Rhode Island FC vs. Charleston Battery Player Ratings - 09/26/2026

Rhode Island FC suffered a 2-0 loss on the road to Charleston Battery on Saturday night.

Despite the loss, Rhode Island FC are officially the inaugural 2026 Breeze Cup Champions. You'll never sing that.

Of course, I'm being facetious. The Breeze Cup is a disgustingly low-effort, blatantly obvious ad placement, and means absolutely nothing besides giving a name to a fixture that would happen two times (home and away) in the season, regardless.

Jokes aside, the 0-2 result is quite poor for Rhode Island FC, who have now lost two matches in a row for the second time this season - after Khano Smith famously claimed in 2024 that "good teams don't lose two matches in a row". Worse yet, we've won just once in our last five matches. Where historically this team has found its footing in September, we seem to be experiencing quite the opposite in 2026.

There are a million reasons you could write this loss off; we've lost our two best players midseason, we have an even more important mid-week game coming up against Indy Eleven, we're dealing with injuries in key positions and international absences, Charleston is a very good team and a tough place to play, and they're overdue to exact revenge on us.

But Rhode Island FC's overall body of work has just not been good enough for almost two consecutive seasons now. I could much more easily stomach us losing a tough match to Charleston if we were consistently winning the games that we should win - like Miami last weekend, or Birmingham home and away, or Jacksonville in the home opener.

Click below to see 2026 player historical ratings.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) - 4/10

Koke was having one of his best games of the season after making a handful of excellent reaction saves and diving saves. Then, in the 81st minute, somewhat inexplicably, he came out of his box for a 50/50 (more like a 60/40) ball, and was sent off for the challenge.

For a team that struggles with losing concentration in key moments, we can't be having this from our veteran goalkeeper and team captain.

Aldair Sanchez (D) - 6/10

One of the few bright spots on the night - Aldair was great defensively and going forward, and was playing like someone who wants their spot back in the starting XI.

Frank Nodarse (D) - 6/10

Another strong performance from Frank with aggressive defending (leading all Rhode Island FC players with nine defensive contributions), and an increasingly important contributor to our build-up play, as Frank is easily the most comfortable with the ball at his feet out of our central defenders.

Karifa Yao (D) - 6/10

Yao is still settling back into his role in the defensive unit, but had a pretty strong night and was especially noteworthy for his eight defensive clearances (five headed, and several of these coming on set pieces).

Each of our defenders was caught out a couple of times in this match while attempting to step up and intervene with a Charleston attack - but the benefit of three central defenders is that generally the other two were able to recover when this was happening.

Grant Stoneman (D) - 5/10

It was an unremarkable night for Stoneman - but he did get just enough on a Charleston chance in the 68th minute to send it narrowly wide of our goal.

Nick Scardina (D) - 4/10

On the bright side, I think Scardina was hard done by the penalty call given to Charleston in the second half. Admittedly, Scardina was tugging Ycaza's jersey (which USL refs constantly let go - until they don't), but the foul happened outside of the box.

Unfortunately, Scardina simply was not having a good night even before the PK. He didn't have much work to do defensively, and did not look himself on offense - either being dispossessed or wasting opportunities in the attacking third.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (MF) - 5/10

Perfectly fine night from Amos - the only moment that truly stood out to me was when he missed an easy pass to play Nick Scardina down the right flank (and got an earful from Scardina for it). Otherwise, it was a lot of hard work off the ball - as usual.

Eric Klein (MF) - 4/10

I get that we're shorthanded in midfield - which is a complete miss by our recruiting team - but there's nothing to gain by us playing a 19-year-old on loan who is clearly not up to the level of USL Championship.

I'm just not seeing it. He wasted multiple attacks either by being dispossessed or overcooking a pass, and he tried to move the ball quickly in buildup (to his credit) but regularly misses his target.

Zach Herivaux (MF) - 5/10

There was a mixture of good and bad in Herivaux's first start since May. I thought he did some good work defensively and off the ball, but admittedly still looked rusty in possession. Presumably, his half-time substitution was a planned 45-minute appearance as both he and Hugo Bacharach regain their match fitness.

Leo Afonso (F) - 4/10

Completely anonymous performance from Leo Afonso, in a match where we really could've used his tenacity and relentlessness going forward. In fairness, he did take 2 of our 5 total shots on target - but neither did much to trouble the Charleston goalkeeper.

Stas Korzeniowski (F) - 5/10

A step in the right direction after last weekend against Miami - Stas didn't receive much service tonight either, but was able to create some chances with his hold up play and his surprising pace. His best chance of the night was entirely self made, with a great run and shot in the 67th minute that forced a strong save from the Charleston keeper.

Subs

Hugo Bacharach - 5/10

A fine enough return for Hugo after a brief, two-match absence due to injury. It's certainly not Hugo's fault that 1.) the team completely crumbled in the second half, and 2.) he was thrown into a pretty odd lineup, with Dani Rovira as his partner in the double pivot for a portion of his time.

Dani Rovira - 5/10

Absolutely fine - but, why?

Osman Foyo - N/A

Yutaro Tsukada - N/A

Jacob Castro - N/A

Well, it took 2,511 minutes, but we've finally seen Jacob Castro take the field. Now, was his very first involvement in the match to concede a goal? Yes. But it's hard to blame Castro, given the situation he was cast into.

We'll get a true look at him this week against Indy Eleven.

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.