Rhode Island FC saw their first league win since June 14th with a 1-0 win over Detroit City FC on Wednesday night.

This is how it felt waking up this morning after the result.

On another day, I might say that the performance was a step in the right direction but still not particularly encouraging. For now, however, I’m just happy that the team got three points and found a way to get it over the finish line.

It wasn’t a great performance, but it’s a performance (and more so a result) that they can build upon with another home match on Saturday against Loudoun United FC. As of today, despite the poor season so far, the win over Detroit has put Rhode Island FC in a playoff spot – and just two points out of 6th place.

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:

Koke Vegas (GK) – 8/10

Maybe I’m just inflating scores because I’m happy that we finally won. But this may have been the best goalkeeping performance that we’ve seen in a Rhode Island FC kit. Someone tell me a better one.

Koke returned from over two months sidelined with an injury and made sure that the team left with all three points. It wasn’t so much the quantity of saves, but the quality of the three saves that he made was excellent. The first two saves kept the game level at 0-0, and the third was to preserve our one goal lead.

Here’s my favorite of the night (ignore my boy Hugo losing track of Darren Smith, one of the best strikers in the league this season…):

As Matt Hands noted, this is sure to be a Save of the Week nominee.

Karifa Yao (D) – 5/10

Perfectly average performance from Karifa – he did his job defensively, and wasn’t asked to do much on the ball (nor should he be).

Hugo Bacharach (D) – 8/10

What a player we have here… Hugo was, once again, excellent. Defensively, nothing was getting past Hugo, as he led all players with nine duels won. His talent on the ball was on display again too as Hugo repeatedly galloped through the midfield and/or passed the ball forward – leading all Rhode Island players with seven passes into the final third.

Don’t forget either that Clay winning a penalty all started with Hugo – our central defender – making a great run into the final third.

Hugo is a better ball carrier than Morris Duggan ever was for us… and dare I say, it’s not even particularly close? If you see me talking to myself in my seat in Section 205, it’s probably just me whispering to myself “He’s just so f***ing good” every time Hugo is on the ball.

It might look a little something like this…

Aime Mabika (D) – 6/10

Like Yao, Mabika’s best moments in this game were defensive as he was very effective at shutting down attacks coming down our left side. Mabika led all players in the match with 10 defensive actions, and was also perfect in the air with 5/5 aerial duels won. This performance might not have had the same flair to it as some of his early performances, but it was quietly a very solid game from Aime.

Aldair Sanchez (MF) – 4/10

Aldair played fine but he simply wasn’t involved much in this match with just 26 touches. In fact, he did not attempt a single cross in this match, which I can’t remember ever seeing from Aldair. We’ve seen him and Kwizera work better together with overlapping runs than they did in this match, as they really failed to create much on the left.

Clay Holstad (MF) – 6/10

Unfortunately, most of us assumed when the team added Matthew Corcoran that it meant Clay would be spending more time at right wing back. This game was the first evidence of that being correct.

On the bright side, I thought it was the best out of Clay’s three recent performances at the position. He was much more involved in the match with 52 touches (3rd most of any Rhode Island FC player) and had good chemistry with Amos Shapiro-Thompson playing in front of him on the right.

Matthew Corcoran (MF) – 5/10

Decent first showing for Corcoran, who we’re not sure had much (if any) time to practice with the team before inserting straight into the starting lineup.

He looked a bit discombobulated at moments – as you’d expect from a 19-year old trying to gel with a new team on the fly – and certainly played it conservative with his passing, but he also showed his quality several times with quick turns with the ball at his feet, striding into open space in the midfield to progress the ball, and a couple nice switches of play.

I was also impressed with how vocal he was on the pitch, communicating with his teammates and directing traffic… again, for a 19-year old making his debut with a new team, that’s a promising sign.

Marc Ybarra (MF) – 5/10

The duality of Marc Ybarra… from my section, he may have been the player who received the most exasperated sighs from the fans for his tendency to receive the ball with a chance to counter, and turning around and passing it backwards.

On the other hand, he was exceptional in this match at some of the more thankless work that goes into breaking up Detroit City’s attacks, chipping in with seven defensive actions, winning the most tackles in the match (3) and winning six out of his eight duels.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (F) – 5/10

Solid stuff from Amos playing as a right wing in front of Clay Holstad. It wasn’t amazing, but it was probably the first time we’ve seen Amos on the right where I thought “Ok, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it”.

Mostly, as previously mentioned, I thought Clay and Amos as a duo on the right were impossible to get around, and had some good moments of buildup play. All three of Rhode Island FC’s passes into the box came from the righthand side.

Jojea Kwizera (F) – 5/10

I know not everybody will agree, but I thought Kwizera was more good than bad in the first half on Wednesday. He was able to drive the ball down the left wing repeatedly with decent results, even if the final product often wasn’t there. He did eventually get off two of our most dangerous shots of the match in relatively quick succession.

Here are both shot attempts:

Albert Dikwa (F) – 3/10

I don’t take for granted that Chico is working very hard off the ball – and I still feel that goals will come at some point… but wow, only nine total touches is tough to do. He was almost entirely marked out of the game.

If this was a substitute performance it wouldn’t even qualify for a rating… but he played 79 minutes.

Subs

Noah Fuson – 5/10

Fuson was fine, but quite frankly Rhode Island went up 1-0 as Fuson subbed on, and didn’t have much of the ball, or scoring opportunities after that.

Maxi Rodriguez – 6/10

Come on. Maxi’s penalty against North Carolina FC might’ve been a game-winner, in the final minutes of the match, for the first home win at Tidewater…

But now again, on Wednesday night, he came straight off the bench and with his first touch scored a penalty goal against his former team (who appear to have no love lost between the two sides). Honestly… with the slump this team has been in, plus the personal stakes, I think this goal might’ve been even higher pressure than the first.

Dani Rovira – N/A

Joe Brito – N/A

Zach Herivaux – N/A

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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.