The Riptide Report: Rhode Island FC vs Louisville City FC - 9/5/2026

Rhode Island FC drew 1-1 with Louisville City FC tonight at Tidewater. A first half penalty converted by Sean Totsch put Lou City ahead but an early second half equalizer from RIFC newcomer Stas Korzeniowski ensured that both teams came away with a point. As always, here are my quick thoughts on how it all went down.

Stas up top, Leo to the 10

There were a few things to talk about in regards to the lineup but I'm choosing to highlight the forwards. Stas Korzeniowski got his first start after making his debut off the bench last weekend and he took up what used to be the JJ role. That ended up pushing Leo Afonso to the number 10, playing just behind Stas. It's a position that the team has been searching for a solution for for what feels like the team's whole existence. I'm not ready to say that Leo is the answer but I liked how he played. I thought the fact that he was able to get in more space in that role was really beneficial. Especially for a guy who is known to take a lot of shots. As for Stas....well...more on him soon.

Penalty?

I didn't see it well enough in real time so I went back and watched the handball incident that led to Louisville's penalty. And upon review, I don't think you can give that as a handball. Grant had his arm away from his body but the ball went basically right under his armpit. Had his arm been by his side, the ball would have hit it and it wouldn't have been called because he wasn't making himself bigger. It was an extremely frustrating moment because I felt RIFC were the better team in the first half. The penalty meant they went into the break down 1-0.

Stas the Terminator

I'm not the most creative and I doubt this sticks, but during the game it occurred to me that we should be calling Stas "The Terminator". He was bullying defenders all night and had an attitude that you love to see from your striker. His biggest moment of course came early in the second half when he leveled the game:

I honestly don't even know how Stas made such good contact there. What a finish from the big guy. I may already be falling in love with a loan player, a big no-no in this sport.

Frustrating For A Different Reason

I'm walking away from this one a bit disappointed but not for the usual reason. Normally when the team doesn't get the result we want, I'm frustrated with the performance. But tonight, I really thought that guys did well enough to earn 3 points. And it's not just the questionable penalty that has me frustrated. I thought the ref was really poor even outside of that call. Louisville did get 4 yellow cards but I thought it probably could have been 6 or 7 (sorry to anyone reading the blog aloud to their kids). In the end though, you can't blame the ref for the team only coming away with a point. There were opportunities to get a second goal and the guys just weren't clinical enough.

Tide Talk will have the postmatch podcast tomorrow night as well as the Player Ratings to further go over this one. Per usual, I'm really interested in seeing what Timmy gives my guy Frank, who I thought looked really good. As for myself, I'll be back here later in the week to preview RIFC'S trip to Jacksonville. Until then, UP THE TIDE!