You're listening to Raising Anchor on 990 WBOB.
Welcome to the Raising Anchor Soccer Show with
Matt Entrekin 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. Here's Matt and Jason. Rhode
Island FC fly 3 ,000 miles to get sacked in Sacramento,
falling to the Republic two to one in midweek
action that they can't even dwell on as they
head back to Pring's tire cup magic. this weekend
and it might not even be a matter that that might
not even be a match that matters Jason because
Brooklyn F .C. returns to Centerville Bank Stadium
can Kano Smith turn things around this week find
the first three points since the break of 21
days and deal with a tired injured squad or will
we see the amber and blue continue to struggle
Jason Carey co -host with the most I almost don't
want to do the show today and we talk about when
losses like this happen It's kind of depresso
espresso. Not sure I want to sit in the hot seat
with you tonight, buddy. I hear what you mean.
Uh, definitely a little tired. We stayed up late
to watch this West coast match. And you know,
I mean, we've done quite a bit of that when it
comes to the world cup here, but a lot of that
where it was, let's say a little bit more entertainment
value in some of those matches, even if maybe
some of the results didn't go the way that we
wanted them to. This was a, this was a tough
watch last night. And then to put insult to injury,
There's now hydration breaks and usl championship
matches that turn into ad breaks And then like
literally during the middle of the game. They
just like we're like, ah, this free kick is taking
too long Let's just play an ad and I was like,
are you kidding me? Like what are we this is?
Soccer soccer is dead rip 2026. It was a good
run. Hopefully this World Cup final will give
us something to celebrate and then from here
on out it's It's all downhill. Do you remember?
I'm going to take you back in time. Do you remember
when we were watching, starting to learn the
league in 2023 as we started to do our homework
before we even signed our first player? Do you
remember when we watched that first Las Vegas
Lights game together and they had the DJ who
started playing music whenever the ball went,
you know, out of, or into touch, I should say,
or out of touch, like it, like the DJ would quickly
just do a 32nd, you know, like who let the dogs
out and then it would go back and we were like,
what is going on in the sport? We love so much.
It's for river hounds. I've seen done that too.
And I've watched some of their matches and I'm
like, do they disrespect soccer fans so much
that they think, Oh, these guys must be bored.
They're, they're going to find a ball for a throw
in. Let's just blast the music out of them real
quick to confuse them. I mean now counterpoint
and we said this when we saw that we did have
the visceral reaction I think with all of the
other Defiant 1636 fans that showed up at High
Motor last night But after we got through that
reaction there was that like, okay, let's let's
unpack this. Let's make sense of this We know
that this league needs to grow We know that this
league needs to find sources of revenue to pay
its way into becoming bigger than it currently
is Is there a call out that says not good for
the global game, not good for the sake of the
game, but maybe exactly what USL needs right
now so that these players can continue to build
the brand and make more money and the league
collectively can grow? Considering that it came
out in a report that Fox made enough money in
ad revenue from the hydration breaks alone just
to cover the cost of buying the rights to host
the World Cup. You kind of think like, okay,
maybe apparently commercials are worth a lot
of money and We are a small league. We nearly
had a break in schedule because players were
not getting paid. So is this like a Double -edged
sword here in a sense of like this is this is
bad but also it's good if it brings more money
into the league and I'll guess I'll just have
to make sure I attend all of the matches Because
at least I only have to watch ads in half of
them, the away ones. What do you think the percentage
of money from Fox doing a hydration break ad
to ESPN plus doing a hydration ad, what do you
think that is? If we're talking $10 million for
Fox, what percentage, what's the dollar amount
that ESPN started? I don't know, somewhere between
1 % and 5 % at best. I was going to go decimals,
my friend. I was going to literally say decimals.
I don't I don't know how I like ad money works.
