Welcome back to Under the Surface. This month I’ll be taking a look at the seasons of each of the players that departed at the end of RIFC’s inaugural campaign in 2024. With the exception of Stephen Turnbull, whose circumstances of departure far exceed the premises of this blog, most of the players that left or were released went out in search of more minutes in 2025. With the exception of injuries, most of them were successful in that pursuit and turned in various degrees of successful seasons with their new clubs and/or careers. It’s definitely easy to miss these players, especially given their place in Rhode Island FC history as members of the first ever squad. But the unfortunate reality of USL are the batches of players that leave the club every year with high roster turnover. So to continue my series of breaking down the 2025 season, let’s dive into it.

Nathan Messer (Portland Hearts of Pine, USL1) – 10

Nathan Messer was one player I was not thrilled about letting go of last offseason and thought he really made the most of the limited opportunities he was given for RIFC, scoring in the club’s US Open Cup debut in 2024. He only tallied 87 minutes across 4 matches in all competitions, and immediately showcased his talents once he moved to local rivals Portland, albeit down a division in USL League One. He picked up 10 goal contributions, tied for the most among defenders in the entire league and secured him a place in the All-USL League One first team. For reference, our 2 forwards in JJ Williams and Albert Dikwa led the team with 7 goal contributions each in league play. Nate was one of 2 left backs to depart the squad after the 2024 campaign, which remained a position of surplus in 2025, but I do think this was a big time miss not finding a way to keep him around for another season here in Rhode Island.

Stephen Turnbull (Birmingham Legion FC, USLC) – 73.1%

The departure of Stephen Turnbull deep into the offseason is certainly something to point at when trying to decipher what went wrong with RIFC in 2025. Dani Rovira, the apparent backup was injured for the first half of the season and a non-factor during the second half and saw various combinations of makeshift right wingbacks that was not nearly as successful in their production as Turnbull in 2024. However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows for Stephen down in Alabama as he fell out of favor parts of the season and had to work under 2 different head coaches in a tempestuous season for the Legion. He eventually ended up working himself into a center back role (don’t tempt Khano with a good time) by the end of the season. As a result of his diminished role in a Birmingham team that paid RIFC a transfer fee for his services, Stephen Turnbull saw a 73.1% decrease in his chances created from 26 in 2024 to only 7 in 2025, failing to buck the trend that was seen in the rest of the remaining RIFC squad as well.

Collin Smith (Phoenix Rising FC, USLC) – 18.0%

Last offseason, Rhode Island FC lost 2 right backs, and brought in only one that was hardly given an opportunity, so that’s really all the math you need to do here. But in all seriousness, Collin Smith emerged as a top young talent in the league after signing with Phoenix, finding himself on a handful of rising stars lists published by the league throughout the season. At a 57.6% success rate on his dribbles, he outperformed the combined 39.6% rate of RIFC’s 3 wingbacks in Aldair Sanchez, Jojea Kwizera, and Dani Rovira by 18.0%. Dribble rates were largely down for the RIFC squad, which helped contribute to the lack of creativity, and having an emerging top right wingback in the league could have remedied that.

Morris Duggan (Minnesota United FC, MLS) – 385.2%

While some of us held out hope that Morris would return to RIFC after a season-changing loan spell in 2024, he was able to find himself in the starting lineup for a Minnesota United team that finished in the home playoff places in MLS. During his time in Rhode Island, Duggan definitely learned a thing or 2 about blocking shots from Karifa Yao as he saw a 385.2% increase in blocked shots per 90, from 0.16 during his time with RIFC to 0.76 in MLS this season with Minnesota. It definitely would have been nice to have Morris Duggan back in 2025, but he clearly showed both last year during his loan spell and this season in the top flight that he is far too talented to be playing in USL. However, the absence of a left footed center back that when addressed with midseason acquisitions, has changed the trajectory of the season, cannot be ignored and makes me even more grateful that we signed Hamady Diop to a multi-year deal.

Prince Saydee (Westchester SC, USL1) – 5

Rhode Island FC’s first ever outgoing transfer in Prince Saydee will be remembered for nothing more than his shot over the bar of an open goal against Sacramento Republic while The Tide led 2-1 in a match they would eventually surrender a stoppage time equalizer in their pursuit of their first ever home win in their club’s history at Beirne Stadium. Including his time at Charleston, Saydee went scoreless in 2024 after coming off a 10 goal season with Hartford in 2023. After dropping down to League One, Prince managed to get back among the goals, finding the net 5 times. Although his contributions were minimal, it should be noted that Saydee was one of the 5 forwards on the RIFC roster to start 2024, a number that only shrunk going into 2025 and not addressed in any timely or remotely meaningful way to this point.

