RIFC fell to Sacramento Republic on penalties tonight.  It was a hard fought 0-0 draw, but RIFC couldn’t convert their penalties and are now out of the Jägermeister Cup.  It’s a tough loss to take and as always, I’m here to give my quick takeaways.  Before that though….

If you read my prematch blog, you may remember that I said I wasn’t going to make it to Tidewater tonight.  My son had open house at his school.  But I woke up this morning and realized RIFC is more important than my son’s education.  Don’t worry, I didn’t actually.  I was just able to do both, making it to Tidewater with 15 minutes to spare.  And despite the result, I was glad I came.

With that out of the way, here are my thoughts on tonight’s heartbreaking loss:

Stoneman and Busy Start

With Grant Stoneman recently coming back from injury with two straight substitute appearances, it was only a matter of time before he found himself in the starting 11.  Khano has always made it clear how important he is to the team.  The only question was who he was going to come in for.  It ended up being Aime Mabika, which was a bit harsh to him but to be fair, no matter who Stoneman replaced, it was going to be that way.  The back line has been very good in Stoneman’s absence and I thought on his return tonight, they looked a little shaky.  Especially in the first half.  I don’t think it was necessarily Stoneman’s fault, but you do have to wonder if changing your back 3 makes sense when the trio that has been out there recently has done so well.

Dwayne Atkinson also got a start and while he looked bright early, I felt like he faded pretty quickly.  He found it hard to make an impact as time went on, and this performance gives further credence to the notion that he is best used as a super sub

Late Push Not Enough

I thought Sacramento were pretty clearly the better team in the first half.  But the second half seemed more even and RIFC made a push around the 80th minute.  It resulted in Maxi Rodriguez twice finding himself inside the box with the ball at his feet.  The first chance went narrowly wide and the second was smothered by the Sacramento keeper.  I don’t think either chance were sitters, but it was devastating not seeing one go in.  It likely would have been a match-winner and RIFC could’ve been in the final.  Still, I felt like the overall performance was solid, with the team just not doing enough to go through after 90 minutes

Penalty Disaster

As a decent number of fans predicted (based on the predictions channel in the Defiance 1636 discord), this one went to PKs.  I can’t lie, I was not very confident heading into the shootout.  But even I couldn’t have envisioned how the penalties ended up going.  RIFC missed all of their first 3 penalties, with Maxi, JJ, and Noah being the takers.  Sacramento scored all 3 of theirs and the shootout ended in the quickest way possible with a 3-0 Sacramento win.  It was such an anticlimactic way to go out and honestly was kind of embarrassing.  Just a brutal way to finish

Up Next

The postmatch pod will be back tomorrow night and Timmy should have his player ratings soon as well.  I will be back here on Friday with a preview of what is RIFC’s biggest game of the season so far: a matchup with Indy Eleven on Saturday night at Tidewater.  Here’s hoping the quick turnaround can help us content people and the team move on quickly from tonight’s disappointment.  Until next time, UP THE TIDE!