So it's like magnets. How do they work? But hey,
you know, speaking of Fox, it's interesting that
they can claim that they've made so much money
off of the revenue from those hydration breaks
and then simultaneously go out and complain that
too many fans are actually instead watching the
broadcast on Telemundo. So Fox needs to kind
of get their prerogative straight as well at
the same time. And we're just trying to brush
up on our Spanish. Yeah. Duolingo is great, but
sometimes you got to watch it live. And, you
know, maybe you don't know what the word Terminator
means and the broadcaster in a Spanish will still
say the exact same word. Want to talk real quickly
about the World Cup. Hashtag not a World Cup
show. France, Morocco today. France looks like
they're in the driver's seat and they've set
this in the cruise control. I do not see anyone
getting through them at this point. Morocco was
under siege the entire match. Yeah, I think this
really kind of proved that France is the best
team in the tournament here. I mean, I look at
even Spain is going to struggle. I think to give
them a problem. the one thing i i'm curious about
here is you know we we had cancel culture can
can we somehow use that to cancel stutter step
penalties because they are abysmal i i don't
know like how how do we do we sign a petition
like how do we how do we get people like more
angry about this because they are so dumb i i
would say we would have to like revolt but that's
not something America does really well when it
comes to coordinating uh changing things in this
country. I'm not going to go there. I want to
talk about who the likely opponent is for France
in the final because I just don't see them. I
know that they still got to get through the semis
but let's just let's just call it they're going
to the finals. Who are they seeing on the other
side? It could be Spain. Like you don't think
Argentina's got it? Uh oh sorry um trying to
think of the the bracket isn't um Argentina's
on the other side right? Great. No, I'm not talking.
Oh, I'm talking on the final. Yeah, sorry. OK,
I thought you meant the next semifinal. So it's
going to be Spain. It'll be France and Spain.
France will win that. So France is just going
straight to the final. It could be Argentina,
but like it also could be fun to be Norway or
England. I mean, I'm very much team Viking at
this point. I think it'd be it'd be fun if they
knocked England out and hey, maybe Norway, Argentina
and every Argentina game is just out of control
because they don't know how to defend. but then
they also apparently get favorable calls but
then Messi also just does his dark magic and
and just scores the most insane goals ever and
you're like well of course of course that happened
not sure if I want to see it be Norway considering
we've already seen that in the group stage but
they also play their b -squad against them that's
true so I'd be curious to see a rematch of that
with like what did a what would a full squad
look like because there are a few moments in
that match where Norway looked like they were
actually causing them problems and this was with
their backup squad. Oscar Bob not exactly bringing
the thunder. We know who brings the thunder for
Norway. Got to get back though into Rhode Island
FC and talking all things USL Championship because
this is the Rhode Island FC soccer show for Raising
Anchor and want to talk about league standings
here. Jason, tell us where we moved in this wonderful
midweek action. We went up to eighth, we fell
back to tenth. What happened in Rhode Island
here on the night? Yeah, so after that 2 -1 defeat
to Sacramento last night, RFC find themselves
in, believe it or not, ninth place. How'd you
know? Now on a 4 -4 -5 record, no longer balanced
anymore, starting to run out of those games in
hand. Looks like we're never gonna move out of
ninth. I think I'm gonna create a t -shirt. We'll
put it for like... charity donations only and
it's just going to have the word nine but the
German version of no and then the number nine
below it so that way everyone knows we're never
leaving ninth place because it feels like we
just it's like we put roots down in ninth right
we've we've created a home for ourselves gotten
comfy we're part of the community yeah I don't
want to have to pick up everything and move.
There's not really a lot of pressure. We just
have to win one game. We're back in playoffs.
But you know, if we don't, no big deal because
we're not in them right now. So it's almost like
this is exactly where Kano wants to be until
he pulls the reverse trap card later in the season
and we go all the way to the Eastern Conference
final. Wouldn't have it any other way. So I want
to ask a question to you before we get into this.
