Rhode Island FC Continues to Make History, Advances to Eastern Conference Final

3-0 Victory Over Louisville City FC Marks Historic Win for Rhode Island, and Historic Loss for Louisville

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

Saturday’s match has provided Rhode Island FC fans with plenty of talking points.

Louisville City FC, set the USL Championship record this season for home victories. Indeed, Louisville’s only regular-season home loss came against Rhode Island FC 5-2. Louisville City FC failed to score only twice this season – with one of those times coming when they played RIFC to a 0-0 draw in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

That aforementioned RIFC victory is when it all came together for the USL Championship’s expansion team. Since then, they’ve been one of the best teams in the entire league and they proved that tonight as they shut out the far-and-away-league-leaders 3-0. Rhode Island FC’s victory denied Louisville a tenth-straight USL Championship Eastern Conference Final appearance – the first time in club history that they have ever failed to reach that mark.

There were so many players for Rhode Island FC tonight whose contributions are worth mentioning. Defenders Morris Duggan, Grant Stoneman, Frank Nodarse, and Kofi Twumasi all made great defensive efforts and clearances. Goalkeeper Koke Vegas made several great saves himself – including on one of the match’s two penalties – without his efforts, Rhode Island FC could not have earned the clean sheet.

In attack, Nodarse again got himself into the match with a great assist. Importantly, striker Albert “Chico” Dikwa also pounced on a rebound from a saved penalty to really put the game away. Finally, striker JJ Williams buried two more goals. Williams has been on a hot streak since Rhode Island’s 8-1 victory over Miami FC as he’s added a brace to his two prior hat tricks and now has nine goal contributions in just the last three matches.

Williams opened up the scoring early, as Nodarse poked the ball through to Williams near midfield and the striker took the ball and ran with it, beating several defenders before chipping Louisville goalkeeper Damian Las for the 1-0 lead in just the ninth minute. From that moment forward, Louisville City FC were chasing the game. Lou City poured a lot of pressure on, but that didn’t stop Rhode Island from enjoying some good attacking opportunities throughout the rest of the first half. RIFC also did an admirable job of holding off Louisville’s attacks, and Louisville did not appear to seriously threaten the Tide’s goal much during the half.

The second half saw Louisville City FC make aggressive, attacking substitutions immediately, and the result was even greater pressure applied to Rhode Island FC’s back line. That pressure was so great that RIFC failed to take a single touch in Louisville’s final third until well after the first fifteen minutes of the second half.

Despite that, Louisville was unable to take advantage, as several great team and individual plays by Rhode Island prevented Louisville from seriously threatening to score. Finally, a defensive mistake by Louisville saw Williams intercept the ball within Louisville’s eighteen-yard box and he beat a defender and fired a shot below the bar and into the roof of the net to give the Tide the 2-0 lead in the 78th minute. 

Louisville made even more aggressive subs but despite outshooting and outpossessing Rhode Island during the match, City failed to score. Finally, Chico latched onto a cross from midfielder Mark Doyle and rounded Las in the eighteen-yard box in second-half stoppage time only for Las to trip him. The referee pointed to the spot and winger Noah Fuson stepped up to take the shot. Las saved that penalty, but Chico pounced on the rebound and blasted it home to give Rhode Island FC the 3-0 lead.

From there, with only five minutes remaining, despondent Louisville fans streamed towards the gates but there was one final event worth remarking. At the last moment, Rhode Island FC defender Karifa Yao – who played an otherwise incredible game – trundled over Louisville striker Phillip Goodrum in the Rhode Island eighteen-yard box, and for the second time in mere minutes, the referee pointed to the spot. Louisville defender Sean Totsch stepped up to take the penalty but his effort was saved by Vegas. The referee blew the whistle and sent Rhode Island FC to its first-ever USL Championship Eastern Conference final.

The win (and clean sheet), coming against the best team in the USL Championship, is clearly Rhode Island FC’s most impressive and complete performance of the season. RIFC defended and attacked brilliantly, while making all the right plays in every phase of the game, dominating the outcomes despite being unable to dominate the passages of play themselves. Their play in the latter two-thirds of the season — and now in the playoffs — has made them one of the USL Championship’s most feared matchups.

Rhode Island FC’s next match is yet to be determined. It depends on the outcome of Sunday’s match between Charleston Battery and Tampa Bay Rowdies which will be played at 3 pm ET. If the Charleston Battery win, Rhode Island FC will play away against Charleston. If the Tampa Bay Rowdies win, Tampa Bay will have to come and play the Eastern Conference final in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Rhode Island lost in its third-ever match 4-2 away against Tampa Bay but beat The Rowdies 3-1 at home just a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, both RIFC’s matches against Charleston have been draws. Either way, Rhode Island FC will get an extra night’s rest before they play its first-ever Eastern Conference final match sometime next weekend.