Shortly after the close of the 2025 USL Championship season, Ryan produced a great blog pondering whether Rhode Island FC’s season had been a success. His conclusion? It’s Complicated.

To his point, despite the impressive resume (a second consecutive Eastern Conference final, and a Jägermeister Cup semifinal appearance), the 2025 season was largely a frustrating one. Our expensive, star-studded roster underperformed for most of the regular season, leading to a 7^th place finish in the conference (14^th in the league), primarily due to an offense that ranked 22^nd out of 24 in Goals per match (0.9).

So, what would need to happen in 2026 for the season to be objectively a success? These are my three measures for defining success for 2026.

1. Home Playoff Game

Rhode Island FC has played seven playoff games in their short, two-year history – none of them at home. 2026 is the year to change that. They narrowly missed hosting in the first round in 2024 due to a tiebreaker with Indy Eleven, and then didn’t come particularly close in 2025.

Last year was a season of many firsts at Tidewater; first home game, first home win, first goal, first knockout game. First playoff game is the major outlier that we’re still waiting to see. The sickos have travelled across the country to support this team in the playoffs… let us enjoy at least one from the comforts of home, before we worry about making our travel plans for the next week.

The path to a home playoff game is quite simple for 2026:

2. 30 Points at Home

Rhode Island FC won just six out of 15 games in their inaugural season at Tidewater. They finished 6-5-4 for 23 points. If we could increase that home record by a modest seven points – to a total of 30 points (9-3-3) – we would have finished 3^rd in the Eastern Conference last season. This is an average of two points per game at home: entirely achievable.

When you build a stadium like Tidewater, the expectation is for it to be a difficult place for other teams to come and play. Nobody leaves with an easy point. There is no reason that this team shouldn’t be winning the majority of its games in front of the home crowd, in their luxurious home stadium.

So, what was the main issue why we did not win more games at home last year? That brings me to my final measure of success for 2026.

3. Score More Goals

For the love of god, we’re all begging you. PLEASE score more goals.

Rhode Island FC scored just 29 goals in 30 leagues game last season – tied for the 3^rd fewest in the entire league. Birmingham Legion was dead last in the Eastern Conference and even they managed 36 goals.  

All credit to Khano and the RIFC players, the defense was sensational last year – conceding less than a goal per game as the 4^th best defense in the league. We need to maintain that level defensively (and we’ve retained the players to do exactly that) while increasing offensive output.

We learned the hard way last year that defense ALONE can’t win matches. We were shut out in 14 out of 30 league games. Four of them ended as 0-0 draws, and the other 10 were losses. We were shut out by the eventual Championship-winning Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the Eastern Conference Finals (who only scored one goal themselves, en route to the championship).

Scoring goals and winning games is also good for business. With no hyperbole, after home wins last season I would hear fans leaving the stadium talking about when they could come back for more games. Shockingly, that same sentiment did not ring out after the 0-0 draws. They don’t all have to be 5-0 against Tampa, or 4-1 against Portland… but we’d certainly welcome some more two or three-goal wins this year.

We may have lost Albert Dikwa (seven goals) and Maxi Rodriguez (four goals), but I’m optimistic that the team can score more in 2026.

We need to see JJ Williams healthy for the full season, and need to see him and Noah Fuson hit the ground running.

We need Kwizera and Sanchez to whip in crosses and create chances (the team was also 23^rd in Big Chances Created) down the left, along with Nick Scardina on the right.

With a full season of Dwayne Atkinson – and the additions of Leo Afonso, Logan Dorsey, and Agustín Rodriguez – I expect to see more goals across the entire front line.

I’m committing to it now, in print; if all three of these things happen, I will consider the 2026 season a success. That’s right – this year, I’m willing to trade 2025’s deep but unexpected playoff run for some added consistency in 2026. I just want to see signs that things are moving in the right direction. This team is perfectly capable of finishing at the top of the Eastern Conference – but all I’m humbly asking is for a top-four finish in the East, an improved home record, and more goals than last season.