Obviously, we're going to talk about the results
after our first break, but. Looking at this,
you know, you just mentioned a second ago. We're
now four four and five and That's five losses
now on the season. The symmetry is broken We're
not exactly a road team anymore. Are we we really
aren't? We kind of built ourselves up on that
In the early stages I don't know if the fact
that like the temporary home had anything to
do with it or the fact that initially the The
road kit was the better of the two kits. So they
just they felt Better they played a little bit
better you know psychologically maybe that was
it. But now that we've kind of settled in and
you can start to say that. You know this team
actually does play well center of the bank stadium
and we're also scoring goals in central bank
stadium now too. When we travel away there just
seems to be some mojo that's lost and they don't.
play with the same confidence and swagger that
we've seen in the past. Yeah, two wins, four
draws, one loss at Centerville Bank Stadium this
season, the only loss coming in that very odd
Birmingham Legion match. Meanwhile, on the road,
two wins, zero draws and four losses. It seems
like we either are in control... of our destiny
on these away matches or we're never quite in
the game to be like, we're just not finding a
way to even get out of there with a single point.
And we've talked privately a lot that some of
the teams that we love, some of the teams that
we follow. It's not about them being amazing
and incredible every single game and being, you
know, undefeated for the entirety of a season.
Sometimes it comes down to winning the games
at home in front of your fans and then being
on the road, maybe playing a different way, being
a little scrappy and just getting that point
so that you're never really losing. You're never
dropping that momentum, but maybe it's just not
quite the same version of the team away. I'm
not sure we're seeing that right now with Kano
Smith's side. Yeah, you look at away matches
and think there are a few teams in the world
that can go away and really just impose themselves
on on the home team So in that regards you need
you travel away Maybe you want to play a little
bit more defensive you want to play a little
bit salt like a little bit more solid in the
back a little slower maybe not as expansive and
What we saw last night maybe a little too expansive
a little too open and kind of got eviscerated,
you know, like Would i have loved to see a no
no draw absolutely not but would we be. Feeling
a little bit better about coming away with a
point on a potentially tough away travel. What
about now now we're staring at a loss and thinking
okay. The momentum that we just had playing the
top team in the west. Did that just disappear
like do we have to build that back up again.
especially coming off a long break. I mean, only
six goals on the road so far this season in league
play won't even bring up some of the unfortunate
results we've seen in Pring's Tires Cup action.
We'll save that for later in the show, but of
the 23 goals, six of them coming from the road,
the rest of them, we just seem to be in our best
form when we're at home. Looking now, thinking
about that with the two games we've already seen
this week, does it almost feel dis... ingenuous
or maybe a disservice to fans that we only got
one goal on the weekend against Orange County
because I didn't even really think about that
number ahead of time and now it's just kind of
like what are we doing here? I don't want to
disservice or disingenuous but I do think that
like we look at that match and think well they
traveled up the road and they played a Hartford
team who also has a hard time scoring who put
two against them And you think, okay, we've definitely
been a little bit more productive at home. Maybe
we could have gotten a little more out of that,
but coming off that long break, I think the reality
was we're just a little bit rusty. Well, we will
see if that continues as we break that down later
in the show. But first, we got to go to break.
And when we return, we're going to talk about
how exactly Kano set up for this game against
Sacramento Republic. Don't go anywhere. It is
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get back to the raising anchor soccer ship on
990 WBOB with Matt Entrickett and Jason Kerr.
All right, looking here at how Kano set up for
this away match here, uh, cocaine Vegas and net
as always. We've got an interesting lineup here.
It's kind of maybe a back five, sometimes a back
four. We'll talk about how the team. was maybe
not completely organized here in a second, but
we've had Nick Scardina, Kareefa Yow, Grant Stoneman,
Frank Nodarse, and then also kind of Aldair Sanchez,
somewhat playing a back five, but he would also
push up. We had Amos Shapiro Thompson, Hugo Baccarac,
and Noah Fuson, somewhat as your midfielders,
with JJ Williams and Noah Fuson up top. At times
it looked like a 5 -3 -2, other times kind of
a 4 -4 -2, but but definitely was some maybe
misorganization there. What matters, Jason, is
that the graphic said it was a 4 -4 -2, and you
know we can never not go with the graphic. Bot
Mob is never wrong. Kevin Ordoy is still on the
squad. Especially when you consider that Koke
Vegas had his legal first name in the game, and
people looked at us like, who is that? Surprise
to those that don't know, or maybe are new to
the Raising Anchor soccer show, Koke Vegas is
not his real name. So if you didn't know that
now, you know, go Google it. It's too Spanish
for me to even try because I've only looked at
it like three times. But is his like legal Spanish
name was was listed in the graphics card for
that four four two. Yeah, it's very much his
his stage name, if you will. I know that the
team is dealing with an injury crisis right now.
