Rhode Island FC vs. Birmingham Legion FC Player Ratings - 08/02/2026

After a postponement due to severe weather on Saturday night, Rhode Island FC lost 1-0 at Birmingham Legion FC on Sunday night.

Was the match worth the wait?

Nope! It was another tough pill to swallow, and probably one of our worst results of the season - up there with our earlier loss to Birmingham Legion, exactly three months ago.

Rhode Island FC came to Birmingham having won their last two matches, and looked the significantly more likely team to win the match after a dominant first half. In an all too familiar turn of events, Rhode Island came undone in the 63rd minute with a truly embarrassing goal to concede and really never looked like scoring again after some baffling substitutions starting around the 70th minute.

We still have at least two games in hand on every team ahead of us in the Eastern Conference standings (except Detroit) and still have a great opportunity to climb the table in the second half of the season. But, man, this is a frustrating game and a bad result - and one that we unfortunately all could see coming from a mile away.

Click below to see 2026 player historical ratings.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) - 4/10

Koke only faced two shots on goal all night long. The first came in the 53rd minute, where he made a nice save on a shot from Damus that was straight to his chest.

The second... oh my word, what was that? If I had to split up the blame pie, I'm giving a bigger slice to Koke.

But frankly, he and Stoneman are two veterans of the game, of this league, and two teammates who are in their FIFTH season playing together across two teams - tonight marking their 120th match together, just shy of 9,000 minutes - it just needs to be better. This mistake can not happen. This mistake cost us at least one valuable point - which, in 2024, would have been the difference between Rhode Island FC getting a home playoff game vs. playing on the road.

Aldair Sanchez (D) - 5/10

A very competent but plain performance from Aldair. My larger complaint here is that after running Aldair into the ground for the first three months of the season, we've actually managed his minutes quite well over the last two months - so why give him the hook at 70 minutes here and displace Jojea Kwizera, who was our most dangerous attacker on the night? It's not a knock on Aldair at all, I just don't understand it.

Frank Nodarse (D) - 6/10

Another good performance from Frank playing as a central defender due to Karifa Yao's injury. He wasn't asked to do a tremendous amount defensively, but had a couple of promising moves going forward, and was an important part of our build up play (leading all players with 60 completed passes).

Grant Stoneman (D) - 5/10

Grant had the stronger defensive game of the two center backs - including four clearances and three blocked shots - but obviously had the glaring error with goalkeeper Koke Vegas in the 63rd minute.

Nick Scardina (D) - 6/10

Scardina continued to impress with a solid defensive performance (including a couple of good moments to limit Birmingham's Diarbian), and great attacking play. Scardina is especially good at carrying the ball down the right side - leading all RIFC players in progressive carry distance - and also some nice interplay with Jojea Kwizera and Noah Fuson to progress the ball.

Scardina actually had at least one opportunity to shoot early in the first half where I'd like to see him be more selfish. Instead, he attempted a cross from well inside the Birmingham box, which looped out for a goal kick.

Hugo Bacharach (MF) - 6/10

Hugo had a great first half and waned in effectiveness (along with the rest of the team) as the game went on.

For one thing - Hugo has picked up right where Clay left off with a game-high seven ball recoveries. I thought he was very good at breaking up the rare Birmingham attacking sequences.

He also showed some very good passing range with 10 passes into the final third (tied for a team-high with Nick Scardina), and creating a good attacking chance for Noah Fuson within the first 10 minutes of the game with a nicely weighted through ball.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (MF) - 6/10

Two areas where I think Amos has improved significantly compared to last year, both on display tonight:

1.) his corner kick deliveries are consistently the best on the team. He took just two of our thirteen tonight, but one stands out distinctly in my memory as having the most whip and pace of them all.

2.) He's gotten significantly better at knowing when (or perhaps given more license) to pop up in and around the box when we are in attack. He finds himself with the ball in dangerous positions several times per game simply by making a smart run to the end line and/or providing an outlet pass for our wide players.

He also played a scrumptious through ball from deep in the midfield to Jojea Kwizera in the first half, who got a great scoring chance out of it.

Noah Fuson (MF) - 5/10

It certainly wasn't "vintage" Noah, but there were some major signs of life from Noah here. First, he made a great run back in the first 10 minutes of the match to break up a Birmingham counter.

He seemed to find some confidence after a volleyed long distance shot in the 33rd minute, leading to several more long distance shots for the duration of the match and forcing multiple saves from the Birmingham keeper.

Pity Rodriguez (F) - 4/10

It seemed like an off night from a player who - if nothing else - is almost always relentlessly pushing the ball forward. Pity was dispossessed a team-high three times, and I thought much too conservative with both his passing and dribbling - regularly opting for a safe pass backwards or to recycle possession rather than his usual willingness to try to "pick a lock".

JJ Williams (F) - 5/10

JJ's best chance of the night came in the 18th minute on an excellent half-space cross from Jojea Kwizera. I do not blame JJ at all for pulling out of this "50/50" ball to avoid getting absolutely clobbered by the Birmingham goalkeeper.

Could he have scored if he went 100% for it? Probably. But is it worth getting a concussion or worse? To be honest, no.

JJ really was not involved much in the match after this chance. He had the least touches of all Rhode Island players to play the full 90 minutes.

Jojea Kwizera (F) - 6/10

The duality of Jojea Kwizera strikes again.

He lost possession 24 times - the most of any player in the match.

He also created six chances - three times more than any other player in the match.

Some of his best moments included the aforementioned half-space cross to JJ Williams in the first half, a dangerous shot of his own, and some great interplay with Nick Scardina with each of them taking turns blazing down the right flank.

Subs

Dwayne Atkinson - 4/10

Atkinson subbed on for Pity and initially came on playing as the wide right attacking player. As I've mentioned previously, I hated this because it displaced Jojea Kwizera who had been dangerous on the night.

Not only did Atkinson not play particularly well (loose passing at just 50% accuracy, losing the ball six times on 15 touches, and a total ball progression distance of -8.2m), but it was just a mess from the moment that these subs happened - and only got worse as subsequent substitutions happened and continued to shift these players around the pitch.

Yutaro Tsukada - 5/10

Of course it's too early to evaluate, but I liked some of the hustle from Tsukada on the left wing. Ryan promised that There Will Be Take-on's™, and that did indeed come to fruition as Tsukada attempted two dribbles and completed one of them (leading to winning a set piece in a decent area).

Dani Rovira - N/A

Yellow card speed run.

Hamady Diop - N/A

Nice to see Diop back for the first time in over two months.

Kevin Vang - N/A

All love and respect to Kevin Vang - but we should not be relying on him to come in during stoppage time when we're trailing by a goal.

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.