RIFC have advanced to the third round of the Open Cup with a 2-0 win over Hartford Athletic. It’s always great to get one over on your rival. I would say it’s especially good when it happens in a knockout competition. I’m feeling so good in fact, that if you notice, the Hartford logo is back to being blurred out in the cover image for this blog. It was not blurred for the lookout and I got some flak from my Tide Talk brethren about it. All is back to normal now.
Brutal Conditions
Before getting into the game on the field, I have to talk about the conditions. It was a bitterly cold and rainy night at Tidewater. As some managers like to say (and I’m sure I’ve heard Khano say this before) “You have to be willing to suffer”. And suffer we all did. It really started about 10 minutes prior to kickoff, when it started to downpour. That combined with the cold made it a rough night. The weather is what I’m using as the primary excuse for getting this blog out so late. Nearly impossible to type something out when you can barely feel your hands. But enough about me complaining. It was all worth it so I can say that Hartford couldn’t do it on a rainy Wednesday night in Pawtucket.
Chicken For All
The most incredible thing to come out tonight was RIFC scored not once, but twice off of corners. The first came in the 12th minute:
It’s kind of hard to see on the broadcast, but it was a nice header back across goal from JJ to set up Aldair. And as if one wasn’t enough, RIFC got another one in the 30th:
This time, JJ’s header at the far post was aimed down and on target. I thought Hartford’s goalkeeper Enzo Carvalho could’ve done better here to keep it out, but it was still a good header from JJ.
After scoring a grand total of zero goals from corners in 2025, it’s great to see the team with 3 so far already this year. We’ve all talked about how big this team is with tall center backs and a beast up top in JJ. In theory, that should make us strong on set pieces. It appears that that is finally coming to fruition. Long may it continue.
Professional 2nd Half
After the first round Open Cup win over CD Faialense, Khano made a point to talk about a lack of professionalism from certain players on his team. I thought the team had a professional performance in the 2nd half this time around. Hartford started to look better once they brought more of their normal starters on. Three of them came on to start the second half with another two not too long after. But RIFC did well to defend and see out the game. And in a knockout game like this, that’s really all you can ask for. It was also nice to see the team not concede right after scoring. It’s an issue that Khano mentioned in an interview earlier today and after the game tonight, he was happy with the team’s management of the situations.
Final Thoughts
I predicted a 2-1 RIFC loss in the prematch lookout and am thrilled that I was wrong. The primary reason was that I felt RIFC’s typical possession style played right into Hartford’s hands. So I was pleasantly surprised tonight to see that Hartford ended the game with 59% possession. It was 65% in the 2nd half when RIFC were already 2-0 up. Based on some postmatch comments from Aldair Sanchez, it seemed like RIFC knew that Hartford couldn’t play with the ball. They’re 23rd in the USL Championship in accurate passes per match. RIFC took full advantage tonight.
I’ll be back here on Friday with a preview of the upcoming game against Detroit City FC. Before that though, the postmatch pod will be back tomorrow night and Timmy will have his player ratings. Just put all 10s and call it a day, please. Until next time, UP THE TIDE!
Tide Talk 
Leave a reply to The Tide Chart – March 2026 – Tide Talk Cancel reply