RIFC drew Loudoun United 0-0 on Saturday night.  It was a Taylor Swift themed Folklore Night at Centreville Bank Stadium.  It was successful marketing on the club’s part, as they brought in plenty of casual fans.  It was also a gorgeous night weather-wise.  Probably the best one we’ve had this season.  I mean, just look at this moon:

But enough about the frivolous things.  I know you’re all here for a well thought out blog on the play on the field.  I don’t think I’m going to deliver that here, but I appreciate you reading on regardless.  Now, on to my takeaways:

Quality of Play

The first thing that jumped out to me was the quality of play overall.  Despite the game finishing 0-0, I thought from a neutral perspective it was probably the highest quality game we’ve seen at Tidewater.  I say this mainly because of the style of play.  Both teams looked to play with the ball at their feet, which is something you don’t always see in this league.  Some may disagree, but this game flew by for me.  It may just be personal preference but I appreciated the possession style both teams were going for.  There could have been more chances for sure, particularly on the RIFC side.  But more on that later

A Busy Debut

We got to see new signing Dwayne “Busy” Atkinson make his debut when he subbed on for Noah Fuson right around the hour mark.  I thought it was pretty clear early on what he brings to the team.  He lived up to his nickname by pressing our opponents in their own half.  Atkinson also had some good touches and showed off his pace by making some good runs.  It was enough to have me excited to see more from him.  I’m curious to see where Khano ends up playing him long term but I think he certainly belongs in the team.  He looked good playing off of JJ.  Hopefully we get to see that relationship develop through the end of the season

A Point Not Enough

I have to be honest here: I struggled a bit with how to react to getting a point out of this match.  On the one hand, you got a point against the team that was 3rd in the Eastern Conference heading into the weekend.  But on the other hand, due to the poor results so far this season, you need all the points you can get.  I think a draw was probably the just result given how both teams played.  But I just can’t bring myself to be happy about it.  I’m encouraged by the performance overall and I see the vision of what Khano is trying to do.  But at this point in the season, we need to start getting the results to back up the performances.  The team still isn’t creating enough chances.  So while I think the team is trending in the right direction over these past two games, I need to see that accelerate in order to believe this team can achieve any level of success this season

Up Next

RIFC have next weekend off and return to action on Wednesday August 20th at Tidewater.  It’ll be a crucial quarterfinal in the Jägermeister Cup against Birmingham Legion.  For us at Tide Talk, we’ll have a postmatch pod and player ratings tomorrow.  I will be back with a Prematch blog for the Birmingham game early that week.  Until then, thank you all and UP THE TIDE!