RIFC fell 1-0 at Indy Eleven tonight. It was a game where we were hoping to see some consistency and instead took a major step back. It was a poor game all around. As always, I’ll do my best to shoot off some quick takes on yet another disappointing night
Strikers?
RIFC started this game with no true strikers on the field. While it was great to see JJ Williams back on the bench, it was really confusing to see Albert Dikwa joining him. Unless there was something going on with Chico that we don’t know about, this made no sense. It ended up pushing Noah and especially Maxi further up. After the last two games, both Khano Smith and assistant coach Dave McKay both indicated that they liked what Maxi was bringing when playing deeper in the midfield. That was completely thrown out the window with this setup. It made for an awful first half in a game where we were all hoping to see the team gain some momentum
Comically Bad Goal
Indy Eleven scored 10 minutes into the 2nd half to go up 1-0. It started with a horrendous free kick in RIFC’s defensive third from Rio Hope-Gund. I mean…just take a look:
Rio has been so solid defensively and it’s just so frustrating to see an error like this. The rest of the defense did very little to help after Indy Eleven got the ball and overall it was just an embarrassing goal to concede
Substitutions Not Enough
Khano made plenty of substitutions in the 2nd half, trying to find anything to improve the team’s performance. He brought on Albert Dikwa in the 55th minute, seemingly to correct the mistake of not starting him in this game. It helped slightly, but wasn’t enough. A triple substitution of Rovira, Williams and Sanchez for Kwizera, Ybarra, and Mabika came in the 71st. It ended up changing the system to something like a 3-4-1-2, with Noah Fuson as a 10 and JJ and Dikwa partnering up top. It helped the team put more pressure on Indy’s back line but at the end of the day, it just wasn’t enough. Hugo Bacharach made an appearance late and looked promising, but that’s just about the only “positive” you could even try to take away from this game
Up Next
We will be back tomorrow night with a postmatch pod to try to make more sense of what happened tonight. Timmy will also have player ratings, which are sure to be really low, and rightfully so. I will be here with a preview of our critical game against Hartford Athletic next weekend. Until then, no matter what, UP THE TIDE!
Tide Talk 
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