You're listening to Raising Anchor on 990 WBOB.
Welcome to the Raising Anchor Soccer Show with
Matt Entregate and Jason Carey. Your home for
news, analysis, and everything Rhode Island FC.
Each week they take you inside the locker room,
inside the tactics, and inside the storyline
shaping R -I -F -C. Rhode Island FC get set to
take on USL One opponents Westchester SC in Prinks
Cup Tire action this weekend. Can RFC turn their
fortunes around in time to find a path to advance
in tournament play? Will Westchester SC finally
find a spark to kick off a rather tepid season
so far, or have the USL scriptwriters already
penned this as a draw that nobody wants to think
about? Don't you put that evil on us, Ricky Bobby.
With Matt out on assignment, I'll be driving
the boat tonight. Your favorite co -host, Jason
Carey. Joining me is producer extraordinaire,
Mr. Torn Kelly. Torn, how are you doing, my friend?
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I love it when
I get called up to the main show. I think this
is our first, like, host rotation with this.
You know, I've subbed in for you a couple of
times with Matt. We've done all three of us,
but I think this is the first time you've just
got the two soccer geeks in the seats. Now I
think about it, this might be the first permutation
of just you and me. So should be a fun one. I'm
doing great too. But also, did you see FIFA banned,
officially banned Vuvisuelas from the 2026 World
Cup? I did. That is an absolute travesty, an
absolute travesty. How are we going to take the
Hobbist to Isengard? It's like, it's just not
going to happen. Yeah. I feel like the more news
that comes out about this world cup, the more
I'm just like, Oh God, I just like, I can't do
it anymore. Please, please make it stop. An actual
hot take here though. Um, so they also, did you
say they banned reusable water bottles? I didn't.
So they did. And I actually think that is, uh,
perfectly acceptable. Cause for those of you
who don't know outside of American soccer fandom,
international soccer fans can get absolutely
wild and sometimes they throw things onto the
field so you know water bottles whatever it is
they have beer cups things like that so it's
one of those things that sucks because it's seems
personally perfectly rational that you should
be able to bring water in the stadium with you
but we also can't trust people because they're
idiots so it sucks but I completely understand
why they have done that So yeah, I mean now that
you say that like that makes perfect sense, you
know I just I think especially with like you've
got countries from all over where the the norms
I think are different in the sense of what you
can do at a game You know, there's a lot of countries
where I think you buy a ticket and you can kind
of do whatever you want to an extent So I would
definitely say that that's thinking about that
in hindsight You know, I'll give FIFA this one.
They can get that one. Yeah. The American soccer
fandom doesn't always like, oh, man, my team
lost. I need to burn the stadium down. It's like,
oh, man, I'm just going to go say mean things
online about people. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I
think, surprisingly, we're not the ones to be
worried about for this one, for sure. All right.
Let's get into some actual USL related news here.
USL names five clubs in its 2027 sanctioning
application. The United Soccer League has included
five additional clubs in its application for
US Soccer for continued sanctioning of its professional
leagues ahead of the 2027 season, further strengthening
the league's national footprint across the USL
Championship and USL League One. The following
clubs have been included in the USL's application
to US Soccer for the 2027 season, which is scheduled
to begin in March 2027. The clubs here in question,
Atletico Dallas, that's going to be a championship
team. Then we also have Sporting Cascades, that's
over in Eugene, Oregon. We've got Point St. Lucie
FC, Florida, of course. Another Florida team,
Fort Lauderdale United. And then Thousand Oaks,
that's in California, their name is still pending.
Those last ones are all set to be, I think, League
1 there. Yeah, I think for me, you know, I think
the Thousand Oaks announcement seems a little
bit suspicious timing for those that don't know.
Ventura County FC, which was meant to be an MLS
Next Pro team, had been in the works for a little
bit of time now. They were meant to partner with
LA Galaxy, are set to discontinue after this
season, who play nearby. the fact that this team
really wasn't on anyone's radar until this announcement.
Maybe this is the USL trying to muscle back into
this sort of market in the LA region. And I mean,
I'm all for it. Yeah. And Alta Vista FC has actually
been doing pretty well. So it would be kind of
cool to get them some additional, you know, competition
there, throw in the fact that there's, you know,
other teams such as Orange County, and then you
have Sacramento, Monterey Bay. I mean, if any
of these other ones eventually come online. California
is such a big animal. There's definitely an appetite
for soccer there. It's just, it really has to
be done well because they, they really only,
they, you know, similar to New England out here,
they really care about winners. So they're, they're
going to need to kind of come out and hit the
ground running. But thinking about like the teams
that they're, they're setting up here. Do you
think that we're finding the right balance? You
know, of course we've got, of course we've got
more Florida teams. Uh, maybe because the league
is stationed there. I don't know. Um, but it
is good to see some West coast teams over there,
you know, Boise, Spokane, Alta. At certain point,
do you think that we need to maybe look even
further into regional play until like more money
starts to kind of shore up into this league?
I mean, I think realistically it's probably not
the best balance. Think again. We could, there's
probably a better way to do it. It is such a
massive country and it's so different from every
other, you know, sporting league in the world
where the countries are a lot smaller. So it's
a lot easier to get that regional play. But at
the end of the day, the USL is rapidly growing.
