It was another punishing night for the fans at Tidewater as Rhode Island FC drew Hartford Athletic 2-2 in regulation, before losing the match 4-3 in a penalty shootout.

Yes, Rhode Island FC have done enough to stay atop Group 4, and will now host Birmingham Legion FC in the Quarterfinals of the Jägermeister Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I am obviously excited to see knockout football at Tidewater – but for me, this game was about more than simply advancing.

Rhode Island FC had a chance to knock Hartford out of the competition, and they failed. They had a chance to silence Antony Siaha after his antics last week that indirectly led to an emotionally-charged week amongst the fanbase – which continued on Saturday night – and failed. They had a chance to give the loyal home fans who have invested their time and hard-earned money a convincing, dominant performance – against their biggest rivals, who were down to 10 men for nearly 70 minutes – and failed.

Taking only two out of six points against the team with the lowest point total in the league is unacceptable, no matter how you slice it. If Rhode Island FC was bottom of the table and went to Hartford back to back weekends, blanked them on national tv the first weekend, then won on penalty kicks after playing down a man for 70 minutes…? I might not stop running my mouth about it for the rest of the year.

Hartford got us this year. They did.

If you prefer to see some actual coherent, organized thoughts on the match, check out Matt Hands’ Riptide Report from Saturday night, or enjoy the Tide Talk post match podcast from Matt and Ryan.

Player Ratings

I would say 4/10 is the baseline score for the Rhode Island FC players on Saturday. It was another anemic performance in a long season of them. The football played here on Saturday night was simply not good.

I think Amos Shapiro-Thompson was one of the few standouts who, once again, can hold his head high after this performance for his endless energy – including, but certainly not limited to, his equalizing goal early in the second half. Marc Ybarra was decent, and surely deserved credit for the assist on AST’s goal.

I thought Aime Mabika and Karifa Yao also both defended competently, but ultimately spent too much time with the ball at their feet, passing around the back instead of springing attacks. I’d include Rio Hope-Gund in this group who played decently as well, after he came on for the injured Frank Nodarse in the first half.

Unfortunately, I thought Clay Holstad looked seriously out of sorts playing as the right wing back for the second week in a row… I’m going to circle back to this. Noah Fuson struggled as well playing as the second striker/number 10 role.

Honorable mention to JJ Williams – he didn’t play particularly well – but when he drank and then dumped out Siaha’s water bottle (dark arts masterclass) during a stoppage, I was convinced there was no way we were losing this match.

Here is a document tracking all of my player ratings for the season so far.

Not All Doom and Gloom

Of course, as previously mentioned, Rhode Island FC did enough to finish top of Group 4 and will host a quarterfinals matchup in August.

✅This is a very realistic chance at silverware in an otherwise poor season for Rhode Island FC. We are three wins away from winning this competition, and there’s no Louisville, no Charleston, no FC Tulsa, and no New Mexico to get through.

✅I was able to ride my bike to the match on a beautiful Saturday evening and get in an almost full 2.5 hour tailgate with my RIFC family in M7. Results aside…it’s genuinely hard to beat a day like this. It’s not lost on me how special this is.

✅I also think the new white kits looked great on the field and on the broadcast.*

✅This shouldn’t have to be listed as a positive, but fans were also treated to a whopping TWO goals for the good guys – for only the third time in 11 matches at Tidewater.

✅Most importantly, this felt like a proper, proper derby match. Aside from the actual quality of football on the pitch, this had everything; Goals, cards, sending offs, penalty kicks, scuffles, antics, controversial calls – you name it.

✅Those four minutes after Maxi’s goal, before Hartford equalized at 2-2… easily some of the most memorable minutes we’ve had at Tidewater.

*I do have issues with the $110 price tag on the new kit, and the lack of availability of the new kit or either of the ’24 season kits in the online store. Las Vegas Lights is the only other USLC team, in addition to Rhode Island FC, that sell their kits at this price. Meanwhile, our newest northern neighbors (who do also sell their kits for $110, in USL1, to be fair) have sold $2 million worth of merchandise since April 2024.

