Rhode Island FC scored three goals en route to a comfortable victory against Westchester SC in the USL Cup on Saturday night.

It was a beautiful, summer-like day for the first sellout of the season at Tidewater. Despite the slim chance of Rhode Island FC rallying to win Group 5 in the USL Cup the vibes were immaculate leading up to the game. Khano did nothing to interrupt that, as he basically went with the strongest possible lineup based on the players available. It was a nice – though expected – result against quite a poor Westchester team.

It doesn’t do much to improve our chances of qualifying (which would require both Hartford and Portland each to lose a match in the group stage, and us to win our fourth and final match against Brooklyn) but still feels nice to win convincingly at home.

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Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) – 6/10

Admittedly, a 6 feels low for a night where we keep a clean sheet – but Westchester really didn’t make Koke work for it at all. His lone save of the night came in the 75th minute, with a headed chance straight to Koke’s chest.

Aldair Sanchez (D) – 7/10

Another very solid 90-minute performance from Aldair where he was reliable and impactful on both sides of the field. In the second half in particular, he found himself free on the left wing multiple times to play in dangerous crosses.

In the 75th minute, he beats a defender to a ball on the end line and plays a great cross to assist on Leo Afonso’s goal. In the dying minutes of the match, Aldair had a shot of his own from outside the box that would’ve blown the non-existent roof off of the building.

Frank Nodarse (D) – 6/10

Nick Scardina may have crept in and claimed the starting Right Back position while Frank recovered from a minor knock – but in Nodarse’s first start since Tampa Bay on May 9th, he looked perfectly comfortable playing as one of two central defenders.

While Westchester didn’t do much to threaten the backline, Frank was a good when called upon and important to our build up play – leading all players with 62 completed passes (95%). He also created three chances, which is not something you typically see from a centerback.

Karifa Yao (D) – 6/10

In the 73rd minute, Karifa Yao made a sensational, last-ditch lunging challenge to stop a Westchester player from being in alone on goal. Genuinely one of the best tackles I’ve seen in a long time.

But there’s a catch; the Westchester player was in that position because of a miscue by none other than Karifa Yao. So – how much credit do you get for a great defensive play, when it was your own blunder that led to it?

The answer is – still quite a bit of credit, because Yao was otherwise solid in this match. About five minutes after this crucial intervention, he did very well to lunge and block a shot in the box that I’m not 100% sure Koke had covered.

Nick Scardina (D) – 6/10

It’s really been a pleasure to watch Scardina play himself into form through the month of May, and now continuing in to June. You can see his confidence growing with each game – he is now quite a dynamic, exciting attacking player who makes great overlapping runs, a threat when he cuts inside, and has great technique to play dangerous crosses into the box.

He’s scored in the US Open Cup, but still chasing his first in the USL Championship and the USL Cup. He had a hell of a chance within the first 10 minutes, on a great cutback cross from Pity Rodriguez off the end line – but, well defended by Westchester.

Hugo Bacharach (MF) – 7/10

Back-to-back monster performances from Hugo – who finally feels like he’s re-discovering his best form from last year. Although Hugo is now playing as more of a holding midfielder with Clay and Amos ahead of him (sometimes), Hugo is still popping up all over the final third.

And he’s absolutely pivotal to our build up play. He was regularly dropping back into the central defense line to pick up the ball and either make one of his signature gallops through the middle of the park OR complete one of his TWENTY THREE passes into the final third. This is the most ever by a Rhode Island FC player – confirmed by Tide Talk’s own Tyler Hatch – our resident statistician/record-keeper.

And Hugo’s big night doesn’t even end there – he also led all players in Duels Won (9 – including 5/5 in the air) and tied with Noah Fuson for the most shots with four each.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (MF) – 5/10

Solid performance from Amos, but it won’t shine in comparison to his midfield partners, Hugo Bacharach and Clay Holstad.

What Amos lacks in ball progression (he carried the ball forward only about 1/8th the amount of Hugo Bacharach) he does make up for with his hard pressing off the ball and always rushing the opponent into making their next pass when he’s around.

Clay Holstad (MF) – 7/10

Holstad opened the scoring in the 42nd minute with an excellent individual effort – and it came at a crucial moment, where Rhode Island FC had been struggling to create any offense for roughly the last 25 minutes.

Clay and Amos combined to block the passing lanes for the Westchester holding midfielder, and Clay intercepted his attempted pass. You obviously can’t turn the ball over on the edge of your own box, but it’s a fantastic low, driven finish from Clay from the edge of the 18 to score his first goal of the USL Cup.

Besides the goal, Clay was active all across the pitch and worked well alternating with Hugo Bacharach to quarterback the build up play. He led all Rhode Island players with six defensive contributions, including tying for a game-high three tackles.

Pity Rodriguez (F) – 7/10

Pity’s first start since Portland, and we’re once again seeing him deployed as more of a winger / wide-forward than the 10 where he started the season. Despite playing out wide, Pity had the highest progressive carrying distance of all forward players.

You’ll never see it on the stat sheet, but if you rewatch JJ’s goal – Pity is right there boxing out the Westchester keeper to make the ball available for JJ. Give Pity the invisible assist for this goal.

I continue to be impressed with his ability to dribble and pass through tight spaces, but I’m also still waiting to see it rewarded with some finishing. He came close in this game, with three chances created off of nice, varied deliveries coming in from the wing that were nearly converted by the receiving player.

JJ Williams (F) – 6/10

I actually thought this was a down performance by JJ’s standards, as his decision-making in the final third was lacking on multiple occasions, either playing the wrong pass, or playing it too late.

But, it’s hard to complain when he just keeps finding the back of the net. If you were going to back any player to beat the keeper to a 50/50 pop up in his box, it would have to be JJ – and that’s exactly what he did, in the 44th minute, off of a Clay long throw that Westchester failed to clear.

Noah Fuson (F) – 6/10

With Kwizera and Busy both away on international duty, it provided a perfect opening for Noah to get just his sixth start of the season. He technically was playing as the wide-right attacker, but he really played a little bit of every attacking position.

Fuson led all players with four chances created and also tied with Hugo for the most total shots (4). Certainly a handful of those chances created came from the four corners that Noah took – some of the most dangerous-looking deliveries I’ve seen from Rhode Island FC this season.

Fuson’s best effort of the night was a curling shot from outside the corner of the 18 yard box that hit off the cross bar in the 35th minute. Like Clay’s goal, this came at a time when the team was pretty starved for offense or creativity. Not for the first time this season, but this is certainly a performance that Noah can build some momentum from.

Subs

Leo Afonso – 6/10

I actually was thinking this was a relatively poor – or at least frustrating – performance from Afonso until he shut me up with a clinical headed goal in the 76th minute to put this game to bed.

Zachary Herivaux – N/A

Grant Stoneman – N/A

Jamin Gogo Peters – N/A

Kevin Vang – 6/10

I promised that I wouldn’t give Kevin Vang an N/A (even though my general rule of thumb has always been >10 touches), so I’ll honor that. Truthfully, I think Vang’s commitment to driving and/or passing the ball forward is a trait that is lacking in our team – so it’s refreshing to see when he comes on.

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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.