It's been growing for so long. Is it not just
a case of let's get as many teams in the door
as possible that aren't going to fold? Cause
we're going to get into it in just a moment,
but there's so many new projects that are sort
of folding in the past two years. Is it just
kind of a case of let's just get as many teams
in as we possibly can? Possibly, uh, I mean you
would think that there was the change of leadership
that kind of recently got announced Maybe that's
something that will inevitably change as we get
closer to pro rel I think some of that, you know,
we'll start to see what that looks like But with
the good comes the unsurprisingly bad the buffalo
usl project come out and announce they will not
be starting in the 2027 season they listed a
bunch of different reasons for as you know what
they're why this is not going to happen what
they're going to do in the coming like the coming
months ahead of this but they're they're not
committed to 2027 you know there's still radio
silence on milwaukee and iowa expansions with
okc and reno further down the road i think the
big news that's kind of swept under the rug is
here is that you know nothing from santa barbara
sky still And you know Rodeo soccer club for
usl1 nothing from there either It's unclear if
they don't have to you know have to acquire us
soccer sanctioning before both of these club
inherited the roster spot from you know, the
disembodied Memphis 901 and texoma FC, but You
think we'd see some additional sort of like news
come alongside this announcement we see success
stories from a lot of these projects constantly
and Me and Matt have talked about this in regards
to the USL, especially under the new leadership
that I just mentioned. What do you think is the
right path forward here for the USL as they're
looking to expand? I think it's tough. I think
ultimately, I think that the main thing is you
need to find out why this keeps happening. Because
obviously with Buffalo, is it a wrong start date?
Are they not being realistic? But also, my thought
is like... Cities as well or regions like are
we picking the best sort of regions? And I guess
we mentioned that briefly a second ago But are
we picking the right regions that are ready for
this that want this? I think we you look at when
we started as a club This was a you know, New
England area that loves this game. You know that
they've loved this game, especially Rhode Island
So it felt just right and you can see you know,
we had so many new fans coming straight through
the door on our first season. So I'm wondering,
maybe are they picking the wrong cities for these
higher level teams in the championship that sort
of need big audiences straight away? Yeah, I
think part of this is, is going to be a trial
and error, right? This is still a developing
sport in this country. So to a certain extent,
it's almost like maybe there's in some ways,
no wrong decisions as if they're, they're getting
it out there. Like they're definitely things
are not going to go their way. and they're just
going to kind of have to learn from other people's
mistakes. Kind of moving on here to our next
topic. We've got an event here coming up. Centerville
Bank Stadium is hosting the Cape Verdean National
Team this Sunday, June 7th, in a free event.
You just need to go on there, request tickets.
You can do that online. The event runs 12 to
5 p .m. with interactive experiences, culture
performances, and our regional men's soccer tournament.
Sounds like a great time however in classic New
England fashion looking at the weather here Looks
like there's potential thunderstorms. Of course.
I mean our game so far Looking like we're gonna
get some good weather, but you know I'm not sure
how this is gonna pan out for for that event
Do you think us weather permitting you you'll
you'll turn up for this? I mean I'd love to if
I can it sounds like it's gonna be an absolute
blast I think I remember when we were in World
Cup qualifiers and seeing all of the Cape Verdean
like watch parties for when they were qualifying
for the World Cup and how big they were so I
just know for a fact that Rhode Island is gonna
show out there's gonna be so many fans there
so if you can make it that I think I'd highly
recommend it hopefully you'll see me there as
well yeah same thing I think you know Weather
permitting and as long as I've got the time,
I think i'll i'm gonna try and put that uh As
a something on my to -do list here. Uh, speaking
of cape verde though It looks like rafc Got their
friendly of the season with bermuda after all
as the bermuda fa traveled down To play a tune
-up match against cape verde Which included a
friendly against rhodisland fc? According to
Defiance 1636, President Urban Vargas, RAFC won
the friendly 4 -0. Uh, Torrin, thoughts on a
midweek match like this heading into the weekend?
Do you subscribe to the superstition that we
aren't going to make it to the Eastern Conference
final without testing our medal against Bermuda
as we've done so every other season in this club's
existence? I mean, look, I'm all for a superstition.
That might be a little... Far -fetched, but I
mean, if we're two for two, then why not? You
know, let's make sure that we keep doing it until
it fails. I think it's honestly, it feels like
weirdly good timing. I think when I first kind
of thought of it, I was like, oh, I don't know
about this, especially if you had told me before
the season had started. But we're coming to a
very weird point. We're very up and down. Again,
especially with the indie result, there's probably
some lack of confidence in there. So to go against
maybe a lower level side, I think is great for
that confidence. Obviously, if we... you know,
shout out to Irvin Vargas that we did win that
game 4 -0 and that's great for the confidence,
especially for the attackers who weren't able
to score against Indy, but also just to kind
of keep that match readiness going and get us
into a weekend where it may or may not be a must
win. We're going to talk about that later. I
think it's pretty, I think it's a, again, oddly
good timing. Yeah. I think with the upcoming
break and the fact that this is potentially,
you know, lower opposition, you have ability
to rotate players, you know, I don't hate it.
