After a strong April, Rhode Island FC came crashing back down to Earth with a 3-1 loss to Birmingham Legion FC on Saturday night in Pawtucket.

If I had to say something positive, I actually do think this was a good night for the growth of the team in Rhode Island. The front office went all out for the Star Wars night theme, and actually delivered on it and I think there was a palpable (not to be confused with Palpatine) buzz around the stadium leading up to the game.

Unlike a lot of 0-0’s and 0-1’s that have sent casual fans home disappointed, this game had goals, an equalizer, more goals, and drama and chances up and down the pitch.

As for where this performance fits into the larger picture of the team’s season so far? Genuinely embarrassing.

We had conceded only one goal in our first three league home matches this season before tripling that tally tonight. It’s the first time Rhode Island have ever conceded three goals at Tidewater, and only the third time in team history that we’ve conceded three at home (going back to Bryant in 2024). They conceded three goals just once all of last season – at Hartford, the lowest point of the season.

I can almost excuse the first goal because it came very early in the game, and we responded well – but to come out of the locker room tied at half time only to give the game away in the first 12 minutes of the second half is just awful.

Before the season started one of my big asks was simply for the team to be better at home. With just one win in our first four, they’re not off to a good start in that regard.

Click below if you’re interested in seeing 2026 player historical ratings.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) – 5/10

There’s not much Koke could’ve done differently on the goals – if you had to pick one, he may have done better on the third Birmingham goal.

I liked that he attempted to rally and organize the team by huddling them up after the third Birmingham goal. Unfortunately, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears as the team was completely lifeless and devoid of creativity for the rest of the match.

Aldair Sanchez (D) – 4/10

Honestly, even our usually very reliable fullbacks were getting passed around too easily on Saturday, as Birmingham was seemingly able to get around them and down the flanks at will for stretches of the match.

Hamady Diop (D) – 3/10

Oh my word. The last match my good friend, Kevin, came to was the 0-0 against Detroit City and I said “you’ll never see a worse few minutes from Diop than the final 10 minutes of this game”. I may have been proven wrong in the opening 15 minutes today.

In fairness to Diop, he went on to be actually quite good in build up play for Rhode Island in the remainder of the first half – but can’t ignore the miscued opening Birmingham goal, and the fact that he very nearly gifted them a second just moments after.

Karifa Yao (D) – 4/10

Karifa made one great, lunging tackle in the 50th minute to stop Birmingham from being in on goal – a nice play, in between two awful goals to concede (in fairness, Karifa was only involved on the third and final goal – which he was way too casual on, and should’ve done better to close down).

Generally, our defensive looked pensive and out of sorts all night and really let Damus and the Birmingham attacking players get the better of them often, despite outnumbering them on the majority of their counterattacks.

Frank Nodarse (D) – 4/10

Fine game for Frank – I have a hard time giving any defensive player anything higher than a four given the number of goals conceded. But Frank did help to stop the bleeding, after he was moved to a central defense position for the final 25 minutes of the match.

Hugo Bacharach (MF) – 4/10

Not bad from Hugo but he didn’t jump off the pitch like he does on his best days. He was lackluster on duels (most of the team was) winning just 3/10, and limited in how much he could help defensively after picking up a yellow card in the 47th minute.

After Birmingham’s third goal, they had another chance to break that clearly required a tactical foul from Hugo – but he was unable, due to the yellow card. He made way for Zach Herivaux shortly after.

In real time, I thought Hugo got his money’s worth on the yellow card. After watching it back… it was totally clean. Bad call by the ref.

Clay Holstad (MF) – 6/10

Characteristic Clay performance as he 1. covered a ton of ground both with and without the ball (at times was even leading our press), 2. tied for a game-high seven ball recoveries, and 3. made the right play on a counterattack, leading to his assist on Leo Afonso’s equalizing goal in the 17th minute.

Pity Rodriguez (MF) – 5/10

Completely anonymous in the second half (along with the rest of the team), but I was encouraged by Pity’s performance in the first half. The entire attacking four players were moving quickly, making runs, creating chances, getting high quality shots, and running a balanced attack that was keeping Birmingham on their toes.

It’s honestly a shame that we couldn’t convert one of the several first half chances that we had… as the game may have played out much differently.

Leo Afonso (F) – 6/10

Great composure and a well-taken goal by Leo Afonso to tie the game 1-1 in the 17th minute. It wasn’t his only threat of the first half either, as he both set up chances for other players (3) and took a few of his own throughout the first half. He also won a team-high seven duels

At some point, Afonso and Kwizera switched which wing they were playing on, and the attack became quite innocuous. Around the 40th minute, Leo switched back to the left and immediately threatened the Birmingham goal again.

JJ Williams (F) – 4/10

A bit of a mixed bag for JJ in the attacking third on Saturday night – he failed to do much with a few counterattacking opportunities in the first half, but also fought incredibly hard for his hold up play and aerial balls that were key to a lot of our build up. Unfortunately, he was mostly on the losing end of those duels with just four duels won out of 16 (25%).

As mentioned earlier – between the chances JJ was taking and helping to create in the first half, I’m surprised we were only able to convert one.

Jojea Kwizera (F) – 6/10

Not quite the same level of performance as we’ve seen during Jojea’s run of blazing hot form, but I thought he was solid again on the right wing. He led all Rhode Island players in progressive carrying distance with 101.6m, and led all players with four chances created.

Subs

Zach Herivaux – 4/10

Herivaux himself certainly didn’t do anything wrong, but he sure didn’t help us get a foothold in this game.

Dwayne Atkinson – 4/10

Same for Dwayne – he didn’t help to spark the offense, but it was already on life support by the time he came in.

Nick Scardina – 5/10

The same can also be said for Scardina, although I thought he showed some promise and fight in his cameo.

Logan Dorsey – N/A

Amos Shapiro-Thompson – N/A

---

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.