Sept. 9, 2025

Know Your Opponent: Rhode Island FC

Know Your Opponent: Rhode Island FC

A trip to the USL Cup finals is at stake as Sacramento ventures out to Rhode Island.

Thanks to a little bit of cup magic and the hands of Jared Mazzola, Sacramento came away with the victory via a penalty shootout versus Loudoun. On the other hand, Rhode Island blanked Birmingham to earn their spot in the round. The two sides had met previously this year, with Sacramento claiming a 2-0 win. A wonderful free kick goal from Rodrigo Lopez and Cristian Parano scoring an insurance goal was what was needed for Sacramento to win. Rhode Island are coming into this contest on the outside looking in on the Eastern Conference playoff race. They are in 9th place in the standings, two points away from the last playoff berth. As the regular season dwindles down, Rhode Island will definitely be making a push for the playoffs, but they still have this other route at getting some silverware, so they should be going all-out in this competition. Here is a preview of Rhode Island FC.

Rhode Island FC

Manager: Khano Smith

Formation: 3-4-3

Regular Season W-L-D: 6-11-6 (9th in USL Championship; East), 3-0-1 (1st in Group Four)

Last 5 Games: DWLWL

Previous USL Cup Results: W 4-1 at Westchester, W 1-0 at Pittsburgh, W 4-1 vs. Portland Hearts, L 2-2 (3-4) vs. Hartford, W 1-0 at Birmingham

Players to Watch: JJ Williams, Noah Fuson

Top Goalscorers: JJ Williams, Maxi Rodriguez - 3 goals each

Top Assists: Albert Dikwa - 3 assists

Top Yellow Cards: Amos Shapiro-Thompson, Clay Holstad - 6 yellow cards each

Top Red Cards: Aldair Sanchez, Frank Nodarse, JJ Williams, Jojea Kwizera, Zachary Herivaux - 1 red card each

Rhode Island is a stout defensive team. They are tied for 4th in clean sheets with 8 and tied for 20th in goals conceded with 24. For comparison, Sacramento has kept 10 clean sheets in the league and only conceded 17 goals, both top of their marks for the respective categories. Rhode Island typically plays with a back three / back five setup similar to the Republic's. Three centerbacks with two widebacks is what Khano Smith opts to go for in his defensive setup. To unlock this Rhode Island defense, it will have to go through their wide channels. If the Republic can isolate their wingbacks and play some passes to get past them, there will be space to find a way to the goal.

When looking at the numbers for Rhode Island, one jumped out to me. Their goal conversion rate. Rhode Island has only scored 16 times in the regular season. And it's not for lack of trying. They are even with Sacramento in terms of shots taken at 252. But Sacramento has put away more than double their amount, as Sacramento sits on 33 goals scored in the regular season. Over Rhode Island's last 10 matches, across all competitions, they have scored only five goals. They were held scoreless in six of those contests. Looking even closer, in Rhode Island's last five games, they have outshot their opponents 45 to 37, while also holding the edge in shots on target with 14 to the opponents' 11. And yet, in that same span, the opponents scored 5 goals to Rhode Island's 2. Their forwards seem not to have been able to find the back of the net consistently despite the chances. If there were one player that I'd think would score for Rhode Island, it would be JJ Williams. The striker missed a chunk of the season due to injury, but despite that, Williams is the club's leading goalscorer in league play with 3 goals so far. And in terms of who is creating those chances for Williams, look out wide in the Rhode Island formation. A former Republic player, Aldair Sanchez, leads the team in chances created. Rhode Island likes to play down the wide channels, so look for players like Sanchez, Clay Holstad, Noah Fuson, and Jojea Kwizera to try to find pockets of space to swing in balls aimed at their strikers.

Republic's Way of Victory: Both of these teams are solid defensively. The question of who will win depends on the attack and who can find the space, find the matchups, and find the opportunities to take control of this one. The centerbacks for the Republic will need to stay disciplined in terms of their marking and stick to the Rhode Island forwards. There should be no free headers in the Republic box, especially when a Rhode Island winger is swinging in a long cross. For the strikers of the Republic, they will need to overload and press Rhode Island's wingbacks deep into their own territory and find space behind. There will be a way to score if you can get past the wingbacks and go at their central defense.

Know Your Opponent
Riyan Lacara Profile Photo

Riyan Lacara

All Is Quail Blog Author/Co-Host

The “numbers guy”, Riyan! Riyan is a native of Sacramento and has been following the Republic since day one. He has covered the team across different media outlets including now his own, All is Quail Soccer. Aside from putting numbers in spreadsheets, he has a love of video games and finding a good book to put in his ever growing to-read pile.

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