Away to Rhode Island Preview
Date: Saturday October 5, 2024
Kickoff Time: 7:30 pm EST at Beirne Stadium in Smithfield, RI
Records: Tampa Bay Rowdies (46 pts 13W-7D-8L); Rhode Island FC (43 pts 10W-13D-7L)
Standings: The Rowdies are 4th in the East and Rhode Island are 6th.
Floridians are used to wild weather. We have come to expect it, especially around this time of the year. However, that doesn’t mean we can ignore it – and the Rowdies were unable to ignore Hurricane Helene as she bore down on the state last week. Now, with a game in hand over their opponents, Tampa Bay travels to the Northeast to take on expansion team Rhode Island!
We at RBLR Sports hope you’re doing alright!
Hurricane season is more than just a certain time of year. It’s a reminder to get supplies, be prepared, have evacuation routes, and know where to look for good information. Sadly, that isn’t just true for Florida. Not everyone expects a giant storm to impact their lives so quickly. We have all seen the devastating effects of a Category 4 hitting unsuspecting folks.
Soccer is secondary and all of us here hope that everyone who is in a bad situation can get the help they need as soon as possible. The Rowdies ownership team has donated money and many organizations affiliated with the club have done the same. If you have the ability to donate time, resources, money, or all three, please do so.
To return to the lighter matters of playing soccer, the Rowdies could not do so this past weekend following Helene’s storm surge and its subsequent impacts. The match scheduled for last Saturday has been postponed; right now, we don’t know when it will be played. In the meantime, all the other clubs did get to complete their games, allowing one Detroit City to jump up the table.
Le Rouge now sit in third place ahead of the Rowdies. With the game in hand, Tampa Bay fans will hope that the two point gap is bridged as soon as possible. But, the team still sits in this weird limbo. Since the end of the summer months, the Green and Gold have been anything but, earning only two wins since the start of August.
The team is lucky they built up such a cushion in the prior months. It’s possible that if things continue this way, Tampa Bay won’t host a playoff game – and it wouldn’t be for want of a suitable playing field. The playing style wasn’t found out, so to speak. It was never that complicated to begin with. However, the wheels have certainly fallen off.
Players look like they’re low on confidence. At times they seem to expect things to go poorly. It is the exact opposite state of affairs needed for a team to challenge in the playoffs. Whatever the team has done with their extra week away from the field, hopefully it was spent putting things right and sorting out the mentality monster that has been looming over the group.
How good are Rhode Island in their expansion season?
In any team’s first year, it should be expected that they end up falling short of expectations. Based on RBLR’s preseason conceptions, that would be true of Rhode Island. However, our lack of expertise aside, what they’ve done so far is still pretty good. If the season ended today, their sixth place finish would be very respectable all things considered.
The club has gone through a number of changes since cobbling together their inaugural roster over the course of 2023 and January through March of this year. The biggest difference is in the way the team lines up. While manager Khano Smith announced his intentions before play began, he has had to moderate his own expectations and modulate the playing style along with them.
That has led him to a new formation that Rhode Island have since honed in on. The 5-4-1 has led them to quite a few notable results, including beating local rivals Hartford 3-0. The wingbacks feature heavily in this setup and Jojea Kwizera on the left and Clay Holstad on the right have been big contributors to the attacking effort.
Benefitting from them, Albert Dikwa has become the club’s starting striker – something everyone involved thought he would be – and scored nine goals to boot. His four assists puts him level with another attacker, Noah Fuson, for both goals and assists in 2024. Fuson for his part has five and eight, respectively. Luckily for the Rowdies, he won’t be around after getting sent off last week.
That doesn’t mean Rhode Island will be easy opponents by any means. Former Rowdie Zach Herivaux has found himself back in his native New England, and appears to be thriving since his move. He can contribute to the defense as well as the attack, as those of us in Florida know. It will be the duty of Tampa Bay’s midfield to break him and his new defensive partners down.
The attack is where the Rowdies need to pick things up. For a good portion of the season, the club was known for creating good chances and failing to finish them. Even those opportunities to get a good miss have since dried up. Connecting the back to the front and successfully getting the ball up the field will be a mark of success against Rhode Island.
Previously, it was Josh Perez and Danny Crisostomo combining with their respective wingbacks on either side. Blake Bodily’s production on the left has dropped off in the interim and the right wingback spot has switched between a couple players lately. The knock-on effect of this is that Manuel Arteaga and Cal Jennings have also been in a relative scoring drought.
Getting those two back on the scoresheet would be more than ideal as the playoffs get closer. Rhode Island have a stout defensive unit, with enough players at the back to match up with Tampa Bay’s attackers. There should still be room sufficient to get between the lines, though. This should hopefully mean they can at least rack up those chances again – even if they go begging.
Score Predictions from the RBLR Rowdies Podcast:
Carlos: 1-0 W
James: 2-2 D
Yurika: 1-1 D