The Elephant in the Room

I am once again absolutely baffled by the lineup and the tactics.

Amos, Ybarra, and Hugo is about as conservative of a midfield as you can conceivably roll out. Last week, I expressed my displeasure at Amos and Ybarra starting together because they have similar strengths and similar limitations.

This week, we exacerbated those limitations by adding in another – arguably even more defensive – holding midfielder. It’s frustrating as well knowing that our two most dynamic, progressive, ball-carrying midfielders were needlessly pushed out wide for the second week in a row (Clay Holstad), or on the bench (Maxi Rodriguez).

Also for the second week in a row, we’ve failed to have JJ Williams – our most dangerous striker – and Maxi Rodriguez – our best progressive passer and chance creator – on the field together.

Without Maxi or Clay in the midfield, you would think we would opt to mostly play the ball long and look for JJ to win some aerial duels up top – it’s a strength of his (67% aerial duels won on the season), so why not? Not to mention that’s primarily how we’ve been approaching matches with Chico (who is not particularly good in the air, with just 38% of aerial duels won) in JJ’s absence.

For whatever reason that was not the case. Over Rhode Island FC’s previous five matches, they’ve averaged 61 attempted long balls. On Saturday, with a non-ball progressing midfield and our biggest aerial threat back in the starting lineup, we attempted just 37.

The Other Elephant in the Room

The atmosphere was better than I expected in the stadium, despite the subdued presence in 116 due to sanctions from the front office stemming from last week’s match against Hartford: no banners, signs, flags megaphones, or smokes allowed. For the sicko’s, this was a major storyline heading into the match.

I think the decision by La Banda not to drum for this match, in solidarity with Defiance 1636, was fantastic. From my perspective, it had exactly the desired effect – it made the atmosphere in the stadium downright weird – for one of the biggest matches of the season – which highlighted how essential these two entities are to the gameday experience.

I also think it encouraged some fans – myself included – to be more vocal than usual (or maybe it was just the pudding shots?) to help cheer on the team. After talking with my esteemed Tide Talk colleagues, and hearing others opinions on this match, I acknowledge that feelings on the atmosphere may vary greatly depending on where you are used to sitting.

The atmosphere, I suspect, was more off-putting for the crowd in the south stand – who are used to the typical commotion from Defiance and La Banda – than it was for us in the 200’s, where sound does not carry especially well. Not to say that it wasn’t noticed all around the stadium. I overheard several conversations of people wondering what was going on. Again – to this I say… mission accomplished.

Game’s Gone?

I typically steer clear of commenting on the refereeing, but the tolerance for time wasting was an actual embarrassment to the sport. Additionally, both sides probably deserved a couple more yellow cards than were distributed.

I went back and checked on the broadcast – Maxi’s yellow card incident with Hairston in the second half alone was around five minutes without the ball in play. Outside of that, there were three goals (including a penalty kick), multiple substitution windows, and three other delays due to Hartford “injuries”.

How in the WORLD was there only five minutes of added time? Surely a yellow card should have been shown to Siaha for this? This is one of the most egregious examples of timewasting I’ve ever seen in my couple decades of watching football.

Obviously whoever is speaking on the broadcast could not have been more incorrect about the time being added back on. Hartford was 100% rewarded for their behavior – they got a chance to regroup and rest with only 10 men on the field, and only had to play through five additional minutes while wasting at least 10 minutes of actual game time in the second half.

So What Now?

Part of me feels like it will be good to have the team on the road next week… we probably all need a little space right now. On the other hand, we’re almost guaranteed not to see signs of breaking out of this slump on the road against a Bob Lilley team – even if we somehow manage to scrape a result.

I still believe this team can turn a corner and catch fire… but time is running out. A lot can still happen, and change, between now and our next fixture against Hartford on August 23. Hopefully we’ll be fresh off of a win in the quarterfinals of the Jägermeister Cup, and Hartford will be fresh off of being eliminated.

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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.