I don’t know how to feel. Rhode Island FC battled for a point on the road with a 2-2 draw against El Paso Locomotive in one of the most turbulent games of the season.

On one hand, the only way to maintain complete control over our playoff hopes was to keep winning. This result puts Rhode Island in a precarious situation where Indy has the potential to jump us in the standings again, which would leave us on the outside looking in.

On the other hand, we finally played in an entertaining match that had a little bit of everything – goals, own goals, shots hitting the post, red card shouts, penalty shouts, dives, you name it. Most importantly, we finally scored two league goals from open play for the first time since May 17th (credit to Matt Hands for this stat).

This looked more like the team and overall USL product that I enjoyed watching so much last year.

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

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) – 7/10

Add this to the list of strong Koke performances. He made five saves total including four of pretty high difficulty that easily could’ve been goals. He was caught flatfooted once on a low shot that ended ricocheting off the post, but otherwise couldn’t have done much about either of the El Paso goals.

Karifa Yao (D) – 5/10

A much quieter defensive game from Yao than we’re used to, but he was absolutely fine when called upon. He wasn’t involved in the first goal, and obviously had nothing to do with the second.

Hugo Bacharach (D) – 5/10

Hugo wasn’t as impactful in possession in this game as we’re used to, but was solid defensively and sprung some counterattacks with quick forward passing out from the backline. He did pick up an early yellow for foul accumulation, which caused him to play a bit more reserved for the remainder of the game.

Hugo was in the vicinity of the first El Paso goal. Being one of the tallest players on the field, it’s easy to look at Hugo and think that he should’ve made a play on this one… but it really wasn’t Hugo’s responsibility.

Frank Nodarse (D) – 4/10

I actually thought Nodarse was maybe our most consistent, solid defender on the night, but he got absolutely embarrassed on that first El Paso goal. I can’t help but think it would not have happened if Aime Mabika – mysteriously left off the team sheet altogether – was there instead.

Jojea Kwizera (MF) – 4/10

Kwizera had a lot of the ball – the most on the team, in fact, with 67 touches – but really failed to create anything with it. He was 0/3 on dribbles attempts, and led the team in duels lost (7). He was also haphazardly playing an El Paso player onside for their best early chance of the game in the first half.

Zachary Herivaux (MF) – 7/10

Herivaux finally seems to be hitting his stride, as this was one of his best games of the season (even taking the goal out of the equation). He was active both in and out of possession. As has been a common theme, Herivaux has a great chemistry with Noah Fuson, and the two of them were carving up the El Paso defense for periods in the second half.

Of course, these two combined in the 61st minute when Herivaux lobbed a one-timed pass into the box for Fuson to get on the end of, which led to his assist on JJ Williams’ go-ahead goal.

Most significantly – Herivaux scored again off of a goal that was entirely self-made off of his relentless pressing. Although it was quite different, it invoked memories of his goal against Tampa Bay last year that he scored by pressing their keeper.

Marc Ybarra (MF) – 5/10

Ybarra was solid defensively but contributed very little to the game in possession. He won six out of his seven total duels – proving that he’s always working hard, reliable, and content to do the dirty work.

One thing that I think actually improved how I felt about his performance was taking him off of set pieces and corner kicks for this match.

Clay Holstad (MF) – 4/10

After a great performance at right wingback last week, I thought this was one of Clay’s worst. He was entirely uninvolved on the ball and put in just one cross – after putting in so many dangerous balls last weekend. He also seemed to be having a tough time dealing with the repeated balls over the top and keeping his man in front of him down the wing.

He had two game-changing moments:

1. Great pressure to win the ball back in the attacking third, leading to Rhode Island FC’s first goal of the night.
2. An absolutely shambolic own goal. It’s easy to understand how it happened, but it just looked and felt awful in real time. It essentially cost us a crucial two points, as this occurred just three minutes after Khano brought on Grant Stoneman to replace Zach Herivaux to protect the one goal lead.

Noah Fuson (F) – 7/10

Very much a tale of two halves here for Noah – in the first half, Noah (and the entire team, to be fair) was impotent and struggling to put much of anything together.

In the second half, the combination of Noah, Herivaux, and JJ felt like they could score on any given possession. Noah had a chance of his own to score after a great run through the midfield and give-and-go with JJ Williams. While this chance shockingly hit off the post, Fuson repaid the favor with an assist to JJ just three minutes later. As a result, Noah led the team with three total chances created.

Joe Brito (F) – 3/10

Brito had one good moment of build up that lead to him taking a decent quality shot, but otherwise was totally invisible with just 13 touches. Personally, three consecutive starts for Brito is more than enough for me, I’m ready to try something else.

JJ Williams (F) – 7/10

JJ looked hungry in El Paso. First, he had the free kick that rattled off the post early in the second half. Minutes later, he set up a chance that Fuson should’ve scored, before finishing a chance of his own delivered by Fuson. He just looked up for it all night long, as he also won the second most duels on the team (including 5/7 aerial duels).

He nearly got on the end of a Dikwa cross in 2nd half stoppage time, but alas could not quite reach it, and also set up a couple of Dikwa chances off of long balls using his head. The chemistry between the two of them looked solid on Friday night.

One request for Khano… please take JJ off of long throws into the opponent box. This should be obvious, but he’s one of our tallest and most lethal players in the air… we need him to be in there fighting FOR the long ball, not throwing it. Not to mention, JJ threw it straight to the keeper at least twice that I can remember.

Subs

Albert Dikwa – 5/10

Dikwa certainly had his chances in this one, and handled them with varying degrees of composure. Generally, I thought this was roughly as good as Dikwa and JJ have looked together since last season, so it’s hard to complain.

Grant Stoneman – 4/10

Stoneman completed only three out of seven attempted passes, and lost all three of his ground duels. And yet, with just 19 minutes played, he managed to lead the entire team in defensive contributions (7).

Aldair Sanchez – N/A

Hamady Diop – 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.