Rhode Island FC Tastes Defeat for First Time in Nine Games

You can't win them all

Photo Courtesy of Rhode Island FC

Rhode Island FC entered Wednesday’s match on an eight-game unbeaten streak, and with an opportunity to soar all the way to fourth place in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference with a victory over Indy Eleven. In classic RIFC fashion, they squandered it.

Their frightening inability to convert quality chances returned last Saturday against Detroit City FC and although Clay Holstad saved them then with an utterly gorgeous long shot on that balmy afternoon, there were no such heroics tonight against Indy and the Tide proved completely and desperately toothless.

Rhode Island FC had only one clear-cut chance in the first half when midfielder Joe Brito found striker Mark Doyle with a great cross directly in front of the Indy goal. Doyle, however, scuffed the shot, and Indy Eleven goalkeeper Hunter Sulte saved it easily.

Shortly thereafter, Indy pinned Rhode Island FC in its own half, and despite several opportunities, Rhode Island failed to clear the ball away and relieve the pressure and danger that was building up. Finally, the pressure led to an Indy opportunity as Indy midfielder Laurence Wooton, an Englishman playing on loan from the MLS club Chicago Fire, found striker Sebastian Guenzatti with a great cross and Guenzatti answered with a leaping volley that soared over RIFC goalkeeper Jackson Lee’s outstretched hands for the only goal of the match.

There was nothing Lee could do.

The goalkeeper had been faced with multiple shots and made multiple stops already by that point in the match. The first half saw him called into action far more than his Indy counterpart and the half ended 1-0 favoring Indy.

The second half was no more auspicious for Rhode Island FC than the first as Indy started bringing the heat straight toward Lee, peppering him with shots from near and far. Although RIFC striker JJ Williams again found Doyle with a pass, Doyle’s header was again easily saved by Indy’s Sulte, and what could have been a threatening attack by the Tide was again squandered.

RIFC was outshot 18-10 by Indy, despite out-possessing them, outpassing them, passing more accurately, and having nearly twice as many corners. It was a deeply disheartening scene and one hopes it will not hang over them in the coming weeks.

Rhode Island did not start its strongest line-up tonight, no doubt saving their legs for the rivalry match against Hartford Athletic at Beirne Stadium in Smithfield, Rhode Island, at 7:30 pm ET on Saturday, August 10, but it cost them dearly as they remain in eighth place on the USL Eastern Championship table, dead last in the playoff places. North Carolina FC champing is only three points behind and with a game in hand.

As Rhode Island enters the final third of the season with only twelve matches remaining, every point will count. Fans will have to hope that RIFC Head Coach Khano Smith’s decisions tonight do not come back to haunt them at the end of October.