So, but we got to take a quick break here. And
when we return, we're going to break down some
table standings, head to head records and start
to look up to this upcoming match here. Don't
go anywhere. It is the Raising Anchor Soccer
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.com. Now let's get back to the raising anchor
soccer ship on 990 WBOB with Matt intricate and
Jason Carey. Alright, as we start getting to
previewing this match, looking at Westchester
in our short history with them, what can you
tell us about the our head to head there with
them torn? So, of course, we only have one match
between the two sides so far, which was last
year, which came at a 4 -1 win for Rhode Island
in what obviously used to be the Jager Meister
Cup is now the Prinks Cup. Two goals for JJ Williams
saw the boys get an emphatic win on the road
to start what was our great cup run last year
getting all the way to the semifinals. And it
was a pretty dominant game for us, you know.
All in all, we won the possession battle 56 %
to 44%, won the shots battle 16 to seven, and
then won the shots on target battle eight to
five. So, I mean, pretty all in all, that's a
pretty good result. It was actually funny, I
was looking at it, and I think it might have
been one of, if not the first game that we saw
Kano kind of experiment into this back four.
So it's interesting, a year later, this back
four has become the regular now. Um, and even
though we saw us change back to the three at
the end of last year, we're like a year later
and we've pretty much reverted back to what works
so well against Westchester. Yeah. I mean, talking
to him in the very first season, you know, he,
he mentioned the end and like lock it down, but
he kind of thought of a four three three. So,
I mean, maybe that was always the goal there
was to, uh, to get back to a four back line.
Um, looking ahead to this match here, checking
out our availability report here. Um, we've got,
you know, CJ Williams here being questionable,
similar there with Omidy Joe kind of carries
over carryovers from last week's availability
until we see an update, you know, not going to
kind of say that they're ready. Unfortunate for
CJ, you know, remains off Scott. Cause this is
really a match where you think we could have
seen him get some minutes and really, you know,
test himself against that opposition. Obviously,
with the recent announcements, and we talked
about this recently, Joe J. Aquezera and Dwayne
Atkinson are also missing for international duty.
What can you tell us about Westchester's availability
here? So for Westchester, they face some pretty
major health concerns, maybe not as in terms
of quantity, but definitely in terms of quality
as it's been specifically in net as both goalkeeper
options at the start of the year. Starting goalkeeper
Andrew Hammersley went down with a pretty extensive
injury back in April. And then following that
backup keeper, Mateus Molino will be sidelined
with a knee injury. In response to this though,
they have made A pretty decent response. They
have signed keeper Luca Marinelli to a 25 day
contract, similar to what we did with Rio Hope
Gunned last year. We saw how that turned out
for us. And then they later extended to the remainder
of the season. Again, so much Rio Hope Gunned.
And then they have just recently activated goalkeeper
coach, Gianna Santucci to the roster, which was
a pretty big surprise to me. I don't think I've
ever seen that happen. I don't know if you have,
Jason. Not that I can say in the the USL I feel
like I've heard of that happening Somewhere in
my like it's triggering a vague memory. I'll
probably remember it in a few hours You don't
want to go to bed or of course I'm looking at
the ref report here. I was able to pull pull
who the refs are admittedly they're not triggering
any bells and I just didn't have the time to
research whether or not they uh, Repped us before
so maybe the sicko. Yeah maybe the sickos out
there will get triggered and be like oh no that
guy but uh i don't this doesn't ring a bell we've
got a head ref here of denny uh kula kula nasaq
um with assistant referees of nicolas seymour
marcus barnett and a fourth official of shay
lane uh as we look at rafc so far in pranks cup
action here um you know RFC haven't started the
Prinks Cup nearly as well as they did last year
in the Jager Meister Cup. After two rounds last
year, they beat Westchester and Pittsburgh Riverhounds,
putting them on six points. You know, impressive
when they're against Pittsburgh, especially because
we've always struggled against them. Looking
at this year in the first round, we saw RFC travel
to Hartford. Of course, on another rainy New
England weekend, and that match saw RFC put 20
shots on Hartford, but they were unable to find
a winner there. Hartford's defense coming up
big there for them. The match went to penalties
where RFC bested Hartford there four to three,
getting them that extra point due to league rules.
We're giving us the two points that we kind of
remain on here. Next match saw us travel up to
Portland, Maine there to take on the Hearts of
Pine. Appeared to be struggling at the time and
we kind of all thought like yeah They they will
give us a fight, but we kind of thought that
we were gonna we're gonna get that one but That
uh that was not the uh that the plan there They
kind of sucker -punched RFC and took the lead
after only three minutes Gave up a penalty another
20 minutes later and kind of found themselves
down to nil at the half Second half surge and
a goal from Logan Dorsey just wasn't enough to
claw back any points on the day Without getting
too far ahead of ourselves say predictions or
anything. What have you make of our cop run so
far here? It really does feel like a bit of a
like going from I mean I know the settings going
from zero to a hundred kind of the opposite we
went from a hundred to zero I think even though
the heart for game was only two points you look
at the context of we the last away day didn't
go to plan with that three no loss and we were
just coming off of another penalty shootout loss
against the revolution to play so well as we
did, you know, putting 20 shots on them and then
going on and getting a result in penalties, which
I don't think a lot of us expected to do. That
really felt like an all time high. And it kind
of comes plummeting down with the results of
Portland, I think, in a lot of ways. I mean,
we talked about, I know there was a question
on the pod, of course, being, is this one of
the worst games in around NFC history? I know
you and Matt both disagree, and I would disagree
as well. But just to be put in that category,
I think that warrants saying that we went from
100 to zero in this moment. So maybe not the
best start, especially compared to last year.
