The Riptide Report: Birmingham Legion FC vs Rhode Island FC - 8/2/2026

Rhode Island FC fell 1-0 in Birmingham tonight. A Ronaldo Damus goal in the 63rd minute was the difference. The loss kills some of the momentum that RIFC had started to build with back to back 1-0 wins heading into tonight. Here are my takeaways on how it all went down:

Postponement

I have to start this off by talking about the game being postponed from Saturday night to Sunday night. While it's always annoying having a game postponed, I was more frustrated by the lack of communication from the league and club. There was no word from the league or RIFC about there being a delay until around forty minutes after the game was supposed to kick off. We were all figuring things out ourselves. And while Birmingham Legion started to post about potential start times, RIFC was completely silent. Eventually, the team did post when the game was officially moved to Sunday.

I would understand if there was no information out there and no updates for the team to provide us with. But the initial announcement of a delay was literally on the scoreboard inside the stadium. We only found out about it because of posts from someone who covers Birmingham Legion. A little more timely communication from the team would have been nice.

Calamity Koke/Grant

RIFC were dominating this game for the first 60 minutes. We created plenty of good chances to score but were unable to find the back of the net (more on that shortly). Then, this absolute catastrophe happens:

Quite simply, there has to be better communication between Koke and Grant there. Either Koke stays back to grab the header from Grant or Grant leaves it for Koke to handle. Just a stupid way to concede.

Jassem Koleilat

I hated him tonight, but Jassem Koleilat is quickly becoming my favorite goalkeeper in the league (aside from Koke of course). The guy is just too good. He made 6 saves in this one and is the reason Birmingham were able to come away with a win. He's up there statistically as one of the better shot-stoppers in the league and he showed why. Koleilat was easily the man of the match tonight. He kept his team in the game in the first half when RIFC had multiple opportunities to score, allowing the Damus goal to be all Birmingham needed to get the three points.

Pure Frustration

This was probably the most frustrating game of the season as far as I'm concerned. RIFC were pretty handily the better team, at least for the first hour. We were taking the game to Birmingham. And then it was all undone by a boneheaded play at the back. Following the goal, the team was all over the place. The guys weren't able to regroup and continue putting pressure on Birmingham's goal. It was so disappointing to see the team create basically nothing after going down a goal. The mentality needs to be better. Khano has recently talked about game management in relation to seeing games out when you're ahead. That aspect of the game has improved lately but now the focus needs to be on responding when down a goal. This team hasn't been able to handle that all year.

The Postmatch Pod will be back tomorrow night, the day after the game as usual. Timmy will also have his player ratings, which are likely to be very low all around. And I'll be back on Friday to preview RIFC's next game where we return home to Tidewater to take on Colorado Springs. Until next time, as always, UP THE TIDE!