Rhode Island FC fell 2-1 to Portland Hearts of Pine this evening in the second match of the USL Cup. The result temporarily pushes Portland to the top of the group while RIFC are 5th. And it could get worse for RIFC as they can drop to last in the group depending on the Brooklyn/Hartford result. It goes without saying that this was a very disappointing result. Here are my takeaways from up here in Maine:
Fitzy
Before I get into the game, I wanted to talk about the experience at Fitzpatrick Stadium. It was my first time here, as the last time the teams met in Maine the game was in Lewiston. I have to begrudgingly give the organization credit for the setup. Parking was easy and the food and beer was great. It reminded me a bit of when RIFC was at Beirne Stadium in year one, except there’s a lot more room at Fitzpatrick to set everything up and I think they did a fantastic job.
As for the experience in the stands, there was some back and forth between some Portland supporters and Defiance but that’s to be expected. From my perch behind the section I didn’t see or hear anything that went over the line between the two sets of fans. I was concerned early on that security was going to be a little strict but for the most part things turned out ok. On the field though was a different story….
First Half Failures
Khano chose to go with a starting 11 that looked something like this:
It surprised me because I expected Khano to start Hugo and/or Clay in midfield and give JJ a rest with Logan Dorsey replacing him. But this is what we got. And it didn’t play out well. Portland found way too much space between our midfield and back line, and were also able to get in behind the back line way too often.
Portland’s first goal came just three minutes in:
You could’ve driven a truck in that gap between Hamady Diop and Aldair Sanchez. It was a good run from Kidd to exploit that space but it never should’ve been there in the first place.
Ollie Wright went on to convert a penalty in the 27th minute that from my point of view shouldn’t have been given. The Portland player was on his way down before any contact was made. But unfortunately the ref called it. These things can happen and it isn’t like RIFC were playing well anyway.
My biggest issue with this first half as a whole was I don’t think the Amos/Zach double pivot worked at all. I love those guys as players but we needed Hugo or Clay to steady the ship.
Too Little, Too Late
Khano made some rare halftime subs, bringing in Karifa, Hugo, and Dorsey for Sanchez, Herivaux, and Fuson. I thought the team immediately looked better with Hugo in the midfield. And Logan Dorsey looked really solid playing next to JJ in a two man striker partnership. It ended up working when Dorsey scored right around the hour mark from this corner:
RIFC remained on top for most of the rest of the second half but it wasn’t enough. And in this competition, there’s very little room for error.
Final Thoughts
This was an incredibly frustrating and disappointing result. We seem to have fixed the lack of goalscoring issue from last year but now the defense has taken a step back. I feel like some of our defenders individually have underperformed compared to last year. Primarily Hamady Diop and Karifa Yao. I hate calling out individual players and the blame isn’t all on them. Karifa didn’t even start tonight and looked fine when he came on. I just think in general across the season so far, the defense has been an issue.
As always, we’ll have player ratings and a postmatch pod to further go over this mess. I’ll be back later in the week to preview RIFC’s next game against Brooklyn. I’m sure I’ll cheer up by then and predict a win, but we’ll have to wait and see. As always, UP THE TIDE!
Tide Talk 
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