Welcome back to The Tide Chart, Rhode Island FC faithful. After a long offseason, the tides have turned once again as we embark on our sophomore USL Championship campaign. The first month of the season has brought with it the excitement of fresh beginnings, but also the stark reality of early-season challenges as our boys in amber and blue have taken to the road for a series of fixtures before opening their new stadium on May 3. One of those challenges is having to start from scratch after last year’s incredible USL Championship Final run, which positioned RIFC as one of the favorites to win the league this season. A big question looms large: With the added weight of expectation, how will this club fare in 2025?
With that as a backdrop, let’s dive into the ebb and flow of player form after clashes against Charleston Battery, Phoenix Rising, and Loudoun United. It’s important to remember that these are early days. Just as a single wave doesn’t define the entire ocean, these initial performances are merely the beginning of what we hope will be a successful season. Nevertheless, let’s look at The Tide Chart for the month of March. Which players have shown glimpses of a rising tide, and which have unfortunately seen their form take an initial dip?
Rising Tide 📈
JJ Williams
With an average FotMob rating of 7.0 in March (the only player on the roster to reach that mark), and earning Tide Talk’s coveted “Lord of the Tides” award for the month, JJ Williams is the first and maybe only clear choice to make the Rising Tide list.
Despite the team’s overall struggles to secure victories, or even to score goals, JJ Williams has shown he can still be a potent attacking threat. He bagged the opening goal in the draw against Phoenix Rising and heavily influenced the own goal that Phoenix conceded in that match. This was enough for JJ to be named to the USL Championship Team of the Week. His early goalscoring form suggests that JJ is ready to lead the line once again and could be a key player as the season progresses.
That’s a great sign considering JJ got off to a slow start last year after spending a big chunk of the early season sidelined with an injury. But once he found his form, JJ was a wrecking ball and a force to be reckoned with down the stretch and into the playoffs. Perhaps the most promising sign we’ve seen in March is that his aerial abilities have caused a lot of trouble for defenders. If this continues, expect a huge season from JJ.
Maxi Rodriguez
For the last several Tide Chart editions of the 2024, I had plenty of players to pick from for the Rising Tide list and I struggled to find many, if any, Falling Tides. To kick off 2025, the reverse is true. While JJ was an easy pick, I think the next best player has been our splashiest offseason acquisition, Maxi Rodriguez.
The reason he wasn’t an easy pick is simply because of expectations. Maxi was a First Team 2024 USL Championship All-League 1st Team selection and an automatic starter in the lineup each week. Naturally, that leaves fans with high expectations for what he will be contributing on the field. The truth of the matter is that Maxi has been very good in an RIFC amber kit but not otherworldly. That doesn’t mean he didn’t do enough to earn a spot in the Rising Tide section of this blog, though.
While the match results haven’t yet gone our way, the quality of Maxi Rodriguez’s deliveries from set pieces has been a noticeable positive. His beautiful set piece into the box against Phoenix Rising (along with JJ’s aerial assault on the ball) led to the aforementioned own goal, showcasing his ability to create dangerous opportunities. If RIFC can capitalize more consistently on these deliveries, Maxi’s tide could rise even further.
He has largely played in the No. 10 role, a center attacking midfield position sitting behind the forward pairing up top, but he has also drifted deep into the midfield to collect the ball and restart the attack when needed. He can do this because he possesses, controls, dribbles, and distributes the ball effectively. These are pivotal traits for a player that will continue to be a top midfielder in this league. We just need the players around him to start clicking better to see the midfield overall become a strength of this team as it did in the final stretch of 2024.
No One Else
We’ve seen flashes of promise from newcomer Aldair Sanchez, particularly in the Phoenix game, but we’ve also seen two other “meh” performances from him.
Clay Holstad’s versatility has been on display, and he’s performed admirably earning an average FotMob score of 6.7, but he hasn’t stood out beyond just being a player that can play any position.
Chico has looked good at times when combining with JJ Williams, but he has also botched golden chances in front of goal. It’s fair to wonder if the team should put Noah back in this spot and have Chico come off the bench. (More on that later.)
Marc Ybarra looked good in Loudoun but hasn’t gotten much playing time as Taimu has been the preferred starter so far.
Taimu had a rough first game then looked just alright in the next two games. You can make the case that he deserves to be on the Rising Tide list simply because of the unexpected playing time he has already earned, but I haven’t seen enough from him yet to understand why the coaching staff is so bullish on him. (He’s young, and it’s early yet, so I do think it will come in time. I’m just not there yet.)
Overall, there were some positives but these players all have a mixed bag in March. For that reason, I’m sticking to only two Rising Tides.
Falling Tide 📉
Oh boy… where to start? Let’s knock off a bunch of players in one shot to kick things off.
