Rhode Island FC Draws First Blood in El Trashico

Or El Clamico it's really your choice

Photo Courtesy of Hartford Athletic

The last time Rhode Island FC and Hartford Athletic met – their first rivalry meeting in Hartford – RIFC came away with one point amid a 1-1 draw that exemplified the weak places each team held in the standings.

Since that June 1 match-up, the two clubs have had very different fortunes. Rhode Island has compiled a record of 5-3-2 in the intervening weeks, picking up 18 of a possible 30 points, while Hartford has compiled the exact opposite record, 2-3-5, with only 9 points of the available 30. Coming into Saturday's match – the 23rd of the season for the Tide and the 22nd for the Athletic – Rhode Island stood at eighth place, the bottom of the playoff race, while Hartford lurked abysmally behind in 11th.

Hartford’s visiting fans — watching their team play their historic first rivalry match in Rhode Island — certainly hoped to see their team turn its luck around and play to the level the game demanded and to demonstrate that the USL Championship table had things all wrong. Hartford did none of those things and the game went exactly as the table would have suggested.

Rhode Island FC began its domination of Hartford Athletic early in the first half as Hartford goalkeeper Renan Ribeiro began facing dangerous shots from the Tide as early as the fifth minute of the game. Rhode Island kept the pressure up and following a 29th minute dangerous free kick from the right-hand side facing goal, defender Grant Stoneman got his head to it and nodded it past the right side of the diving Ribeiro to make it 1-0 to Rhode Island. The Tide never looked back and at no point did Hartford look poised to get back into the game.

This was, in part, because the second half began with Rhode Island FC scoring on Hartford Athletic yet again. The set-up mirrored that of the first goal. RIFC took a dangerous free kick from the left-hand side facing the goal. RIFC winger Noah Fuson fired it in and defender Frank Nodarse got a head to it to nod it past a diving Ribeiro’s left side. The score was 2-0 to Rhode Island and after that point, Hartford seemed to come entirely undone.

Hartford faced counter-attack after counter-attack, and while a combination of good play from Ribeiro and luck kept them from conceding again for quite a while, in second-half stoppage time RIFC striker Albert “Chico” Dikwa finally broke through with a pass in from the left-hand side which caught Ribeiro off guard and found the sliding feet of RIFC midfielder Joe Brito who trundled the ball into the Hartford goal.

Rhode Island FC now stand in 6th place, well into the playoff picture after the 3-0 domination of Hartford in which it held its opponents to only 7 shots (2 on target) while taking 20 total shots (6 on target) of its own. RIFC played a devastating counterattack that Hartford simply had no answers for and while the comfortable win marks the sixth time in nine matches that Rhode Island has scored three goals or more, it also marks the first clean sheet since June 26 and sixth overall on the season. If this is the defense that RIFC fans can expect to see going forward – and perhaps the newly-debuting Minnesota United FC loanee RIFC defender Morris Duggan can make a difference – then they can expect the team to make a deep push in the playoffs indeed.

Hartford Athletic meanwhile continue to languish in 11th place, eight points out of a playoff spot, while boasting the USL Championship’s second-worst attack and second-worst defense (19 goals for and 38 goals against through 22 matches). Those woes were made worse tonight as a fan in the Hartford section of the stands – which were rumored to number an impressive 250 away supporters – set off a number of fireworks which may put their future attendance as a traveling contingent in doubt. The offender was marched away by the Smithfield, Rhode Island Police Department in handcuffs and while this writer hopes that will be the end of the matter, it remains to be seen whether that will prove the case.

Rhode Island FC has a week off before its next match at Beirne Stadium against Oakland Roots SC. Oakland are third in the USL Championship’s Western Conference standings, but defense is the third weakest in the entire league (36 goals allowed through 22 matches), and Rhode Island FC’s recent high-scoring form may look to take advantage of that when they play on Saturday, August 17.