But is it me or just this lineup felt a bit too
defensive against a team that's averaged one
goal a game? I I. Completely agree with you.
And the frustrating thing is, one, it's interesting.
We go to a back five. And I think people may
argue with us. I don't care. But it was a back
five. If you go and look at the heat map and
if you go look at the average positioning, Aldair
Sanchez and Frank Nadarse occupied a lot of the
same space. Sure, Aldair was a little bit more
forward, but... It really was a back five for
all intent and purposes. And when I think about
that and how much success we've seen in rotating
to the back four, I do know that you're strapped
for players that you can select and put into
the game day. We've seen it times and we've heard
it from Kano Smith that Aldair Sanchez and Jojea
Quisera can be almost interchangeable on that
left side. He's felt that way at least last year,
but also he said that again, mimicking some of
that of what he's seen. this season but to your
point is is we go so defensive and then from
there we leave some of our best weapons on the
bench in this game so even if you are putting
a back five out there You're leaving a player
like Jojea Quisera on the bench. Now, we don't
know if he was fatigued. You know, they have
the GPS sensors, they have all the monitors,
so they know what a player's endurance, what
a player's stamina is at. That's a level of sports
data we will never get here on the show. And
so maybe they had to make the call for that.
But like, you still leave a player like Jojea
out of your starting lineup. You're asking more
from players who really haven't produced at that
same level. I mean... We can talk about Afonso
and Fuson, but most of their success has come
from the bench this season. And you could also
argue, well, OK, it's a crappy squad. So this
is the moment for players like Afonso and Fuson
to show up to say, hey, coach, I'm going to earn
that starting spot back. But it felt like with
the injuries, Kano wanted to tinker versus playing
the best available players he had. And as a result,
it kind of felt like he was going for that second
half squeeze. That only works if you don't let
Sacramento score against you and guess what they
do? They go and score in the 24th minute so that
game plan goes right out the window. I think
Kano got this wrong from a tactics and a setup
perspective. I think he put this team into a
bind right from the get -go. I mean, we can celebrate
the fact Aldair Sanchez gets his 100th cap of
the USL against his former team. You can celebrate
that we finally saw Danny Rivera in championship
action this season along with Kevin Vang, players
who we've only seen so far in Open Cup and I
think Prinks Tires Cup action. Great to see them.
I mean, I thought Rivera for the... 16 touches
he had, I thought he looked brilliant. Kevin
Vang, I didn't really see in the game as much.
There's a height joke in there that we could
make, but I'm not going to do it. Kevin Vang,
I love you. I don't know, Jason, you tell me
like this didn't feel like we were set up tactically
to win from the get. Yeah, doesn't help that
that first goal was somewhat of a somewhat of
a fluke there. Did you wish we had VAR when that
goal happened? Or could you clearly and obviously
tell that it went across the line? The replays
show that it's not like 100 % conclusive, but
I'd say it's close enough that it looks like
it passed it. Okay, do you wish you had VAR when
the goal or the ball went off the pitch and then
we floated in for the equalizer at the death
of the half? I mean, that would be nice there
to confirm. I've noticed that, you know, we've
been spoiled watching a ton of World Cup where
you get quality replays. USL is just like now
we don't want to like I just want to hear you
say we don't want on VAR that's all we don't
want to incriminate ourselves and show that maybe
that ball actually still wasn't play and maybe
that should have been a goal and then like have
you know fan bases right when they realize like
It's clearly showed here on the replay. There's
no VAR so we can't go back and change it and
now we're just robbed Yeah, I don't disagree.
I don't even want to do heroes and zeros on this
because I think collectively, and when we get
to the mailbag, oh my gosh, there's so much anger
in the mailbag for once. I've never seen it quite
at this level since, well, actually I won't even
go there. Let's just break down where the breakdown
happened. And we got to start with the defensive
partnership. I have told you at times, I don't
think Grant Stoneman is of starting caliber.