Defensive Unit – All of Them
Across the three games, we have seen a tremendous amount of defensive instability. Against Charleston, conceding twice on set pieces echoed previous season struggles. In Phoenix, the defense was sloppy at best. Against Loudoun, defenders were getting worked with ease. This collective dip in defensive solidity is a worrying trend that needs to be addressed.
The biggest offender in the defensive unit was Frank Nodarse. He’s been undisciplined and slow to react. His positioning is sometimes poor, he’s been caught flat footed multiple times, and he has lacked the anticipation needed to stay ahead of the play to break up potentially dangerous situations. But it’s unfair to pin it all on him.
The team has often struggled to pass its way out of the back, a problem that was evident in Charleston where so many errant passes against the high press led to dangerous moments for the opponent. It was also on display for the opening goal against Loudoun where Stoneman carelessly gave the ball away in the heart of the midfield as RIFC were starting to move into their attacking phase after winning back the ball,. I can’t understate how crucial it is to not give the ball away in those moments, especially in such high leverage areas of the pitch.
So far in these first three matches we have seen:
- The marking has been suspect by the entire defensive line, especially on set pieces and crosses into the box.
- Our defenders have been hesitant to step up and make a challenge on way too many occasions, leading to multiple goals from our opponents. (i.e. the Charleston goals, Collin Smith’s goal against Phoenix, the first Loudoun goal, etc.).
- Frank got absolutely pantsed by Aboukoura on Loudoun’s second goal (as shown above).
- Hervaux, playing as the left centerback to close out the Loudoun match, made an uncharacteristically dumb decision by taking out a player he should have let get past him, leading to a totally unnecessary red card.
Bad, bad, bad. This defensive unit NEEDS to improve if this team is to have any shot at turning things around. It’s a shame there isn’t much in the way of competition for playing time due to a lack of depth plus injuries because these players don’t seem to have much fight or urgency in them at the moment.
Noah Fuson
While Fuson has shown many flashes of brilliance in the past, earning a very well deserved contract extension in the process, it’s fair to say he has had a very poor start to the 2025 season. He started at forward along with Chico in Charleston and had a poor game, but the entire team seemed to be off that day so he wasn’t alone. To steal from my Tide Talk contributors here, Timmy wrote the following from his Player Ratings blog from that game:
“Ryan summarized it best on the Tide Talk pod with a great, illustrative stat… Noah had the least touches (43) of any outfield player to play the full 90 minutes. It’s not that he was bad, he just wasn’t involved at all.”
Then in Phoenix, Noah started at right wingback and had maybe one of his worst games I’ve seen him play. Ryan keeps telling me Noah wasn’t that bad in the first half, but he was still ineffective and ended up having a disastrous second half. His crossing was useless, he couldn’t beat anyone one-on-one, and he was repeatedly torched on defense.
This all led to him being benched to start the third game against Loudoun. A 2-0 halftime deficit led to a slew of changes, one of which was bringing Noah into the game. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a strong impact even as Rhode Island were playing up a man for over 30 minutes after Loudoun picked up a red card.
I can’t help but think that Noah losing his normal starting spot next in the forward line, while also not being able to play the CAM role with Maxi there, has led to a situation where he is being moved around too often to settle into a groove. We all love his versatility but this storyline seems to mirror a portion of last season where he was also relegated to the bench due to lackluster play during a period of time when he didn’t have a consistent role to play each week. I hope he finds himself quickly because the team desperately needs the Noah Fuson we saw for the second half of last season.
I do wonder if he will be able to turn it around if he continues to play in different spots each week. Truthfully, as alluded to earlier, I would prefer to see Chico come off the bench and have Noah back at forward. Even if Chico is playing well, Noah just seems to have more to offer the team than Chico when playing that role. Plus, Chico would be an excellent game-changing substitute.
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The Horizon Ahead
March has presented a challenging start to the 2025 season for Rhode Island FC on the road. While there have been individual bright spots, particularly in the attacking third with JJ Williams and the overall play and leadership of Maxi Rodriguez, there are clearly areas that need immediate attention, especially defensively. The coaching staff will undoubtedly be looking to stem the falling tides and help more players find their footing as the season progresses.
The upcoming matches will be crucial in setting the tone for the rest of the campaign. Hopefully, the lessons learned from these initial away fixtures will lead to stronger and more cohesive performances as we look forward to the home opener at Tidewater. There are just two league games and one cup game left before the home opener and fans will be desperate to see an in-form team take on the league’s best performing club so far, San Antonio FC, in that matchup.
As always, I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below or on social media. Do you agree with my choices? Am I being too harsh? Is there another player who deserves to be on the Rising Tide list?
Let’s keep the conversation going as we navigate the early waters of the 2025 USL Championship season.
Up The Tide!
Tide Talk 
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