But I still have some maybe delusional hope for
us moving forward in this competition. I'd say
I'm somewhat of kind of similar there. I do have
a bit of delusional hope. I think when we look
at the Hartford match, I don't think that's necessarily
a bad result there, considering that they were
the champions last year. And while they have
struggled to find the back of the net, they've
still remained somewhat strong defensively. And
we know with the rivalry, their team that's going
to turn up against us, you know, We ultimately
we were able to kind of best see aha there if
you will in that penalty shootout but I Baron
I guarantee that he is he gets fired up every
time that we play him so It's just when you get
to that Portland match. It's just a bit of a
head -scratcher there this this team just Feels
like they like the game starts and they're just
like five minutes behind So it's hard to kind
of explain what what's going on in their head
there as the ref blows the whistle and it's not
a it's not a good look especially in a knockout
tournament like this you know the season is long
there's plenty of opportunities to kind of correct
that and get things back in gear but in a cup
run you have such few opportunities to actually
move forward that fall asleep at the wheels not
going to do you any good um let's take a quick
look here at our guaranteed to be wrong lineup
predictions here We're gonna we're gonna take
a wild guess here This is probably wrong. Like
hey, what if we saw Castro in that? Why not?
Why not? Maybe maybe one day maybe one day the
guy gets some minutes Yeah, so we're predicting
it. Like I said guaranteed to be wrong But you
know, I think honestly this is probably a good
opportunity for him to get some minutes here
We're thinking a back line here of Nick's Gardena
Kareefa Yao, Grant Stoneman, and Frank Nodarse.
Holding midfield here of Zach Haraveau, Hugo
Baccarac with Leo Alfonso, Noel Fuson, and Augustin
Rodriguez as your tacky midfielders with Logan
Dorsey there up top. How do you feel about this
lineup here? Any changes you would make? Any
insights there? I mean I feel good about it to
be fair. I think the it's a thing I like and
don't like I would say with that sort of Attacking
three right below Dorsey. I think you can kind
of play them wherever you know in my mind I had
it as a Fonzo on the right Fuson as like that
second striker and Augustine on the left But
you could easily see that honestly all three
of them could play anywhere. I think It can cause
some confusion, but if you get it right on the
night, I think you've seen kind of do it well
with Afonso and Joe J at times, switching them
in the middle of games. That could definitely
be something that could confuse Westchester a
lot, especially as a team that maybe is a bit
weaker defensively, which we'll get into later
on in the show. But I definitely would be okay
with this line. I think it's a good mix of rotation,
but also a strong side that should be able to
get three points at home. Yeah, and like as we
mentioned no Joe Jaya, no busy So definitely
you see some rotation here and I think this is
a good opportunity Especially because while the
team needs to to go for it. We are playing a
lesser opposition here and You know, we're coming
up on on a break here, right? We've got no we
know midweek matches in the following week unless
there's another surprise friendly or something
here and we've got a World Cup break looming
I think that like We really want to keep this
cup run alive. Uh, so I think it's, it's kind
of a good opportunity, but at the same time,
considering it's Westchester and they're, they're
second in the last table, you know, is there
an argument to actually even go further than
what we did and start even more rotational slash
fringe players? Like should we see being seen
the likes of Dana Rivera, Kevin Vang, Jamie Peters?
I think it depends. I think for me. And it's
what i think annoys me more about portland is
if we had gone and gone three points on the road
to portland. I think you have a lot more sort
of wiggle room to start these players and if
it's a half time and you are either a goal down
or you're still tied then you can maybe bring
on your jj's. You are augustine's you're you
know no food songs that are gonna sort of turn
the game around and should get you the win in
forty five minutes but to be a game where you
sort of need it. At a minimum two points realistically,
again, we'll get into it later. You kind of need
three points. If you want to continue in this
cut, you've got to go somewhat strong. I think
definitely you should see those players on the
bench. Cause of course it is a game where I think
I could see you going into halftime or maybe
even like the 60 or 70 minute up by two, maybe
even three goals. In which case you should definitely
see Revere getting minutes. You should definitely
see Kevin van getting minutes. Cause he's always
going to get the crowd going, especially with
a sold out stadium. I think definitely keep them
on the bench, but. Sadly, I think with that Portland
loss, we're just not at a point where we can
sort of do that and still, you know, lose some
points here. Yeah. No, I think that's a perfectly
fair assessment. I'm looking at what could be
our X factor in this match against Westchester.
I'm going to go with no Fuson. I feel like he's
been starting to get some momentum. I feel like
there's kind of a spark there. And even if it's
against the lesser offer, like opposition. I
think this is an opportunity for him to put up
some numbers. And I think at the end of the day,
like, he's not going to be like, oh, well, that
assistant goal didn't count because it was against
Westchester is like, no, that's going to build
his confidence and kind of get him back so that
he can start testing, you know, pushing the starting
lineup to maybe get himself back in there. Oh,
yeah, for sure. I think he sort of needs that
confidence, I think, and I fully agree with you.
