400 Rhode Island fans who made the journey to Colorado Springs to watch the final. Thanks to this, I had the pleasure after the match of spending many hours unpacking and mourning the loss with fellow fans and friends, and eventually reflecting on an incredible first season.

I decided to pass on giving individual player ratings after our 8-1 demolition of Miami FC, and I’m going to do the same for this match. I don’t want to give the players the scores that I know they probably deserve – and I’m just not going to do it.

We discussed the possibilities of the altitude, or the early kickoff time, affecting the teams’ routines. It certainly may have been a factor, but I don’t think we can blame the loss on it. I did feel strongly in the week leading up to the final that waiting until Thursday for the team to fly out felt at least a day or two too late. I have no empirical evidence and no sports science to suggest that this had anything to do with it, and it’s not the time for a “victory” lap either way.

I don’t think there’s any one thing that we can point to as the reason for Rhode Island’s inadequate performance. The moment that keeps on haunting me the most – and believe me, there are many – is Colorado’s first scoring opportunity just 35 seconds into the match. They should’ve gone up 1-0 at this point. In the crowd, we all assumed RIFC would snap out of it and get to playing our game after this chance – but we never did.

Rhode Island settled into the game slightly, but couldn’t stop the opening goal from coming just 21 minutes into the match. Ybarra – usually so sturdy defensively – got turned inside out by the Colorado Springs winger, who played a beautiful ball into the box for Tejada to volley. Herivaux was man-marking, but by the time he catches the run it’s already too late. In the moment, I even thought Duggan could’ve stretched and got some kind of deflection on the cross. After seeing the replay, I’m not sure.

I would say the RI fans still felt confident that the team would get back into the game at this point. Despite the fact that they hadn’t looked themselves all match, and the fact that they had not trailed in a game since FC Tulsa on September 21, 2024 – this was the team that earned the right to use Never Say Die as their playoff slogan.

Unfortunately, our play was so uninspired after the first goal that I hardly remember anything until the next goal. It materialized seemingly out of nowhere – I’m still not sure how Clay’s challenge didn’t interfere with this shot.

I’m not making excuses for Koke, but the arc of this ball looked unlike any shot I’ve ever seen before. It was absolutely destined to sail 10 feet over the net, but instead just stopped elevating right around the height of the cross bar and sailed into the top left corner. Could it be a Colorado air / altitude thing? Sure – I don’t know.

Note the very classy choice by Henriquez on where to celebrate his goal.

In my head, I was in full on coping-mode, repeating “claw one back before half time, it’s still anyone’s game”. On the field, it looked much more like we were at risk of conceding a third before half time.

Thankfully, we didn’t, and the buzz around the stands was we need to see Kwizera in for Nodarse. Close enough – we got Kwizera on for Grant Stoneman, along with Jack Panayotou for Marc Ybarra. The second substitution merits some level of questioning.

I understand it was an attack-minded midfield substitution – but it was also replacing one of our smartest and most important midfield players with a 20-year-old who hasn’t seen the pitch since October – and hadn’t looked his best in the final games of the regular season. Of course, we’d be singing Khano’s praises for the changes if we’d gotten one or two goals back.

The second half is even more of a blur than the first – and it wasn’t the 6:00am Bloody Mary, courtesy of Tide Talk’s own Kevin a.k.a Fluffy Quahog Boi. Panayotou and Kwizera came on, and the team showed some minor signs of promise… and then this happened.

I’ll start here – look at the run by Clay to try to get back and interrupt Damus. In real time, I thought he was going to catch him, and as it turns out… he was damn close. Everything else about this is disgusting. That is a schoolyard goal to concede. The part that kills me the most is that we scored so many set piece goals this season with in-swinging balls alternating between the near and far post. I’m not sure where this routine came from, or why we decided that down 2-0 in the finals was the time to try it out.

