Rhode Island FC lost 3-0 to Hartford Athletic in another embarrassing performance on Saturday night.

There’s not much more to say about the performance itself that we haven’t already said numerous times this season. I can’t think of a single player who I thought had a good night. The offense looked completely lost and showed absolutely no quality, creativity, or initiative in the attacking third.

Unfortunately, where previously the defense and goalkeeping have at least been reliable for most of the season (5th best in the league in Goals Conceded) – last night looked more like a trainwreck. In fact, we probably should’ve been down two or three goals inside the first ten minutes of the match.

It was really never a contest. Hartford scored in the 6th minute, and Rhode Island FC have not yet salvaged a single point on the road this season after conceding the first goal. Again, there are no remnants at all of the “Never Say Die” attitude from last year.

Furthermore, in hindsight, I’m not sure why us fans talked ourselves into thinking we would get a result in Hartford. Rhode Island FC have not won on the road since May 17th (against a Tampa Bay Rowdies team that is dead last in the USL standings), and haven’t scored a goal on the road since June 11th.

Even taking home/away out of it: we have scored two league goals in the last two months. We’re averaging ONE GOAL PER MONTH over the last two months in the league.

Player Ratings

Instead of player ratings, here is a list of people who put in a better shift than Rhode Island FC on Saturday, August 23:

• Tide Talk’s own Ryan Healey for whipping up pre-match espresso for the boys.
• Me driving to Hartford and only missing one exit (as opposed to the four that I missed on the way to Lewiston).
• The Rhode Island travelling support was genuinely sensational. Some of the loudest I think we’ve sang all year.
• Whoever made the chicken fingers and chicken wings that the club brought to the tailgate. Those were incredible.
• Sarah P. for coordinating post-match dinner and drinks.

I’m not going to taint my spreadsheet – or my brain – with individual player ratings for this match, but think I would give the team performance somewhere around a 2/10.

Face the Music

Honestly I think this was a sad day for the club. The team showed absolutely no fight in the biggest rivalry game that the USL Championship has to offer. The players should not have needed any extra motivation at all after the way that Hartford behaved after the first matchup, and then beat us on PK’s in the second matchup. Surely this was our worst performance of the season, in one of the biggest moments.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that the travelling support from Rhode Island was fantastic. Maybe the players didn’t appreciate it? Because the vast majority of them went straight back to the locker room after the final whistle blew. A handful of them at least acknowledged the fans for a brief moment. ONE player – exactly the player you’d expect – came out and stood there and literally faced the music: Koke Vegas.

Always a class act regardless of the result, Koke constantly demonstrates that he knows what this means to all of us. He’s the team captain, and he’s proved this season that he is every bit deserving of that honor. The rest of the players? I think that’s absolutely shameful to have 200 fans singing your names after getting absolutely embarrassed on the field, and to simply ignore it and walk away.

What Now?

Welp. Considering the team is actively getting worse before our eyes, I can’t say I’m feeling great about our upcoming consecutive matchups against the two best teams in the league (Charleston Battery and Louisville City FC).

We’re more than 2/3rds of the way through the season and – as of last night – on the outside looking in for the playoffs. We’re 2 points off of eighth place, although Indy Eleven have a game in hand.

Enough teams make the playoffs in this league that I think it’s still probable that we’ll scrape just enough points to get a low seed in the playoffs – which is likely meaningless if it means going to play at Louisville or Charleston (although… I wouldn’t mind another crack at Lewis Barbecue).

At this point I’d say it’s let’s hope for a result against Sacramento in the Jagermeister Cup seminfinals and see if we can salvage a very broken season. As for the league… I’m less concerned with results at this point, and would just like to see some tangible signs of improvement or progression. If we don’t see that, I think this team needs to ask some very serious questions during the offseason to correct itself for 2026.