And I've gone with a similar route in terms of
players gaining momentum. I think he's been really
good these last few weeks. I think especially
coming on against India, but he was one of our
best players and kind of switch the game immediately
and to sort of have him who's a very different
option to an Augustine or an AST. available and
playing really well, I think would be really
important going into the middle and later stages
of this year. For me, again, similar in terms
of a player that's gaining momentum. I've gone
with Logan Dorsey. I'm here with Ben Johnson
in the chat right now agreeing. I think over
the last three or four games, he's been really
good, and I think he's really due for that sort
of breakout performance, especially against a
side who's conceded five goals in the first two
games in this tournament. They're clearly not
the best defensively, so to me, get him one maybe
even two goals in this game I think this would
be major yeah I mean he scored against Portland
so why not against Westchester we got to take
another quick break here but when we return we'll
break down Westchester's role to play on the
weekend all here on the Raising Acres soccer
show Fans, as the weather becomes more and more
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Nature has in store with the 990 WBOB weather
page. Now, let's get back to the raising anchor
soccer ship on 990 WBOB with Matt Entrickett
and Jason Cameron. Last year was Westchester's
first year in USL League One. They had a bit
of a rough start to it. They started to figure
things out a bit later on, but never really reached
any like actual like, like real heights there.
Um, how have they been doing so far this season?
I think it's, it's been a bit of the same, definitely
a rough start to their season and look as someone
that can, you know, as, as an RFC fan, I get
the rough starts. I feel for you. All right.
Um, yeah. Yeah, it still hurts. All right. It
still hurts. They are a 2, 1, and 6 record at
the moment in the USL League One. They're four
losses on the bounce in all competitions, so
definitely not going the way they want. And it's
not really picked up as well. I think you kind
of expect around this time, maybe if you are
a good team, you're underperforming. This is
when it starts to pick up. We saw it with us
last season, even the season before, maybe a
bit later. But you kind of expect to at least
see some better performances. And these last
four games have definitely been rough for them.
They currently rank bottom in clean sheets in
League One and they rank 14th for goals conceded
per match. So you can kind of start to see where
the issues are lying for this team. Yeah, they
definitely have been doing too well. Um, when
we, we kind of look at like the more of their,
uh, their stats there, the only one things that
they're actually doing well here are in top five
of the league is interceptions, clearances and
safes. So that just tells me they're doing a
lot of defending and they're kind of holding
on for dear life there Yeah, they're definitely
this is a you know last ten minutes of the game
is the full 90 in your own fight in your own
third Just praying get that ball loose Yeah,
so with that being said if we're gonna look just
specifically at their they're kind of their form
You know all comps in the lap. They have one
win in five Four consecutive losses like they're
they're definitely struggling here Yeah, you
know I mentioned it it's it's again. It's a point
of time in the season where you'd started as
a fan hope to you know, think that it's going
to start to turn around that this is actually
a team that's good, that's underperforming. And
it's just not really happened, especially if
you look at the Pranks Cup, it's definitely been
an even more rough start somehow. They've conceded
the second most goals out of all teams in the
Pranks Cup. They had a 2 -2 against Portland
where they did get the win on penalties. That
is obviously a great point to have in the Pranks
Cup rules. But then they had a 3 -2 loss against
the Cosmos, which was a pretty insane game. You
had fights amongst the fan bases during the matches,
I think. Fans are trying to tear down each other's
flags. Maybe are we getting a little bit of a
new New York rivalry there Yeah, maybe I mean
obviously don't condone any of that but it is
it is kind of good like it's fun in a way to
see that like we're starting to maybe take this
sport a little more seriously not not to the
point where like we talked about the top of the
show where we have to ban items because people
are gonna use them as weapons, but You know It
is fun to see that this board is growing some
momentum in this country and fan bases are taking
a little more seriously and kind of kind of getting
a little more heated there. You know, we might
as well incorrectly predict their teams line
up Ross. Why not? Because, yeah, we don't care
about them. So let's let's give this shot here.
Yeah, so for Westchester's projected 11 we've
gone with Marinelli and that seems to be the
only option unless they would like to put their
goalkeeper coach in that At right back we have
gone with Jennings who seems to be the out -and
-out starter same with the two center backs Bowman
and Pierre with powder One of the brothers starting
at left back. They normally go with a four three
three You could also call it a four two three
one that midfield sort of rotates a little bit
normally McGlynn and Armas the two more defensive
ones with Evan in at the 10 position, but again,
he is sort of a midfield three that likes to
rotate around. Berko will start on the right
with Dean Gezen, again, seems to be their danger
man, which we'll get onto later in the show on
left. Stryker's a tough one. They've got a couple
different options. No one seemed to really find
their footing yet, despite them being a pretty
good goal scoring side, but we've gone with Blumestein.
I'm gonna hope that I said that right. I'm very
sorry if I didn't. Some that we can only do our
best here. Some of these, uh, those names, you
know, unless we're actually fans watching the
team, you know, it's, it's hard to get those
right. Um, looking at this lineup here, thinking
about like, you know, how much of last week starting
to 11 or our lock ons to this point, like if
we look at this team schedule here, they've got
a pretty busy week. They're, uh, taken on Fort
Wayne at home on Wednesday. I don't I don't know
if you've seen any of Fort Wayne, but I actually
watched one of their their games against Indy
doing some homework against them. They are a
fun team to watch. I don't know what it is about
them. They've got they're they're very direct.
They've got really good ball movement. They're
really great about finding passing lanes like.
They are a fun team, so the way the game should
be played, not firing a shot of at any London
team at the moment. Yeah, but. I digress fun
team to watch but we're also taking on Greenville
triumph the following Sunday, so Looking at how
they're doing in the the you know, the Prinks
Cup and we'll bring up the standings here real
quick there they're down there at the bottom
in the basement with us like Their coach might
not be taking this match very seriously. It's
you know, he might be thinking of having one
eye on on these league games. What are we thinking
about? Do you think we're going to see the strongest
lineup for out there? Are they maybe already
going to cash in and just say maybe next year?
