Rowdies Lose 5-0 vs Rhode Island FC
In what was a great opportunity to make progress on their playoff push, the Rowdies get hammered 5-0 away at Rhode Island FC in their last away match of the year.
The Rowdies got off initially to a great start, with Juan Carlos Azocar in particular looking good with great linkup play with Manuel Arteaga, and was getting past the Rhode Island defense consistently.
The first goal for Rhode Island FC was scored by former Rowdie JJ Williams, and at just 8 minutes in the Rowdies lost all of their momentum with that goal. Noah Fuson (you’ll be hearing his name later) would find JJ Williams open at the edge of the goalie box. Williams would take a touch, and curl the ball past a Rowdies defender and Bill Hamid, opening the scoring for the hosts.
In the 28th minute, JJ Williams would play through Noah Fuson, who would calmly slot home the host’s second goal in under 30 minutes.
Just before halftime, Clay Holstead would be cut down in the box after an Aaron Guillen challenge. JJ Williams would convert his spot kick, and Rhode Island FC would have a 3-0 lead at halftime.
The Rowdies would make one substitution, subbing off attacking player Luis Alvarez and bringing on defender Laurence Wyke.
Albert Dikwa would make it four after heading home a header from close range.
In the 88th minute, Maxi Rodriguez would chip the ball into the net, giving the hosts a 5-0 lead.
Thankfully, that would be the last goal scored, finishing what was one of the worst games of the season by far.
Around the League:
9th place Indy Eleven played Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. Danny Griffen would give Pittsburgh the lead after being unmarked at the back post. Sean Suber would double the Riverhounds’ lead after scoring a header off a corner kick. James Musa would convert from short range, pulling one back for Indy Eleven. It would be too little too late, as Indy would drop points. Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC have now clinched playoff soccer.
7th place Detroit City FC would host Loudoun United FC. Loudoun’s Riley Bidois would convert a close range effort in stoppage time to clinch playoff soccer for the first time in Loudoun United’s history. More importantly for Rowdies fans, it’s dropped points for Detroit City FC.
Of course, Rhode Island beat Tampa Bay, making playoff soccer look very bleak.
So, with the games being done for the weekend, here is how the table is looking. 6th place Pittsburgh clinched playoffs, meaning the only spots left to clinch in hopes of playoff soccer are spots 7th and 8th.
Rhode Island FC, who coming into the week was in 8th place, advanced into 7th place after their win over the Rowdies. Detroit City FC dropped to 8th place. Indy Eleven stayed in 9th place, and the Rowdies are still barely alive in 10th place. Rhode Island FC have 37 points, Detroit City FC have 35, Indy has 32 points, and finally Tampa Bay has 30 points.
The Bigger Picture:
The Good: This is going to be a really, really short segment. I thought that Juan Carlos Azocar played well in that first five minutes. Alex Mendez had a nice shot on target (our only one of the game). Other than that, onto The Bad.
The Bad: In a game where there were quite barely any positives, there were a LOT of negatives. I think the thing that I struggle to understand is how we can have such a change from our best performance of the season to the worst.
I think being down Woobens Pacius did not help, but if it was just the attack that was the issue, it would be an easy fix. Just wait for Woobens to come back.
I’ve really been a fan of Luis Alvarez ever since we signed him, so I was excited to see him replace Woobens in the attack. Now, I don’t think I could tell you a single thing Alvarez did this game. In the 45 minutes he played, he had one shot (off target) and had four passes. Not exactly what we call an impact performance.
Things were made even worse as our most consistent player, Blake Bodily, went down in the 15th minute. While it is a big loss on both sides of the ball, I think it is fair to say his backup Joey Skinner, has done well when he has gotten playing time. I am worried about what Bodily’s injury was, because we just play much more cohesively as a team when he is on the field.
Now, we are onto the defense. I don’t really know how to put it into words, but I’ll try. They never really seemed to be in the game.
I don’t know if we didn’t have a plan to deal with JJ Williams and Noah Fuson, but Rhode Island FC just had a free path to the goal often. A simple through ball was completely undoing our defense. The Noah Fuson goal and the Maxi Rodriguez goal were both simple balls that easily made it past our defense.
On top of that, we gave up another penalty. Now, I don’t know if it actually was a penalty, he was on the line. I am not here to complain about referee decisions. I just feel like it is a really sloppy foul to give away, especially when we are already down by two goals in the first half.
This defensive performance hurts even more when you realize that Rhode Island FC had only scored 23 goals in 27 games.
Now with both of our games against Rhode Island FC done, the overall aggregate score is 8-0. If that doesn’t sum up the season for us, I don’t really know what does. It proves that we struggled to score against them, but they didn’t struggle to score against us.
Final Thoughts: As I mentioned in my recap last week, I was nervous that we were not going to live up to the occasion. I think it is very safe to say that was the case.
We never looked in the game, and I think a mix of pressure for a result along with being down Woobens, it was always going to be an uphill battle. However, did I see a 5-0 battering on the horizon? Absolutely not.
I think it’s time that Rowdies fans accept playoffs are out of the picture. This game was a must win. No other way to put it. To go out and perform like that, I think it’s fair to say we don’t deserve playoffs.
Coming up/Match Prediction:
As the Rowdies hope to put this disaster behind us, we still mathematically are in the playoff hunt.
We host the most in-form team in the league, Hartford Athletic, who recently clinched playoffs and won their first-ever club trophy. We host them at Al Lang Stadium, at the standard 7:30pm kickoff time.
With Woobens Pacius set to be back from his international team duties, I think it will be a small boost, but I doubt it will make much of a difference.
My prediction is a 3-1 Hartford Athletic victory, and the Rowdies will officially be eliminated from playoff contention.