I want to say some fans had accepted defeat by this point, but I wasn’t ready to. 10 minutes after the third goal, Nodarse forced the Colorado Springs keeper into a diving save off of a headed shot. Just a minute after that, Panayotou forced a diving save on a curling shot as well, which resulted in a rebound that Morris Duggan sailed over the net. I regret to say that these were essentially our last – and probably best – chances of the match.

The Rhode Island scarves started going up around the 85th minute. In many ways it was akin to waving the white flag, but, more importantly, it was one last display of pride and support for the team after all that they accomplished in their inaugural season. I can certainly say my arms were sore from holding the scarf high for the next 20 minutes or so. It was also blocking a blazing Colorado sun from my eyes _{^{(and maybe covering them a little bit from my fellow supporters as they were starting to feel a bit misty as the game was winding down).}}

🫶🫶🫶 pic.twitter.com/2sk9a9BZns

— Rhode Island FC (@RhodeIslandFC) November 23, 2024

Before the final whistle, co-founder and president of Defiance 1636, Ervin Vargas, came around and started individually embracing the supporters who made the trip. Ervin shared kind words and words of encouragement with many of us, even though we were all hurting – probably none more than him. I really needed that hug right then.

Ultimately, just about everything that could’ve gone wrong on the pitch for RIFC pretty much did. Their defenders stifled our attack and broke up counters the way we did to Charleston and Louisville. We struggled to hold possession or win any meaningful battles in the midfield (I kept saying – I can hardly remember a single 50/50 ball that we won in the middle of the park). They sent balls over the top of our wing backs again and again and kept finding themselves in space down the wing. At the end of the day, we were just thoroughly outplayed. Some of the underlying stats imply that we were in this match, but we really never were.

Despite the heartbreaking result, I’d make the trip again tomorrow if you gave me the chance. It was really special to be so far away from home surrounded by 400+ fans who all made some version of the same insane travel arrangements to make it possible to be at this game. Usually with travel you can have it be cheap, or you can have it be convenient. Getting to Colorado Springs on short notice to support this team was neither. So I tip my hat to every single person who made it work, and am proud to have been one of them.

I wish I could’ve been in several places at once (a la Hermione in the Prisoner of Azkaban), because I would’ve loved to also soak in the atmosphere in Rhode Island at Providence Brewing Company, The Guild, Moniker, Moonshine Alley, and all the other bars and breweries that hosted what looked like fantastic watch parties.

The stadium, Weidner Field, was absolutely beautiful. I can’t say much one way or the other for the city of Colorado Springs itself (my trip to a 7/11 about two blocks from the stadium certainly showed me a … different side of the city), but the stadium, with the mountains looming in the background, is a view I will never forget. Those fans are lucky to have it, and I think that they appreciate that.

So many of the Colorado fans were painfully gracious to us Rhode Island supporters after the match. They congratulated us on our incredible first season, encouraged us that we’ll make it back to the finals soon, and expressed genuine gratitude towards us for making the trip out. Most of them couldn’t help but mention the incredible energy that the supporters, and in particular La Banda, created on our side of the stadium. Of course, there are always a few exceptions… nothing worth discussing here, I guess.

There was one thing, on the way back to the Denver airport, that also helped to dull the pain…

I will close out with a few thank you’s to the Rhode Island FC front office and team staff, as well as everyone in Defiance 1636 who worked tirelessly to coordinate and make this a great experience for the fans. I don’t know of many professional sports teams where the owners of the team, even players and players’ families, are at the pre-match tailgate and post-game events just hanging out and mingling with fans, thanking us for coming, and having open, honest conversation with us. It really is such a special experience, and gives me incredible confidence in the future of this team.

I think that just about does it… again, I’m proud to have been at the match and grateful to have had not only three fellow members of the Tide Talk family out there with me, but an entire community of new friends that spent the afternoon unpacking the game together. By the end of the day on Saturday, I was feeling much more optimistic about the future of this team than I was sad about the day’s result. It hurt not to win the Championship in our inaugural season, but gives us something to strive for next year and in years to come.