Welcome back to Under the Surface. After an unbeaten April, the old habits of 2025 RIFC crept back in during May. They only won 1 of 5 matches, which just so happened to be the only one in which they scored first. The inconsistencies of this team raise new questions every week, but also a lot of the same ones which is very concerning for a team whose core from top to bottom is in its 3rd season together. While it seemed like we might have turned a corner after last month, it seems like we might be in for yet another season of extremes that range from “Khano Out” to “top 4 contenders”. Either way, I’m not sure we’ll know the answer to the question: “are we good?” until the end of October when the table is finalized, though even then many will debate it even then. In any case, another month has come and gone, so let’s dive into it.

Koke Vegas – 0

For the first time since March 2025, Koke went the calendar month of May without keeping a clean sheet. Though there’s not really a particular instance where he put a foot wrong that I can recall, he only posted a 46.7% save percentage, which is also his worst since March 2025 (40.0%).

Dani Rovira – N/A

Aldair Sanchez – 8

Aldair Sanchez has earned a prominent role within this squad and has lived up to all the billing as the only true left back on the roster. In the match against Brooklyn, Aldair won a club season high 8 ground duels. Over the entire month he won 72.4% of all duels, which was an increase by 9% from April.

Hugo Bacharach – 7.02

Hugo has really picked up form as the season has progressed and has been a force on both sides of the ball from the defensive midfield position. In May, he won 7.02 ground duels per 90 minutes in league play which led the team. He has increased ground duel win percentage each month so far, growing into the season more and more from a physicality standpoint.

Grant Stoneman – 106.5%

Grant Stoneman is a pretty difficult player to evaluate. He doesn’t stuff the stat sheet, almost impossibly going invisible relative to whoever his partner is in central defense. Though that also means he isn’t really putting a foot wrong. He was substantially more involved in May than April in possession, increasing completed passes per 90 by 106.5%. I’m not sure that’s inherently a good thing, with the team starting to relapse and regress in its passing progression with more frequent backwards and lateral passing between center backs as the team conceded the first goal in 4 out of 5 matches this month.

Dwayne Atkinson – 2.95

Dwayne Atkinson has still not carved out consistent minutes in the team, and seems like a farcical expectation with players like Noah Fuson and either Amos or Pity sitting ahead of him on the attacking midfield supersub depth chart. However he was very active in the time that he did see the pitch in May. His 2.95 successful dribbles per 90 were almost triple the next best RIFC player. It’s unfortunate that he’s missing a golden opportunity against Westchester this upcoming weekend for international duty for a Jamaican squad that is playing a meaningless friendly in the wake of a failed World Cup qualifying campaign.

Leo Afonso – 20.2%

One of the bigger losers of May was certainly Leo Afonso. With every passing week, it’s increasingly evident that Leo is a square peg in a round hole on the left wing (right wing from minutes 35-45). The month of May saw another decrease in shot volume from the previous one (20.2%), continuing to drop off from his record setting month in March. He is less involved in attack than ever, and I would not be surprised if we see Noah get his first league start all season in the near future to offer a different look that Leo is not providing recently.

JJ Williams – 11.9%

JJ continues to score goals, though they seem to still come in bunches still after scoring his second brace of the season against Brooklyn. 4 of his 5 league goals have come in just 2 matches this season. JJ Williams is one of the best 9s in the entire league on his day, though his 11.9% decrease in duel win percentage from April in league play did not live up to billing. He spent a large portion of this month on an island, with little support from a true 10 like Pity who has been dropped from the starting 11 for the past 2 matches. The attack has been wildly inconsistent this season, though the multiple 4 goal outbursts are much better than whatever was going on in 2025. Khano needs to find a way to connect the attack against set defenses, because JJ can’t do what he does winning aerial duels when facing a low to mid block that has been too common after we concede the first goal.

Pity Rodríguez – 55.1%

The end product has not been there all season for Pity coming out of the attacking midfield position, but he was at least helping to create chances. May was not a great month for Rodríguez, losing what seemed to be a guaranteed starting spot after a 55.1% decrease in chances created per 90 in league play. He started only 1 of the 4 league matches in May. It’s hard to say what came first: the chicken or the egg when it comes to Pity’s benching and his decreased productivity, but we may want to see him back in the team to connect better and more consistently with JJ than the current midfield group.

Noah Fuson – 3.88

Noah still has not started a league match through the first 3 months of the season, but he is shaping up to be quite the effective supersub, creating a club high 3.88 chances per 90 in May. This feels like the perfect opportunity to give him a start, especially over the struggling Leo Afonso, but I could also see Khano using an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach with Noah who is starting to pick up form for the first time since the end of last season.f

Clay Holstad – 54.6%

The change in midfield shape has quickly shown up in Clay’s stats sheet. Moving from the deep lying double pivot with Hugo to the more progressive box to box midfield alongside Amos. He has quickly picked up 2 assists this month, but simultaneously decreased his defensive contributions per 90 in league play by 54.6%. I’m not convinced that we are getting the best out of Clay Holstad the central midfielder if he isn’t involved in breaking up play and winning balls and trading that off with a more progressive midfielder that hasn’t historically been one of his strengths, his signature bangers (that we have yet to see in 2026) excluded.

