RIFC announced their first signing of the offseason in Maxi Rodriguez from Detroit City FC. Not willing to rest on the recent Eastern Conference Championship, the team has added an All-League First Team player to this trophy-winning squad.
How about that for a signal of intent?
Who is Maxi Rodriguez?
Maxi Rodriguez is a 29 year old central midfielder from San Antonio, Texas. He spent time with San Antonio FC and the Richmond Kickers before signing with Detroit City FC in 2021 while they played in the NISA league.
Becoming an instant fan favorite, Maxi was the leading goal scorer on the NISA title winning side before Detroit City moved to the USL Championship. He ended his time at DCFC a centurion, making 140 appearances while scoring 37 goals and chipping in 15 assists. In his final season with Le Rouge, Maxi took home the Black Arrow MVP Award, cementing his legend status at the club.
Why is he one of my favorite players in the league?
I’ll cut to the chase here, Maxi was in my top 3 dream signings this offseason for RIFC. Don’t believe me? I downloaded a mod for Football Manager 24 to play as RIFC and Maxi was the first player I tried to sign. Please leave all of your NERD comments below.
Seriously, look at the joy in my face when Garret from Channel: 451 talked about Maxi in our first Away End episode:
Jack of all trades
Need a goal? Maxi can help. He scored the fourth most goals from a center mid across the entire league this season finding the back of the net 10 times.
How about winning duels in midfield? He does that too. Rodriguez won over 5 duels per match, 20th in the league compared to all midfielders.
Need someone to take penalties? Also can do that, slotting home all three of his takes from the spot this past season.
And someone who leads by example? Maxi has worn the captain’s armband at both Detroit and Richmond but it’s his work off the pitch that is truly inspiring.
While balancing part-time jobs as a Door Dash and UPS driver, Rodriguez committed to a new routine during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. He woke up at 6 a.m., trained for two or three hours, worked a shift at one of his jobs, took a nap, trained again. It became a habit, repeated day after day.
USSoccer.com
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For James, it was exactly the traits that Rodriguez had been quietly displaying that made him an asset. “Maxi’s desire to want to do well [is one of his greatest attributes],” the coach said. “He’s put a lot of pressure on himself to do well, and in doing so his desire makes him do everything else well.”
Versatility
With his ability both on and off the ball, it’s no surprise to learn that Khano Smith would be targeting Rodriguez. Seriously, does this look like a Khano Smith player or what?
We saw this past season how players like Noah Fuson and Clay Holstad were able to plug holes all over the pitch when the team dealt with injury crises at the back or international call-ups. Maxi could fill a similar void.
Availability
As they say, the best ability is availability. Since Detroit moved to the USL Championship in 2022, Maxi has played in all 34 league matches in all three seasons.
Clinical
Of all outfield players with more than 15 appearances in the 2024 season, Maxi had the 12th highest goal conversion percentage at 25%. For reference, this is just 1.32 percentage points off of USL record goal scorer Nick Markanich this season.
How will he fit in?
As stated above, Maxi is an extremely versatile player but where will we see him most? I believe we’ll see Rodriguez line up the most advanced of a 3-man midfield. A midfield trio of Holstad and Rodriguez with Herivaux at the base is the best in the league and extremely complimentary.
With Herivaux at the base of the midfield, his athleticism to cover ground, technical security and press resistance will allow the team to progress through him while not being worried about being overrun by an eager press.
With Herivaux’s holding it down behind him, this allows Clay to use his athleticism to roam, recover balls and create chaos in the midfield. Hopefully this can lead to him increasing his shots taken per match slightly next year as we all know how it goes when he can get to the edge of the box.
And for Maxi, this will allow him to co-lead the press, force turnovers in the final third and make third man runs to create goals like the one you’ll see here:
However, looking at the chart above, you may have noticed that chance creation among this trio is a bit lacking. Thankfully, we learned that the chance creating duo of Kwizera and Fuson will be returning in 2025.
Other options
If we’re short in attack, Maxi could easily slot into a second-stiker role that we’ve seen Noah Fuson thrive in this season working off of the holdup play of JJ Williams. If we’re chasing a game, he could easily be paired with another playmaker like Noah Fuson or Amos Shapiro-Thompson to bring RIFC back into the match.
Overall, I’m incredibly excited about this addition. It’s not often that your team signs a player with as much experience and ability as Maxi Rodriguez. I can’t wait to see him in the Amber and Blue at Tidewater next season.
Up the Tide!
Tide Talk 
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