Rhode Island FC have been eliminated from the USL Championship Playoffs after falling 0-1 to Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in the Eastern Conference Final – Rhode Island’s second appearance in as many years.

The Tide Talk team has already put out some great content in the immediate aftermath… including Matt Hands’ Riptide Report, Ryan’s exploration of whether the 2025 season was a success, and a full-panel debrief of the Eastern Conference Final on the Tide Talk pod.

From the first minute, this was almost exactly the game that everyone expected. I thought Pittsburgh were better set up to neutralize Rhode Island’s strengths. Their high press made it difficult for RI to maintain possession or build out from the back, something they’ve done successfully throughout the season.

Despite Rhode Island out-shooting Pittsburgh in the first half, they only generated a couple of chances among several disjointed attacking sequences. We looked disconnected on the counterattack and desperately lacking creativity, chemistry, and execution when in possession.

Of course, the whole match came unraveled within a span of five minutes in the second half. First, Robbie Mertz scored a great goal through several of our defenders (who didn’t do much wrong, to be fair) in the 55th minute. Of the 14 matches in which Rhode Island conceded first this season, they went on to lose 12 and equalized (not won – equalized) just two times.

Five minutes later, Marc Ybarra was sent off with a second yellow card for lunging in for a ball after losing possession. Rhode Island created some of their best chances of the match after going down to 10 men, but it was too little, too late.

I don’t think it will do anyone any good to give individual player scores for this disappointing match. For a full recap of my player ratings for the entire 2025 season, please click below.

If It Ain’t Broke…

For as much as Khano deserves credit for our wins at Charleston and North Carolina, I have serious questions about the lineup decisions for this match. Beyond singling out specific players’ tactical strengths and weaknesses – why make changes from the lineup that won the first two rounds of the Eastern Conference Playoffs?

Unless there were fitness issues we aren’t aware of, the only question mark should have been whether to start Jojea Kwizera or Aldair Sanchez at the left wingback position.

If anything, the only other change we entertained on last week’s Tide Talk podcast was whether Dikwa gets a look in the starting lineup after his brace at North Carolina FC. After coming on – with Rhode Island already down to 10 men – he provided a spark on the pitch and was the only player to have any real chemistry with JJ Williams all game (Williams’ best chances of the night came off of a good ball from Dikwa – it’s one that JJ should have buried, capping off a disappointing postseason for him).

Additionally, we saw great success throughout the playoffs with Zachary Herivaux pulling strings in the midfield, and Clay Holstad dropping into the midfield from the right-forward position. Both players were dropped in this match in favor of bringing Kwizera back into the lineup as a forward (which has not been particularly fruitful this season – and no different on Saturday), and Marc Ybarra (who is a hard-working, defensive-minded midfielder but offers less ball progression, which was evident on Saturday night).

Even the deployment of subs was confounding in this match. For example, Ybarra was already on a yellow and a clear candidate for a halftime substitution to help inject some stability on the ball into our midfield. Instead, Herivaux didn’t get into the game until the 68th minute (eight minutes after Ybarra’s red card) when we were already down a goal, Maxi came on in the 82nd, and Clay didn’t enter until the 88th minute.

Imagine telling a Rhode Island FC fan last season that Clay Holstad would play just two minutes in the Eastern Conference Final? And this, after spending a large portion of this season playing out of position.

What’s most disappointing is that it really felt like the team had found something in Charleston and North Carolina before reverting back to a more familiar version of the team (both in terms of tactics and lineup) that led us to a disappointing sophomore regular season.

I worry that the unexpected playoff run will cover up a lot of the cracks that were abundantly obvious during the regular season; losing 0-3 at Hartford, averaging just one goal per game at home, being shut out 14 times in 30 matches, etc.

In reality, I think some serious soul-searching is needed in regards to what kind of team we want to be and if we have the right players to be that team. Large parts of this season felt like one step forward, two steps back in that regard. We are obviously rock solid at defense, but need to take a look at the midfield and forward lines and either improve them, or find a way to get better performances out of the players that we have (which we know they are capable of – we saw it in 2024).

One Last Away Day

Despite the disappointing result, I would do it all over again tomorrow to be there and support the team in person. It’s special to be in the building and share all the emotions (even the nerves, and later the sadness) with a group of fans who care just as much as you do.

It’s hard to put a firm number on the Rhode Island traveling support (#TicketGate2025) for this match, but I know there were more than 50 of us who marched to greet the Rhode Island FC team bus as it arrived at the stadium. Despite only being allowed two drums into the stadium, the traveling fans – led by Ervin and La Banda – made just as much noise as the league has come to expect.

I’ll give credit to the Pittsburgh organization – it is a great atmosphere at Highmark Stadium. It was a sellout (and then some) and it felt like it. It’s a compact stadium with an intense, passionate fanbase, so it truly does feel like the fans play a factor in the match. Matt Hands shares some thoughts on the experience in his Riptide Report, as well.

For a general Pittsburgh thought, I’ll go on the record and say that I thought the sandwich at Primanti Bros. was good, not great – but I challenge anyone to find me a sandwich of that quality for $13 in Rhode Island. For the price I don’t think you can beat it… and it washed down beautifully with a $4 IC Light.

Now, I will enter offseason hibernation with mixed feelings about 2025. I think it was a challenging regular season that tested the patience of a lot of fans with both the performances and the results that we were seeing. We saw flashes how good this team can be (at Charleston), but then saw the same inconsistency or inability to replicate that form when we needed it the most (at Pittsburgh).

I’m aware how ridiculous this sounds given our 2025 resume… Rhode Island FC doubled their average attendance from 2024 and vaulted into the top 5 of the league thanks to opening our brand new, state-of the art soccer-specific stadium, to go along with a second consecutive Eastern Conference Final appearance and a USL Jägermeister Cup semifinals appearance. Again – I encourage you to read Ryan’s ponderance on how we define success to understand why the answer is not so clear cut.

I love this team and the community around it, and have faith that Khano and this group can come back stronger in 2026. As always, the Tide Talk crew will keep the content coming as news breaks around the team. In fact, buckle up, because roster decisions are likely no more than two weeks away.