Jack Panayotou (New England Revolution II, MLSNP and Hartford Athletic, USLC) – 42.9%

Jack Panayotou is such an interesting case. He seems to exist in this weird gray area of not being good enough for MLS, too good for MLS Next Pro, but not physical enough to hang around in USL. When you compare Jack’s time with Rhode Island FC in 2024 and his spell with Hartford Athletic, you’ll find that he had a 42.9% decrease in chances created per 90 minutes, a trend of much greater magnitude than the 5.1% decrease in the same category between his first and second loan spells. Though it feels like it should have been greater given how ineffective he felt after coming back to the Tide. It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for a talented player like Jack, who just needs a league that best suits his physical capabilities.

Mark Doyle (One Knoxville SC, USL1) – 238.1%

As desperate as we were for another striker option when JJ went down in May, I never got myself to the point of saying that we should have held onto Mark Doyle. He spent a decent portion of the season injured himself, managing to still double his league goal tally in fewer minutes for USL League One shield-league title double winners One Knoxville. That being said, it can’t be forgotten how little he provided to a team that just needed a fresh set of legs up top to hopefully create some goals in the later stage of matches, to little avail. It would appear that Mark’s greatest contributions this season were on the defensive side, lighting up the FotMob per 90 defensive stats tab in bright green as falling within a high percentile among other forwards. This was highlighted by a 238.1% increase in tackles per 90 year over year. Defense wins championships, but a forward whose greatest contributions are on the defensive side of the ball is not anything I particularly missed this season.

Gabriel Alves (South Georgia Tormenta FC, USL1) – 1101.7%

By far the biggest increase of a statistic that I’ve dived into so far comes from our sweet boy Gabi Alves. The second of 2 leftbacks that departed the squad after 2024 that found great success down in USL League One in 2025. Gabi managed a 1101.7% increase in chances created per 90, from 0.10 to 1.20. A very involved member of the squad during the first half of 2024, Gabi fell out of favor and became one of the early victims of Khano’s shadow realm following an injury in June and never found a way back into the team once they kicked into form around the same time. A natural left fullback, Gabi wasn’t able to break back into the squad once the 3-5-2 system developed and prevented him from finding many minutes available. His efforts in 2025 after dropping down a division with Tormenta have apparently paid off, allegedly securing a move back to the USL Championship to an Eastern Conference club.

Kofi Twumasi (El Paso Locomotive FC, USLC) – 47.1%

We have such a logjam of players at both positions that Kofi plays in holding midfielder and centerback, but I do wish we were able to hold onto him in 2025. However, the minutes (and probably money) that El Paso were able to offer him were definitely more appetizing than what Rhode Island’s was, having been one of the players that was announced to have been in discussions for a return for 2025 during last year’s roster update. Although he found minutes in 2025, he was absent from duels, seeing a 47.1% decrease in duels won per 90, from 6.97 to 3.69. The minutes at center back may have caused some of this, but even his aerial duels won per 90 were down by 46.3%. Generally you would see that go up as a player defending against long balls, but that was not the case for Kofi.

Kevin Orduy (Laredo Heat SC, USL2) – 2

The enigma that is Kevin Orduy was no easier to keep tabs on than he was during his time with RIFC of an unknown duration in 2024. He made 11 appearances on the RIFC bench, which includes the home matches from April to August. It seems most likely that there is some sort of extra spot he was able to occupy in the matchday squad as an 8th substitute under his USL Academy contract. I wasn’t able to find much about what he’s been up to besides 2 starts that he made with pre-professional USL League Two side Laredo Heat during this past summer. It’s unclear where he was playing from the time that he left the RIFC squad, which was before the end of the season and the short summer season with the amateur Texan team.

Conor McGlynn (Westchester SC, USL1) – 83.6%

The first victim of Khano’s shadow realm was none other than Conor McGlynn after a short injury and a post-match dismissal against Memphis, receiving a second yellow card for dissent following his receipt of the first red card in club history already earlier in the season. He played alongside Price Saydee at USL League One wooden spoon-winning side Westchester SC and  saw a 83.6% decrease in dispossessions per 90, from 0.37 in 2024 to 0.06 in 2025 (only once all season). He was as reliable of a player on the ball you could ask for, especially when lining up at center back.

Nate Silveira (Seekonk Police Department)

Joe Brito is not the first player to retire with the Tide, with Nate Silveira calling it a career after a pair of professional seasons. He took his talents across the Washington Bridge to the Seekonk Police Department where he was sworn in as an officer this past July, signaling the start of his new career after soccer.

Thank you all for your support! Come on back next month for some more RIFC stats content! Feel free to connect with me in the Defiance 1636 Discord, Twitter (@TylerJHatch), or Instagram (@tjhatch2001) if there’s anything you would like to see come of this blog! Let’s hope for some signings soon so that we can start moving on to 2026. Only 65 more days (who’s counting?) until we’re back at Tidewater. Until next month, Up The Tide!