I just don't think he has that in... his locker
anymore. I think that the game has evolved past
where he can offer a starting performance. I
think he still has a leadership inside the locker
room. I think that he has an ability to teach.
Everyone says he's going to be a player coach
into a full coach one day. There is a lot of
good things about having a player like Grant
Stoneman on this team, but I think The quality
or the lack thereof is starting to show with
these injuries that are piling up because I just
think that he is starting to become a liability
when we see him in the starting 11 partnered
with whoever it's partnered with, whether it's
Crefa or it's Omidy or it's another player. I'm
just, I'm starting to get concerned about the
mental lapse and some of the spacing and some
of the positioning that we find our defenders
in in these games. Yeah. My, my concern with
him is that when we see him play A lot of times
he's paired up with Karifa Yao. I know that we're
currently very limited in our options for injuries.
So there's a bit of kind of a conundrum there.
I don't know if CJ Williams is ready enough or
maybe even too green in the squad that kind of
was worried about throwing him into the deep
end, if you will, but they just don't seem to
mesh well together. I think to a certain extent,
they're not the exact same player, but you look
at both of those players and neither of them
are known for their speed. Kareef at times is
just an absolute brick wall. Nothing gets past
him. But if it does He doesn't have the recovery
speed to get back and kind of make that challenge
or try and push the defender wide And usually
we have someone partner with him like Omni Joe
who has a little bit more speed Well, it's the
same thing with Grant Stoneman Grant Stoneman
is very very calm very good on the ball But he
just doesn't have enough pace. And so the problem
is when we have players running at us and especially
when we seem disorganized because I said they
just don't seem to have a partnership that really
works well together. There's just a lot of there
was a lot of emergency defending and we just
were getting cut open and they were just spread
too wide and I don't know if there's something
going on but and then we have no Darcy who has
played a center back and who does have some speed
he's not the quickest but he's definitely faster
than those two but Doesn't seem like Kano trusts
him to play him as a center back unless he has
literally no other options. He seems to Be a
jack -of -all -trade where he can't really seem
to claim down one specific spot Well, I think
the other thing we have to acknowledge no clay
holstead no party in this game because we talk
about how Rhode Island doesn't really allow The
opponents can get into the final third, but when
we talk about touches in our box, that's something
we do a really good job of limiting based on
having that double six pivot. This game, more
players out wide on the defense to trap down
and isolate the wing backs. And I get it, the
fullbacks for Sacramento are lethal players,
but they eclipsed our own touches in the box
in this game. Something when you compare to Orange
County, a team that is supposed to have a better
offense than Sacramento, We limited them to like
nine or 13 touches in our box last weekend. This
time around, Sacramento almost doubles it. It
felt like we were inviting too much consequential
pressure into our final third because we stopped
having that kind of defender in the front line,
the quarterback in the six. Hugo often too far
up trying to play more of an offense creator,
a chance generator. And we saw, I mean, he gets
the goal, but it's like. Even with all the defenders
we had on the night, it just felt like it was
the wrong tactic to set up against the Sacramento
side. We've talked about games at length in the
past where sometimes it's the players and sometimes
it's Kano getting it wrong on the setup. Which
one would you subscribe to? Because I think about
the last time Kano really didn't set up well
against the team. Historically, it's always when
we get knocked out of the playoffs, but like
we've normally not done well against Pittsburgh,
right? It's like we just have a lineup. dual
problem where he sometimes the players he picks
doesn't make sense to me. Was that more of this
on the night with Sacramento or was this Sacramento
just finally coming alive and becoming the beasts,
you know, in the West that we've always anticipated
them becoming? I honestly would think it's probably
a little bit of both because I don't ever like
recall a time I've ever seen a team this disjointed.
They were getting overrun in the midfield. They
were misplacing passes. They were being sloppy
in general. And I mean, We can blame it on a
short week, but they had a long break before
this. So I mean, I was it. Was it too late in
the night for them? Was it past their bedtime?
