The Riptide Report: Sporting Club Jacksonville vs Rhode Island FC - 9/12/2026

Rhode Island FC came away with all three points by easily handling Sporting Jax 3-0. Goals from Yutaro Tsukada, Stas Korzeniowski and Jojea Kwizera powered RIFC to victory. The win puts RIFC in 7th in the Eastern Conference at the time of writing and they have at least one game in hand on everyone above them. Here are my thoughts on this nice win in Jacksonville:

Hugo Unavailable

Aside from the hour and fifteen minute weather delay, the biggest story pregame was that Hugo Bacharach was not in the squad and was subsequently listed on the availability report. It would be nice if we had anyone reporting on the team who could give us some inside info on this but unfortunately at this level, we don't really have that. Hopefully Hugo is only going to be out for a short time. The sting of his absence was lessened a bit though by the return of Zach Herivaux to the squad. Zach got some minutes in the second half and while I don't think he did anything memorable, it was still great to see him back out there after a long absence.

Yu-nicycle

I don't think I have to even write anything here. Just take a look:

What a finish for Yutaro. My immediate reaction is that's the best goal this team has ever scored. I know we all love our long distance bangers, but you can't deny the skill required for a bicycle kick. Incredible stuff

Stas Strikes Again

After Yutaro ensured RIFC went into the half with a lead, Stas doubled it by getting a second half goal for the second week running:

It was a great ball through for Stas to run on to and a nice composed finish from the big man. Stas really impressed me last weekend against Louisville and he continued to do so tonight. He looks like the perfect player to lead the line for the rest of the season (fingers crossed).

In addition to this goal, he should have won two penalties but ended up with one. The first was in the 28th minute when he was clipped from behind by Sporting Jax defender Wahab Ackwei but the referee changed his initial decision to say it happened outside of the box. The second incident was even more clear and luckily the referee called it as he was taken down in the box. Credit to Jojea Kwizera for blasting that penalty into the top corner.

Job Done

My biggest takeaway from this one is how RIFC played against a bad team. As I wrote about in the Prematch Lookout, we've seen this team not get results against poor teams way too often. I felt like the guys would take care of business here and they did. I don't think this game will have much bearing on how the team plays the rest of the way given the level of competition but they got the job done tonight comfortably. That's all you can really ask for at the end of the day.

Unlistenable Commentary

I couldn't finish this blog without talking about the commentators. They spent the last 30+ minutes talking about how RIFC were wasting time and just trying to kill the game off. It started as soon as RIFC went 2-0 up. The problem wasn't that they were criticizing the team. They actually said it was a smart tactic. The issue was that RIFC never employed that strategy. Players consistently got forward and were going for a third goal. Yet if you were only listening to the commentary, you would have thought RIFC were just passing the ball around in their own half amongst themselves. It was unbelievable. And also, with all due respect, RIFC would not need to time waste against a team as bad as Sporting Jax. There was never a point in the game where it looked like the result was going to go any other way than an easy RIFC win.

Tide Talk will be back tomorrow with the Player Ratings and Podcast. I'm most interested in seeing what rating Timmy gives Amos, who I thought had an incredible game. Especially given the fact that he didn't have Hugo next to him in midfield. I'll be back here later in the week to preview RIFC's upcoming home game against Miami FC. Until then, UP THE TIDE!