I mean, it's tough for me to imagine two games
in that you'll see anyone cashing in even league
one sides, I think. This sort of feels like the
last like best option. Like I think if either
team loses here, it's kind of them done. So if
Iowa Westchester, I would just go all out. Same
thing where you need a confidence game. You've
lost four out of your last five. It's not looking
good for them as a coach. If you could go in
a way to a sold out central bank stadium and
get a win, not only the confidence for the players,
but for the fan base. That would be huge. So
in my opinion, it feels like, and obviously we
talked about the world cup break coming up soon.
So you do have some rest coming. If we'd feel
dumb, not to sort of put everything in. And if
it doesn't work out, you have, you can kind of
throw in the towel after that with the next three
games coming up. Yeah. No, I mean, that absolutely
makes sense. It's just each coach has a different
approach to, to how they want to handle things.
And we've all seen teams, you know, in different
leagues, kind of just be like, eh, you know,
cup competitions. next year. Um, you know, when
we look at this Westchester team, you know, looking
at where they're kind of their most dangerous,
where they're most vulnerable in terms of their
lineup and tactically, like vulnerability is
pretty clear. It's, it's their defense, right?
They, they've only kept one clean sheet this,
this season in the league and allowing goals
in both Brinks Cup matches, you know, they're
Simultaneously given up two goals in each us
L cup match, you know, they're, they're, they
have the ability to score though. And that's
the thing is that they put up some, they've scored
four, you know, but at the same time, they, Can't
defend to to a certain extent To save their lives.
I think was the the word you were looking for
there. I think yeah, I've got a great I think
defensively is definitely the issues again. We've
read all the stats. It's pretty clear to see
which is honestly interesting to me as Obviously,
you've had the goalkeeper issues with injury,
but the back line has stayed very similar throughout
the season I'm surprised we haven't seen more
sort of tinkering from the coach, you know again
I am not a Westchester super supporter. So maybe
there's some issues there that I don't know about.
Maybe there's a lack of depth. But for me, that
dynamic attack is a tough one. I think as well
as being a good, you know, good attacking players,
it's very sort of different. We mentioned that
midfield three likes to sort of change a lot.
Those wingers are very dynamic. The three that
we're going to talk about Kyle Evans, Dean Gezen,
and obviously returning to central bank stadium,
Connor McGlynn. Uh, those are the three that
I think were the most dynamic in this team and
really can cause a lot of team issues. So I definitely
would not be in any way sleeping on this Westchester
side. Yeah, no, definitely not. Um, we've seen,
you know, when we play us all one teams that
most of the time they are up for it and you,
you kind of can't sleep on them. The actual gap
between the championship and league one is not
that huge, especially for most teams. Right.
Maybe, you know, Louisville of seasons past is,
you know, head and shoulders above them. But
for the most part, most teams, there's very minimal
gap there. And if you don't take them seriously,
you could kind of, you know, be, be left wanting
more speaking of that dynamic attack and some
of their, their attackers here to kind of watch
out for you. You mentioned one, uh, Dean goes
in here. He's a Dutch left -footed winger. Uh,
it's been kind of playing well for Westchester
here has recorded four goals so far this season.
And he's got some past experience in the, uh,
the Dutch air division there in the Polish league
there. He's. He's a creator and attacker. He's
looking to kind of cause some issues there on
our right side. Likes to, uh, he creates plenty
of chances. It's not recorded in any cysts yet,
but you know, his numbers are up there in the
top of the USL one division. Yeah, and for me,
the big X factor has to be Kyle Evans. This really
good, young, attacking talent. I know some of
the sickos will know who I'm talking about. He
typically plays on the right or through the middle.
I think he kind of plays best in that 10 position
from what I've seen. He spent some time with
the New York Red Bulls Academy at Marist College
and the Hudson Valley Hammers. He hasn't exploded
yet in terms of the numbers, but when you really
look at the eye tests, I think you can see that
he is a phenomenal player. He's only got one
goal and one assist to his name so far, but he's
very consistent player too. It feels like every
game he's putting really strong performances,
both sides of the ball too. He's not just an
attacking threat. He's very solid when he's pressing
and trying to win that ball back. So he's definitely
someone that's looking to make a name for himself.
And what better to do that than at a sold out
stadium against the USL championship team. Yeah.
And like speaking of X factors, I mean, it potentially
could be one of these two players here kind of,
kind of thinking, breaking that down. Like. Westchester
has struggled to defend away. They've given up
11 goals on the road so far this season, and
they've only scored two. I think if they have
any sort of X factor, I think it will be that
kind of their mentality, like their chip on the
shoulder, it kind of will be... Maybe a self
-inflicted room by RFC if they underestimate
them and kind of allow them the opportunity to
play into the match. You know, the only wins
that this Westchester team have so far this season
are at home. Yeah. I mean, look, I fully agree
with you that this game is going to come down
to us. It's how that typically works when you
are a bigger side playing against a side in the
league below you. If I had to go for a specific
player, as much as I think Kyle Evans is great.
I've got to stick with you and go Dean Goosen.
I think he's already double his goal tally from
last season. He had two goals all last season
and he already has four. If that shows you that
the players in form, I don't know what does.
