Rhode Island FC secured all three points with a 3-0 win over Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday night, making two consecutive wins and clean sheets on the road. Much like the Birmingham match on Wednesday, regardless of how you feel about the performance, it’s a fantastic – and desperately needed – result.

On one hand, the Rhode Island attack continues to look fairly discombobulated since the injury to JJ Williams. Don’t be fooled by the 3-0 score line – Rhode Island FC only put up 0.54 Expected Goals compared to Tampa Bay’s 1.15. All three Rhode Island goals were a combination of a brilliant individual strike and failure to close out by Tampa.

On the other side of the pitch, since the introductions of Rio Hope-Gund and Aime Mabika, as well as the shift to a back four (where we previously played a back three), our defense has looked significantly improved. Koke Vegas has also put together a stellar run of form during that same period – conceding just one goal in his last four matches.

For those who are interested – here is a document tracking all player ratings for the season so far.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Tampa Bay Corner Sponsor – 8/10

Don’t sleep on Colony Grill – this is a great pizza spot with the original location in Stamford, CT. It’s not traditional Connecticut/New Haven style pizza, but instead more like a bar pie with crust almost like a thin cracker. If you’re willing to pay the inevitable toll on your digestive system, a hot oil pie is the way to go (with stingers, if you really want to punish yourself. As Khano would say, “You have to be willing to suffer”).

If I was actually going to rate a Tampa player, it would be giving Lawrence Wyke a -1/10. As soon as he picked up is first yellow card and flew in for another bad challenge just moments after, I thought to myself “he’s not finishing this match”.

Koke Vegas (GK) – 7/10

Until recently, it was flying under the radar how good of form Koke has been in over the last four weeks. He made five saves total in this match, including three fairly difficult saves in the first 30 minutes. Some of these saves did spill back into the box – which makes me nervous given some of the ball-watching we’ve seen our defense doing. I thought this may have been his best:

Aime Mabika (D) – 8/10

Aime was sensational, particularly in the first half. He was involved in snuffing out absolutely every attack that Tampa Bay sent our way, especially in the first 20 minutes when they were at their most threatening. He finished with a game-high 13 defensive actions including nine clearances, with several of these coming on corner kicks.

He was also relentless with his passing forward, constantly looking to get balls into the feet of our attacking players much higher up the pitch. The passes weren’t all perfect (some had a bit too much mustard on them, or the player wasn’t able to receive) – but think our players will also adjust and adapt to receiving this type of pass from Mabika.

Grant Stoneman (D) – 7/10

Stoneman had some dark moments in the first half of this match – which he was bailed out by the excellent play of his central partner, Aime Mabika – but he grew into the match and made many crucial clearances and defensive plays in the second half.

Stoneman was also integral to our ball progression as he led all players with 55 accurate passes and 13 passes into the final third. None was more impressive ball than the beautiful long ball he played to Aldair Sanchez, which becomes an assist on our second goal, scored by Zach Herivaux. I guess we’re technically counting Stoneman’s ball to Clay Holstad at the end of the first half as an assist, as well.

Frank Nodarse (D) – 4/10

I would’ve thought Frank would slot in seamlessly to the right back role that Rio Hope-Gund has been playing, but he looked all out of sorts. Other than losing 8 out of his 9 total duels, I also noticed on a couple of occasions that Frank would progress the ball up the field, turn it over somewhere in the opposition half, and then Tampa Bay would have a break down our right flank where Frank should have been.

I do appreciate Frank’s versatility, which allowed us to sub Mabika off, Frank slide into the central defender position, with Rio coming on as the right back.

Aldair Sanchez (D) – 5/10

Much like Stoneman, I thought Aldair had an especially bad first half. I’m sympathetic because he must be absolutely exhausted from this run of games – but some loose passes out of our own half gave Tampa a couple of dangerous opportunities.

Sanchez also looked significantly better after weathering the first 30 minutes or so, and earned himself an assist on Zach Herivaux’s second half goal.

Zach Herivaux (MF) – 6/10

“Zach Herivaux has come back to Al Lang Stadium… and he brought a dagger with him.”

Herivaux had a decent but fairly non-descript game until scoring a curling goal in the 73rd minute.

We did see some glimpses of Herivaux supporting our build up play when he would link up with combinations of Clay, Sanchez, Fuson, Dikwa, Kwizera, and Shapiro-Thompson

Maxi Rodriguez (MF) – 5/10

This too was a rather pedestrian performance by Maxi’s very high standards. Part of it is us not getting the ball to him enough, but I thought Maxi himself was also bit looser with the ball than usual. I’ll keep making these excuses for our players… he’s got to be absolutely exhausted – and he seems to expend as much if not more energy per match than almost anyone else on this team.

Of course, he got an assist for his part in Noah Fuson’s goal – but I thought his best moment of the match was his one-timed low cross to Dikwa that arguably should have been buried.

Clay Holstad (MF) – 7/10

This was the perfect example of why we say Clay has unlimited license to shoot. He may put five shots in a row into Row H at Tidewater and I will still never complain about Clay having a crack from outside the box.

Besides the goal, I did think Clay looked more like himself as he glided around the pitch, avoiding oncoming defenders and pressure before springing a pass like it is completely easy for him. He also chipped in with seven defensive actions.

Jojea Kwizera (F) – 4/10

Kwizera made it 39 minutes before he was subbed off for an injury (maybe a recurrence / feeling of symptoms from the knock to the head that he took earlier in the match). Unfortunately, he was not having a great game before the substitution… as he had 0 touches in the opposition box, and was dispossessed a game-high three times.

Albert Dikwa (F) – 4/10

We saw some flashes of good-Dikwa on Wednesday, but that version unfortunately did not make the trip to Tampa. 19 touches in 70 minutes is simply not good enough and he wasn’t especially involved in any of our infrequent dangerous-looking moments while he was on the field (except for the Maxi chance, which he should have buried. Fair play to the Tampa keeper on that one).

Noah Fuson (F) – 6/10

Noah’s final third decision-making is still lacking on the season so far. There were some moments – like his through ball to Maxi that led to one of our best goal scoring chances of the night – but Noah, along with the rest of his teammates, have simply looked out-of-sync in the opponent’s box all season long.

Of course, Noah didn’t really need to be in sync with his teammates to score his great goal in the 87th minute. We’re all hoping that Noah getting on the scoresheet will restore some of his confidence that made him so lethal in the 2nd half of last season.

Subs

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (F) – 5/10

I’m still not convinced that Amos offers enough threat going forward to be playing in the right-sided forward role (not that we really had any other choice). AST did have a decent game, and I thought his energetic pressing out of possession really shined through tonight and made Tampa Bay rush their build up play often.

Joe Brito (F) – 5/10

Brito was fine, he generated a couple of chances (as was his job, coming on to replace Albert Dikwa) and not a whole lot else.

Rio Hope-Gund (D) – 6/10

More of the same from Rio Hope-Gund – always in the right place, at the right time, defensively. For the second week in a row he’s shrugged off a couple of strong challenges as well.

Taimu Okiyoshi (MF) – N/A (fewer than 10 touches)

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Rating Scale:

• 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 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.