I mean, I won't say which players, but we did
see some at Hawk Club extremely late at night,
like a week before we got back into the season.
They're allowed to be humans. They're allowed
to have live. Yeah, and then like is then. So
is this then? Just like you said, no clay, no
party. Is he the glue that holds the team down
together, who protects the defenders and really
only has them deal with one or two kind of situations?
It just felt like the team was so disrupted,
disjointed, and we really couldn't put anything
together. There's such a lack of cohesion and
creativity. Are we going to blame body clocks
at all? Because it's not something we talked
about in the preview. We were tired watching
the game. I can't even imagine on you know a
short transition you're going out your matches
starting at a time when probably most of these
players are going to bed in a midweek setting
they're playing till past midnight on the on
the body clock right like there's not a lot of
time you get to adjust to that from a jet lag
perspective do we get to blame body clocks at
all on this one because otherwise we need to
have a conversation about how west coast teams
line up and they have to play the games at like
5 30 and who cares if their fans show up or not
so like do we blame body clocks um I mean, that
would be something I think maybe a good question
for them. I don't, I wouldn't think that three
hours would be that big of a deal, but maybe
if they have very strict regimens, potentially.
Um, I mean, you can always prepare for that.
I feel like just get, get some extra sleep, but
I just don't know if I would buy that excuse,
but I'm also not a professional soccer player.
So I feel like I can't weigh in too much of that.
But I mean, like it, it does, like you mentioned
is, was this just Sacramento waking up? It, it
just, it's, I don't know how to explain it. How
often do we play a team who's like, we're looking
at them. Oh, they're down on their luck. They're,
they're, they're not doing well. And then they
have their game of their life against us. It
just feels like RFC are cursed and incredibly
unlucky. I've heard this song before. Yeah. And
it's, it's like, it feels like an excuse, but
Anyone who's a fan of this club has seen this
time and time again. uh rendon gets the little
flick across his body going the wrong direction
from goal and does this little cute chip over
koke to get the single goal of the game to lose
one nil and then look at this one it's a it's
it's a collision in the box a fair challenge
ball goes high koke can't track it no defender
by the way runs in to cover the goal mouth and
by the time koke can see where it's going it's
too little too late like We don't get those kinds
of goals. We don't get that kind of luck going
our direction. We always have to fight hard for
like just amazing, incredible sequence and build
up the right place, right time and set pieces
or like some galazzos where, and I'm not talking
the luck in the galazzos, I'm talking like skilled
shot taken from a place that they always practice
it versus a little deflection here, a little
chaos here. Is what I'm gonna see unlucky then
at this point? I think so. I just don't, I don't
know any other way to describe it. I mean, I
think to a certain extent you do in sports where
you have to create your own luck by working hard.
That's what XG is for. Yeah. And, but like it,
you look at this game and there are no givens
in this league, right. And from top to bottom,
there's parody in this league. Any team can beat
anybody, but Sacramento Republic are rated 24th
out of 25 in the league. Like they aren't, They
were the worst team. They're particularly good
at anything. Sorry, Will. I know you're listening,
but they were the worst team up until last night.
And then somehow, somehow we're ranked fourth
out of this. So clearly it doesn't make any,
the stats don't make any sense because we're
somehow forever stuck in ninth place, but we're
doing everything right, right? But nothing is
going our way. so we're either unlucky or the
teams that show up in big moments big ways are
lucky we're not putting away teams on paper that
we are superior to and again if you ask the players
they'll they'll all say they'll all lie and say
oh every every game was a tough battle there's
so much parity league you know there are teams
you're supposed to beat is there a mental lapse
here is this some is this coach kano as a student
of pep guardiola tinkering too much i mean Again,
we can go back to the formation. Summarize for
me why we lost this game. Is it on Coach? Is
it on the player performance? Don't give me a
little column A, a little column B. Point it
down to one thing that if we go back to Coach,
if I were to go to training tomorrow and say,
Coach Cano, why did you do this? Or Coach Cano,
why did your players do X? What would you put
that down to? And I may ask him this tomorrow
morning. I mean, I look at how I would be curious
as like... Why did the team, why were so disorganized?
