Trains, a working-class city, a 0-2 loss, and a Rhode Island FC player being sent off. Does this sound familiar? You might think you’ve accidentally opened the post from Rhode Island’s 0-2 loss to Detroit City FC on April 19th. But nope! It’s happened again, this time at Pittsburgh.

With their 9th loss of the season, Rhode Island FC have moved into sole possession of the title “Worst Team in the USL Championship”, averaging 0.94 points per game. They’ve scored the second fewest goals with just 14, and are the only team where no player has scored more than two goals on the season. We’ve seen enough to say that this team is not only not good, but they are not fun to watch either.

In fairness, on Saturday night, I thought the first half performance was decent, and Khano made a handful of tweaks that I’ve been wanting to see: 1. Maxi playing deeper, 2. Dikwa playing on the right, and 3. Hugo in the back line.

The game obviously came completely unraveled in the span of less than 20 minutes, when Rhode Island FC conceded twice and then JJ Williams was sent off for violent conduct. Now, after just two starts since returning to the lineup, Williams will miss the next match at home against Detroit City FC.

For those who are interested in comparing these ratings to other matches this season – here is a document tracking all of my player ratings for the season so far.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

First, an honorable mention to my wife, who drove us home from the Cape on Sunday morning so that I could start my rewatch. 10/10 performance by her. Whoever whipped up our bagel sandwiches at Bagelhound put in a better shift than most of the Rhode Island FC team, as well.

Jackson Lee (GK) – 4/10

Jackson did make some decent saves in the first half – they may have looked easy because he was well positioned for them, but they were also powerful shots.

On the goals conceded… the defending was not perfect, and they were both pretty clinical finishes by Pittsburgh… but I think you’d hope to see Jackson stop at least one – if not both – of these attempts.

Jackson did make a great save to help “stop the bleeding” in second half stoppage time.

Karifa Yao (D) – 5/10

I don’t think that the defenders have done too much wrong in this match – and this is probably the back three I’d like to see continue.

Yao, per usual, won all five of his aerial duels – of course, his headed clearance attempt below didn’t do enough to get the ball out of danger… and the defending from he and Hugo is a bit casual in the immediate aftermath. But this also is just not a particularly dangerous shot, but somehow the defenders and goalkeeper all get beat.

Hugo Bacharach (D) – 5/10

I really liked Hugo’s performance here – his comfort on the ball and passing range were on display, and I think he’s more impactful for Rhode Island FC as a central defender than as a six.

Yes, he was in the mix for both Pittsburgh goals. On the second Pittsburgh goal, I honestly think Hugo plays this just about right but the forward gets off a great shot with almost no room and no angle.

Aime Mabika (D) – 5/10

Similar comments for Mabika – I thought he was solid defensively and good on the ball. With him leading all Rhode Island players with 69 touches, I’d like to see him be a bit more ambitious with his passing. We know he is one of our best passers on the backline, yet he attempted only three long balls and passed into the final third only three times.

Jojea Kwizera (MF) – 5/10

Kwizera may have been our most threatening player on the night… but it’s a very low bar at this point. He attempted five crosses and completed none of them, which is tough to do when you have JJ Williams in the box. He also led all players with 11 passes into the final third, and three tackles won.

Kwizera looked to shoot a bit more in this match, which I was happy to see. For comparison, last season he had 3 goals and 6 assists, vs. just the 1 assist so far this season.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (MF) – 5/10

Amos was lively, once again with varying levels of effectiveness. He certainly made himself more involved playing as the right wing back than Clay had done in the previous two matches – but it’s still not the best fit for his profile.

There were a few consecutive possessions late in the first half where Amos was picking up the ball deep and driving it forward and he looked like the only Rhode Island player with any desire to win the game.

Hey, maybe we should have signed a starting-caliber right wing back? Or, better yet, held on to the one that we already had?

Marc Ybarra (MF) – 4/10

I’m an Ybarra stan, but he hasn’t done enough since returning to the lineup to have earned the spot for me. Or… to clarify, he hasn’t shown that he can contribute to the attack in a meaningful way, which is really THE thing that we need right now.

He had a fine game as a defensive midfielder, although he did lose eight out of his eleven duels. Ybarra also accumulates some attacking stats due to being the primary set piece taker… but the service has been average at best in my opinion.

I would’ve liked to see Clay play as the other central midfielder alongside Maxi here.

Maxi Rodriguez (MF) – 4/10

Maxi returned to the deeper role in the midfield, where he had some monster matches against Portland and Birmingham a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, he was much less effective in this match than he was in those two.

There were certainly flashes of the expected Maxi brilliance, but ultimately he was just not pulling strings the way I expected from him. I was especially optimistic that pairing him with the more defensive-minded Ybarra would free Maxi up to be more progressive.

Noah Fuson (F) – 4/10

Same story as the rest of the season so far for Noah – he was playing wide on the left and I thought most of our dangerous chances and build up in the first half came through Noah and Kwizera linking up on the left (a familiar and welcomed sight from last season).

Unfortunately, despite the moments of good build up play, we continue to break down in the final third and can’t seem to dribble, connect passes, or generate chances with any kind of consistency – and Noah is definitely a contributor to this.

Albert Dikwa (F) – 4/10

What a strange world we live in. In May, the main narrative was Dikwa’s underperformance… now that it’s clear that the problems are much, much deeper than just Dikwa, I’ve actually come to appreciate his performances and what he brings to the team a lot more.

He wasn’t on the ball nearly enough, as he had just 32 touches – probably caused by him being pushed out to a wider role on the right. However, I thought he had decent moments of hold up play throughout the match, very good pressure and closing down off the ball, a couple of defensive contributions, and solid on 50/50 balls – winning five out of seven ground duels.

JJ Williams (F) – 3/10

Williams was sent off in the 68th minute for violent contact after he catching a Pittsburgh player in the face with his elbow during a scuffle over the ball. Speaking as someone who recently had a very similar experience… the Pittsburgh player probably sold it a bit.

Nonetheless, we have to be smarter than this… JJ is way too important to this team to get sent off in a game that was, if we’re being honest, already lost (we’re not coming back from a two goal deficit at Pittsburgh).

I’m sure JJ was frustrated – he was not having a great game even before the red card… winning just two out of his nine aerial duels and having just two touches in the opposition box.

But now, we’ll be without our most dangerous forward – who we’ve missed for more than half of the season – for at least the next match, a very winnable game at home against a badly slumping Detroit team who we have bad blood with.

Subs

Sure, the subs were fine. In particular, it was nice to see Clay Holstad back in the center of the pitch. Aldair Sanchez had a few moments as well that made me interested in seeing him and Kwizera out on the left together again.

Ultimately, the subs failed at the impossible task of trying to infuse life into a shorthanded Rhode Island FC side that didn’t have fight even with 11 men when the score was 0-0.

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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.