And he's also leading the team in both shots
and chances created. So he's easily been their
sort of danger man this season. So, you know,
as with us who sort of struggled on that counter
attack to have a quick left footed left winger
who wants to score goals, wants to get in the
box. That could definitely be a bit of a tricky
moment for RFC in some moments in this game.
I don't, I hate to bring it up, but like at the
same time, you know, I don't believe in jinxes
are superstitious. You know, whatever's going
to happen is going to happen based upon things
that my words have no control over. So with the
recent performances thinking about the Portland
results, like is there. any possibility that
this is like a team with their back against the
wall. We underestimate them and they kind of
get a shock result against us. I mean, look,
I think as much as I'd love to sit here and say
that we're too good for that, I think we've evidently
seen that we are not. This game is again, we
see how we learned our lesson. I guess. I mean,
we'll find out. Sorry to all those that tune
in for the great analysis, but my analysis is
we'll find out on Saturday. But no, I think for
me, this is like really eerily similar to the
Portland game where... everything sort of feels
right. It's a team that's not doing well. They're
not doing great defensively. They're maybe not
doing good as they should have. They're definitely
underperforming. You know, we're going into a
game where we should definitely win as a league
side below. Obviously, the Portland game didn't
turn out the way that we wanted it to. I think
the fact that it's home is a big thing for us
and the fact that it is the first allowed game
of the season. You'd hope the players would feel
that sort of pressure on them and wouldn't underestimate
them. But for sure, this could easily be a sort
of bounce back game for Westchester. In no way.
If we underestimate them, it will end up like
Portland for sure. Hopefully that's not the case.
Uh, we gotta take our last break here and when
we return We've got the biggest story lines for
saturday's showdown all here on the raising anchor
soccer show Now let's get back to the raising
anchor soccer show on 990 wvob with matt intricate
and jason care All right, torrin, this is kind
of a bad word around here, but here so it's okay.
We're gonna bring this up. Um, you know Is this
a must -win game? If we think about this, this
is a cup competition. And while we do need some
results to go our way, if we want any chance
of survival here, this kind of actually is a
must -win game. This team has to pick up points
here to get the... To kind of put themselves
in a position to move forward and this is a team
that we should be beating But like we've talked
about it. It doesn't always translate well to
to rfc Yeah, I mean look we've kicked out matt
so we can ask the real questions here. You know,
we've got control now Uh for those of you watching,
uh dawg you two just know that me and ben johnson
in the chat are completely locked in right now
Every single answer has been the same Um, I fully
agree. Ben Johnson says back against the wall,
kind of can't lose two games to a league one
side. And he's fully right that this game is
huge. I think as much as it's huge for the cup,
I think it's more big for like the confidence
and momentum of this team. I think you're coming
in one day lost to Indy. We haven't seen the
bounce back that I think we thought we were going
to get with results against Tampa Bay. Even if
you look back further against Lexington, those
games like, Oh, we're back now, but then we drop
another game. I think. You need to see one or
two games in a row that continue. And especially
when we talk about the cup, as much as I think
I am mainly pessimistic on our odds of getting
through at the end of this and getting to the
next round. If we lose, this does feel like a
sort of thing where that's it. That's it for
us. This is a must win game. If we want to look
forward onto the next round of the cup. Yeah,
but like if we get knocked out I want to see
us win both of our last games and just say hey
We maybe kind of had a bit of a slip up there
against Portland But hey, we did our best and
just results didn't go our way. Like I would
feel okay about that If we don't put up the performances
here That like we can at least feel proud of
and just say hey, we kind of messed up one It
is what it is on to next year I think fans might
be a little little upset there but at the same
time like bringing up a counterpoint in regards
to this match you think there's any chance that
like Both of the coaches don't take this seriously
and just say like we're at the bottom. We're
knocked out Let's just do some sort of tune -up
tactics. Let's all play the kids and we're both
worried about our league play I Guess in theory
it could be but again, it's a cup. It's the magic
of the cup as they say like If you do that, and
let's say you draw whoever wins on penalties,
and then you look at the results and Hartford's
lost and Brooklyn's lost, as coaches, you are
the ones that look like the fools here, because
if you had won, we would have put ourselves in
a great scenario. As I said earlier, it feels
like this is sort of the last one. If either
team come out with a loss against this one, then
it's done, then mathematically. there's no real
point but this is the kind of last game where
if you win there's still a chance and you've
got to leave it up to the match of the cup you
never know what's going to happen in the games
next to us yeah we got another reunion here uh
connor mcglynn coming back to centerville bank
stadium here um you know he's kind of solidified
himself in the center of the park for westchester
and has been doing well for himself so far this
season despite his team's results He has also
picked up four goals this, uh, this team. Do
you think he's going to cause any problems for
RAFC on the night? Well, I think it's definitely
possible. I think I, and this may just be me,
like I love Connor McGlynn. I loved him when
he played for this team before, even though he
maybe wasn't on the best forum for us and obviously
left after one season, but I loved him in that
year. For me, McLean has really sort of settled
into this new role at Westchester in the past
season and a half. He's a much more attacking
sort of goal scoring midfielder. He's not really
the most creative player, but he always seems
to be in the box at the right space at the right
time to get himself on the score sheet. I think
- Poor man's Frank Lampard, if you will. Okay.
I was going to say Scott McTominay from Manchester
United. I was going with the deep cuts here.
