Rhode Island FC vs. Miami FC Player Ratings - 09/19/2026

Rhode Island FC suffered just their second home loss of the season with a 2-1 loss to Miami FC at Tidewater on Saturday night.

While tonight's result doesn't put our playoff berth at risk (it would be a massive collapse to miss out at this point, given our games in hand), it's a massive blow to our chances at top four and a home playoff match. What's more frustrating is that we've been putrid against teams in the bottom half of the table. The teams that we should be taking three points off of every single time - and especially at home.

With their second loss of the season to Miami FC, Rhode Island FC are now 3-1-4 against the five teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference (the five teams beneath them in the standings). Rhode Island have claimed just 10 out of a total 24 points in their eight matches played so far, for an average of 1.25 points per game against the punching bags of the Eastern Conference.

We've also dropped to 0-2-8 after conceding first this season - the third-worst in the league, behind only Monterey Bay and Brooklyn FC (who are both in 12th place in their respective conferences).

For such an amazing night in the stands - probably the most full and engaged that the stadium has been all season - it's a real shame to put forward a middling (at best) performance, and a terrible result.

Click below to see 2026 player historical ratings.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Koke Vegas (GK) - 5/10

Let's see... Koke made a miraculous save in the 34th minute after a total defensive team breakdown, but then he essentially gave one back with a really poor deflection in the 74th minute. It sure looks like he got away with a penalty early in the second half as well. The defense didn't do him many favors tonight (on the first goal, or otherwise), but it wasn't Koke's best night either.

Jojea Kwizera (D) - 4/10

He is decidedly not a left back. It's bad enough when we do it via substitutions when we're chasing a lead, but electing to play Jojea here to start the match is negligence. We understandably got away with it against Sporting Jax, but it's inexcusable for this to be our first choice tactics at this point in the season. Look no further than Miami's first goal, with Kwizera left in the dust alone on the left flank.

Frank Nodarse (D) - 6/10

Another strong, aggressive defensive performance from Frank, as he led all players with 10 defensive contributions. He was one of few players pushing right up until the end to make something happen. It was one of our sloppiest defensive performances in a while - and Frank was not 100% innocent in that - but he wasn't really to blame, either.

Karifa Yao (D) - 6/10

No Hugo? No problem. Karifa Yao has done the unthinkable and delivered ANOTHER free chicken sandwich to the Rhode Island FC faithful. I may need to stop grocery shopping on Saturdays, and instead wait until after the match to see if there's free chicken coming or not.

Besides the well-taken headed goal on a corner kick from Tsukada, Yao was... fine? Again, there were a lot of sketchy moments defensively, that I can't really pin on one individual player so much as just a poor performance from the entire unit.

Nick Scardina (D) - 5/10

More serviceable play from Nick Scardina, who I can now say was my top honorable mention in my Defiance 1636 Player of the Year ballot, where all members can nominate up to three players for consideration. It wasn't his strongest match in either direction, but he was where he needed to be and picked up some good attacking positions, as usual.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson (MF) - 6/10

A shining beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak performance - Amos was comfortably my man of the match. We lost Clay mid-season, and barely noticed the drop off because Amos emulates so many of his same traits. Now, with Hugo Bacharach (our primary progressor of the ball) on the injury report, Amos is showing that he can take on that responsibility as well.

Fighting for every 50/50 is the bare minimum I expect from Amos. But to see him doing that while also spraying the ball forward repeatedly and creating attacking chances is another gear that I didn't know that he had.

Grant Stoneman (MF) - 5/10

The actual performance playing as the holding midfielder was more than passable for Stoneman - he was perfectly good. But I suspect that Stoneman's absence from the backline is a significant factor in all of the chaos that was going on back there throughout this match.

Stoneman also, unfortunately, doesn't have the pace anymore (well - maybe he never did) to be in a footrace - and that's exactly what happened on Miami's second goal. He did well to recover and make a goal line clearance on the initial shot - but, unfortunately, plays it right back to the Miami attacker and can't do much about the second shot.

Yutaro Tsukada (F) - 6/10

Tsukada had some moments of real quality and creativity, where he beat his man either with skill and/or pace down the left wing. The decision-making from there was up and down - as he does have a bit of a tendency to look for a shot (which, he unfortunately took 0 tonight) and sometimes miss an open pass.

He did provide the corner service to Karifa Yao for the equalizing goal in the 37th minute.

Leo Afonso (F) - 5/10

I think we've stumbled upon a little something here with Leo at the 10. It wasn't his strongest attacking performance (only one shot and no key passes), but his work rate and pressure off the ball are really well suited to playing centrally. He also did well after moving out to a wider position following second half substitutions.

Osman Foyo (F) - 5/10

I still see a lot of promise here, but it was probably Foyo's most frustrating Rhode Island FC performance. He didn't do much wrong, but Miami dealt with him very well, and didn't allow him much joy down the right wing.

Stas Korzeniowski (F) - 5/10

I spent all afternoon hyping up Stas's play to my friend who came to the match tonight - how good his hold up play is, how well he can stick a hard entry pass to his feet, his vision, his size, etc. and then he really failed to show any of that for most of the first half.

He was slightly better in the second half, but still an off night compared to the performances we've seen so far. He had a chance to tie the game with one of the last sequences of the night, but unfortunately sent it well over the cross bar.

Subs

Noah Fuson - 6/10

Most of the team's best attacking moments in the second half involved Noah Fuson - but unfortunately, it's September and we're in a playoff race, and we need the best version of Noah (the one with goal contributions) to come out now.

Noah's best chance was a long-distance shot in the 79th minute that went barely wide, but would've blown the non-existent roof off of Tidewater.

Zachary Herivaux - 5/10

In another weird example of "let's play our best players anywhere but their best positions", Herivaux seemed to spend most of his 11-minute cameo out wide on the right.

Dwayne Atkinson - N/A

Eric Klein - N/A

Let's just N/A both Busy and Eric Klein and I'll say this: I HATED the triple sub as soon as I saw it coming. Absolutely hated it. It's a classic Khano overreaction to being down a single goal (probably a large part of the reason why we haven't won a single game this year where we conceded first), and killed what little momentum we did have in the second half. Here's the kicker... all three players who came on as part of the triple substitution were an immediate downgrade on the players who were already out there.

Who could ever have guessed that we would look like a discombobulated mess after making this change?

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.