Will Meyer – N/A

Logan Dorsey – 45.4%

Logan Dorsey scored his first goal since the season opener in the cup match at Portland that was not enough to spark a comeback. Outside of that singular moment, he has been pretty invisible in his cameos. His touches per 90 decreased by 45.4% from April, involved half as frequently in the month of May. While I don’t expect a target forward to touch the ball too much, JJ Williams finds ways to get involved in every match he’s in and it would be beneficial to RIFC if Logan could learn some of that as well to help break down the set defenses of their opponents that are usually protecting a lead by the time Logan comes into the match.

Frank Nodarse – 22

Frank Nodarse looked to have taken the right fullback spot as his own for most of the season up until this month. He was dropped from the squad entirely for the Portland match and did not appear on the injury report either. In the following 2 matches he came off the bench, only playing a combined 22 minutes and appears to have been usurped by the assumed starter and now in form Nick Scardina in the pecking order.

Jojea Kwizera – 41.0%

Jojea had another great month for RIFC in May, scoring his first brace for the club against Brooklyn and taking his goal tally to 5 on the season, passing his league goal total from 2024 and 2025 combined in the process. A part of his game that was vital to his effectiveness in 2024 and a major disappointment in 2025 was his crossing ability, but was on full display in May. He accounted for 41.0% of the team’s total completed crosses in all comps, setting himself completely apart from the rest, though it did not yield a single assist.

Kevin Vang – N/A

Jamin Gogo Peters – N/A

Zachary Herivaux – 79.6%

After picking up an ankle injury in the season opener, Zach finally started his first league match since that game against Sporting JAX against Tampa. He has yet to really kick on this season, though he seems like a prime candidate for one of the 8s if Khano continues to set up the midfield that way. He did play more minutes in May than March and April combined, but has not been in any consistent role. He did see a 79.6% decrease in defensive contributions per 90 in all comps, not making a huge impact in those minutes he was afforded this month. Just like Hugo, I’m sure Zach will benefit from more and more game time, but there seems to be something missing from this midfield, and I would love to see him take the next step to being a starter again for RIFC.

Nick Scardina – 2

After falling out of favor in the early going, Nicky the Fish has found his form in the Ocean State and has taken the right back position off of Frank Nodarse. His 2 assists in May were his first for the club and tied for the team lead. If he can keep it up, and Aldair can keep up the form he’s been in all year, we’re looking at one of the better fullback pairings in the entire league.

Karifa Yao – 43.6%

In May, Karifa Yao’s minutes decreased by 43.6% from April. After getting rinsed by Ronaldo Damus at the beginning of the month, Karifa was one of the first to have a finger pointed at him in the form of a rare rotation to the bench for him against Tampa. He was benched again against Portland the following weekend, but has started the 2 matches since then. With the newly unavailable Hamady Diop out of the team, Karifa’s spot in the team is most likely safe for now, but his time out of it shouldn’t be forgotten with how stable his standing in the team has been to this point. It’s certainly a different look for Khano to deliberately take Karifa Yao out of the lineup outside of rest which has been few and far between in the previous 2 years.

CJ Williams – N/A

Jacob Castro – N/A

Hamady Diop – 9.05

Hamady Diop as a player makes little to no sense for me, and that’s probably why he was forced to drop down to USL from MLS so soon after being selected with the first overall pick in 2023. Sometimes it looks like he has worms for brains, playing the most ridiculous square balls across the back line or dawdling on the ball and giving it away cheaply. But other times he looks like the best ball playing defender in the whole league with his unbelievable passing range. His 9.05 Long balls completed per 90 led the team by a considerable margin, almost double Stoneman’s 4.77.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson – 0.87

After a couple injuries, Amos has picked up right where he left off in 2025, adding another dimension to his game this month by leading the team in big chances created per 90 at 0.87. The recent change in midfield shape has benefitted Amos allowing him to do it all, as a box to box midfielder should. He single handedly kept other talented midfielders Zachary Herivaux and Agustín Rodríguez out of the starting 11, and his corner kicks have been constantly threatening. He was rewarded with an assist on Logan Dorsey’s goal, something that this team should be doing more often than it does with its height advantages across the squad (Amos excluded).

Thank you for your continued support of Under the Surface! 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! If you’ve heard anything about the “Discover Beautiful Tide Talk” or the now infamous “OnlyHands” stickers and want to add one to your collection, be sure to find me in M7. Don’t hesitate to come over and say hi! Until next month, Up The Tide!