One of your heartstrings with Chelsea. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, maybe that's a bit less. Let's
not compare him too much to, you know, the best
player in my club's history. But I think he reminds
me a lot of Scott McTominay in the way of you
sort of. You're not worried about him for 90
minutes, but if you forget about him for one
moment, he will get on the score sheet and he
will hurt you. So as much as maybe he's not a
player that. Throughout the whole entire game
is going to be a constant threat. If you give
him that bit of space to get a shot away, he
will score and he will cause problems for this
RFC in and around the 18 yard box. Looking onto
whether or not RFC have any opportunity to get
to the next round here. You know, we kind of
got, like I mentioned, we got to look at what
the other team here, Hartford, hearts of pine,
both top of the group here, four points gap being
only two points to the bottom makes it mathematically
possible, but like. Some results I kind of also
have to go our way because we do not play those
teams anymore. Um, looking at this round specifically,
Hartford has New York Cosmos away who haven't
been great, but I don't know. Maybe we'll start
a fight and then it'll, it'll, the game will
be camped. You know, um, hearts of pine just
had a midweek game away to Corpus Christi. Uh,
they actually just lost last night. Three, two,
um, sorry, but did you see that game? Did you
watch that game? No, I was kind of like actually
working on the show notes. I saw that it was
like 1 -1 or something. I was like, okay, I'll
check back in later. I think I was saying, I
think I had the notes up. I had the game on in
the background. Portland actually played like
a really solid 90 minutes. And then in the last
like eight minutes, it was a pretty close game.
I think a little bit closer than they would have
liked with Christie being bottom of the league,
but they had a corner. They crossed it in and
Hunter Morrissey literally dropped it into his
own net. Like, no contested, no one was on him,
hands up, dropped into his own net. And I was
like, oh, that's, I can't believe they just dropped
two points because of that. And Hunter Morse,
he's been great all season long. And maybe 30
seconds later, Chrissy went another corner and
they score immediately after to win their first
ever game in league one. And in their history,
maybe in their history, I don't know if they've
won in the cup. It was the most bizarre ending
I think I've ever seen in a USL game. You gotta
love USL. It's absolutely for the sickos. But
to get back here to this that there's a lot of
permutations on what can happen here. Any predictions
on how or thoughts how this group is going to
pan out here? Yeah, I think for me as sad as
to say, I think Hartford should claim a pretty
easy three points away to the Cosmos. They're
also similar to Westchester, Winless in four.
At the moment, I think Hartford will pretty easily
claim a three points. You never know, the Cosmos
might start some fights, might use that New York
grit, and maybe we'll see a result there. Portland,
Brooklyn. That should be an interesting game
brooklyn are coming off of what i thought was
a very lucky draw to sporting jackson I don't
know if you watched that game, but obviously
the weather saw that it got called off early
And I and this was coming off sporting jack scoring
two goals pretty much back to back and definitely
had the momentum moving forward Something woke
up in that team though, too They got a four four
draw against san antonio just before that so
I don't know what's going on down there Yeah,
they look like they're kind of starting to fight
back here. Um which is obviously good for them.
So again, Brooklyn not looking great. And then,
of course, the game before that being against
us, which was, you know, not great for them,
a very good win for us. And then, of course,
Portland coming off of this bizarre freak game
against Corpus Christi. But they are they they
do have a very good history of Cup sets, you
know, just recently, obviously, they beat us
at home as well as being Detroit at home last
season. Think I would narrowly give it to Brooklyn
because I do think that the hearts home field
advantage is a big thing and the fact that it
is in Brooklyn Will maybe see them play a little
bit less and maybe not get that cup set that
they're used to But that should definitely be
an interesting one to watch. Yeah, we're running
late here. We got to wrap it up real quick So
what are these teams need to do to take three
points this team? This should be a foregone conclusion
RFC cannot afford to go down early. They need
to take this serious They need to put out a professional
performance as coach would say. What do you got
torn? I think obviously for Westchester, I think
you need to see a bit more balance, you know,
defense to attack. You need to kind of be disciplined
throughout that full 90. You've seen them, you
know, lack off in moments. And I think for REFC,
you just need to break down that defense. Honestly,
you need, you know, we need to look at forward
passing. We can't just be looking sideways and
backwards all game. Like we kind of did against
Indy and Portland, as I talked about with our
player ratings on our Raising and Anchoring Instagram.
So For us, I think really it's just, can you
break down a low block? And if you can, I want
to see a rain of goals. Yeah, I would love to
see it. Speaking of rain here, weather watch
is looking pretty good, partly cloudy in the
eighties. Maybe this is the first match where
we don't have rain. I will believe it when I
see it. It's supposed to be pretty close to a
sold out match. So hopefully, you know, we'll
pray that it doesn't happen here. I'm looking
at this weekend's match starting at 7 30 p .m.
Santa Real Bank Stadium lot m7 tailgating opens
there for 30 with the rest of the lots open 5
30 gates open at 6 30 p .m. for a 7 30 kickoff
you can also check out the action if you can't
make to the game on CBS sports go lasso ESPN
plus or tune in with Tom and Nick on 790 the
score for the radio dial Thank you so much, Thorne,
for joining us from the back end here. Yeah,
of course. Hope to see you all at the game. We'll
catch you all next time. Anchor's up. Anchor's
up. You've been listening to the Raising Anchor
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as always, we are Rhode Island FC.