Another stinker – and a heartbreaker – for the Tidewater faithful, as Rhode Island FC finished 0-0 in regulation against Sacramento Republic FC before suffering an embarrassing 0-3 loss in the penalty shootout.

With the loss, Rhode Island FC missed their opportunity to go to the Jägermeister Cup final and compete against regional rival Hartford Athletic.

Rhode Island FC generated almost nothing in the first half and gave up several dangerous chances to Sacramento… but I felt we were the better team in the second half (excluding the last 10-or-so minutes). Unfortunately, as has been the case all season, we couldn’t put the ball in the net to save our lives.

For those who are interested in comparing, here is a document tracking all of my player ratings for the season so far.

By the way, huge shoutout to Ryan for writing player ratings for both the Charleston and Louisville matches while I was away in Portugal. I hate to say nice things about my colleagues in a public and semi-permanent place, but he not only bailed me out from having to do it while on vacation – he also just did a great job. He was weirdly and very respectfully true to my rating system and average scores (in which case, it’s weird how no one hopped all over his ass for his scores?).

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) – 8/10

Very nice night for Koke, as he made several key stops, clearances, high claims and was quick off his line to keep Rhode Island in the match – particularly in the first half. He was excellent again, all night long. Koke deserved a result for this performance.

He was beaten by three good penalties – absolutely no part of that embarrassing 0-3 penalty performance was on Koke.

Karifa Yao (D) – 6/10

The defensive unit as a whole had some issues containing Sacramento’s counterattacks in the first half. Yao himself had a couple of shaky moments where he tried to hold his man off on a ball over the top, instead of playing the ball itself.

However, individually, Yao was very good and I thought incredibly difficult to get past and dealt comfortably with a lot of danger on the night. He had more than double the number of defensive contributions (14) as the next highest Rhode Island player.

Hugo Bacharach (D) – 6/10

Hugo was very solid defensively, and had a handful of his signature progressive carries. Admittedly, he sent it out of bounds on a couple of his long ball attempts – but no more than Stoneman did.

He had the second most defensive contributions (7) and duels won (7) of all Rhode Island players – but most importantly, made a couple of crucial defensive plays where he materialized out of nowhere and covered for a teammate who had been beat.

Grant Stoneman (D) – 5/10

Stoneman was OK in his return to the starting lineup – as he often does, he led the team in passes into the final third, with 11. Despite the strong passing numbers, I thought his chemistry with Clay on the right side looked… unpolished. He also lost all four of his ground duels and contributed only three defensive actions.

Aldair Sanchez (MF) – 4/10

Aldair just wasn’t able to get into the game much. He had his hands full with Jack Gurr, and did a serviceable job with him (which is to say – as best as can reasonably be expected against one of the best players in the league). But, we really could’ve used some of Aldair’s crossing ability in this match, and he didn’t see many opportunities. He had just 24 touches in the match and attempted only one cross.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (F) – 5/10

In this edition of “Where Will Amos Play Tonight?”, we got him as a holding midfielder in a double pivot with Ybarra. I think this is where Amos is best suited, although this was not his strongest performance. His pass accuracy at 71% is surprisingly low considering his role for this match – and he was also an uncharacteristic 3/8 on ground duels for the night.

Don’t get me wrong though, Amos was still flying around the pitch with his usual intensity and energy, which I always appreciate.

Marc Ybarra (MF) – 5/10

Fine performance from Ybarra as well. He was a reliable option for the center backs to pass to throughout the match, although I’d still like to see him do more to help progress the ball. I did think our corner kick routines in this match were particularly ugly.

Clay Holstad (MF) – 5/10

Why are we continuing to take one of the most dynamic, tenacious, exciting midfielders in this league and making him look like he is playing with concrete in his boots? This is actually harsh, because Clay had some pretty bright moments of wing play in this match… but other times, very frustrating

Finally in the second half, through substitutions, we got to see Clay back in the midfield… for less than eight minutes, at which point Khano made another change that pushed Clay back out wide.

Maxi Rodriguez (F) – 5/10

Maxi had our two best scoring chances of the game during the second half. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to finish either of them – but it’s much more than most of our team can say. In Maxi’s defense, they were both relatively high difficulty chances (not to say that he shouldn’t have scored them), and the keeper made a very good save on the second chance.

His ability to pick a killer pass going forward wasn’t quite there either tonight, and he also won just 2 out of his 12 duels, plus had his shot saved in the opening penalty of the shootout.

Maxi has been so great in these high pressure moments previously, I think it really was the nail in the coffin when he – supposed to be the one “sure thing” – missed to start PK’s.

Dwayne Atkinson (F) – 2/10

It feels cruel to give my lowest score of all time (?) to a player in only his second start for the team. But there is just nothing nice for me to say here. I worried that his Jamaican Premier League experience wouldn’t translate to USLC – and I happily admitted I was wrong when he scored that magical goal against Birmingham. But now – and given his performances since that match – I’m back to being pretty concerned.

Busy led all Rhode Island players with 12 duels lost out of 15 total, and was dispossessed two times more (6) than the next highest player (3). The one lifeline I will throw out there is that I really can’t understand why we were trying to play long balls to a guy who is (allegedly) my height.

JJ Williams (F) – 5/10

JJ just took abuse and won headers all night long – per usual. He was fouled a game-high six times, and won a game-high 16 duels – including nine aerial. Many of our most dangerous looks came off a long ball to JJ which he would deflect down for another attacking Rhode Island player.

It was unfortunate that I had to check the windows around my house when I got home. I was worried JJ’s missed penalty kick might have broken one of them by accident. (I live 3.5 miles away from the stadium.)

Subs

I’ve been critical of Khano’s lineup decisions and substitutions so I want to call it out when I think he got it right, too. I thought he got it right with these subs. He took risks, they were attacking subs, they (briefly) got Clay back into the midfield, and – crucially – put us in a good position to win the penalty shootout. Which obviously did not happen.

Joe Brito – 6/10

Instant impact once Brito came on for Busy. Brito brought a whole new energy, and I thought we looked much more dangerous going forward right away.

Frank Nodarse – N/A

Noah Fuson – 5/10

Noah was overall fine, and I thought that he had a couple of decent attacking moments. But he was brought on as a left wingback, not letting him get as far forward as he probably would’ve liked, while also having the defensive assignment of containing one of the best wingbacks in the league in Jack Gurr.

It was also a pretty poor penalty but, let’s be honest, we’d lost before Noah stepped up anyway.

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.