Why were so disjointed? Did the teams not feel,
did the team not feel comfortable in the positions
they were asked to play in? Was it the tactics?
Like why, why did they have a bad game? Cause
they didn't just bunker on a gentleman's four
four two and just go for the point. Obviously.
Obviously. I don't know. I, I don't know. Those
are the questions that someone has to ask. I
don't know who it is. David asking on the chat,
could it be the surface? He said the pitch looked
torn up compared to ours. It could have been.
I mean, there's probably a plethora of different
things that could have happened. But this team
knew how important it was. There's not many games
in hand that we have. And this one is a squandered
game in hand. We got nothing out of this. And
we've talked about protecting that advantage.
And nothing came of it as a result. So then I'll
ask you, was this a bad result? Absolutely. Was
this the worst result of the season? I'm trying
to think. It might be pretty close. I think that
Miami result wasn't very good either. The team
looked very flat, but I look at this and think
maybe this is worse because we were starting
to build on something and immediately just got
flat tired and kind of tripped over ourselves.
And so I know a way can be tough but then you
also look and ask yourself like well how do teams
like Tampa Bay Charleston Louisville in Pittsburgh
go out and do it you know season after season
I don't know I don't have an answer for you all
I know Kyle Edwards scores the opening goal we
equalize um about 20 minutes later then we get
scored on again and then Second half just doesn't
matter in this game. Mark Anthony K with two
assists, Kyle Edwards with a goal. We talked
about how he was just so good. 12 goals and 10
starts for Hartford Athletic doing the work there.
I don't know what else to tell you about this
game other than I wish I could purge it from
my memory. I think the only thing I would disagree
with, Jason, is the fact that this isn't a worse
result because we haven't seen success against
Sacramento yet in a way we want to. Quickly becoming
the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the West for us.
But this wasn't an Eastern Conference team, so
I'm okay with dropping points to a Western Conference
opponent. I think to your point, the Miami game
could haunt us later. The sporting Jacks could
haunt us, but probably most likely the Birmingham
game is what's going to haunt us because if Birmingham
figures their act out, they're probably the most
likely going to be the ones chasing after us.
I think Miami is going to show who they really
are by the end of the season, and it's going
to be a problem. And I can't wait to talk about
that in about three more months as we pretend
that the September rise is going to happen. But
we've got to go to break. And when we return,
we're going to hit the garage and check in on
the Prinks Tire Cup action ahead on this weekend.
Don't go anywhere. It's the Raising Anchor Soccer
Show. Fans, as the weather becomes more and more
unpredictable, be sure to check out 990 WBOB's
weather page for all your temperatures, storm
and travel info. Stay prepared for whatever Mother
Nature has in store with the 990 WBOB weather
page. Now let's get back to the Raising Anchor
Soccer Show on 990 WBOB with Matt Entrickett
and Jason Carey. All right, now here in Prinks
Cup conversation brought to you by Originally
Jägermeister. Let's talk about these table standings
here for a second. Jason, we're only going group
five if you really want to get in the nitty gritty
of the entirety of the tournament. That's your
prerogative. But here we're going to focus on
what matters in this group five action. Yeah,
so taking a look at group five here, we have
at the top of the group, Hartford with seven
points, Brooklyn in second with six, RFC in third
with fifth. Hearts of pine right behind us with
fourth rounding out the bottom there cosmos with
three points in Westchester with two points in
This tournament only the best wild card team
goes through. It's not angular uno singular It's
not like the World Cup were eight of the best
certainly. Oh, it's it's only one of them. So
If our FC win their match this weekend against
Brooklyn that would put them on eight points
that would be You know, potentially a second
point like second for second place. It really
depends to top the group though. That means Westchester
has to get a result against Hartford. And this
is Hartford's competition. They won last year.
I mean, they, they just put up two goals against
Orange County soccer club the other night. Maybe
something in them is finally waking up. I just
don't know if I trust Westchester to like do
the work for us. And if we take a look at the
other groups, which we're not going to go through
currently, every second place team and their
respective group as a wild card has at least
one more point than us. So we need every single
second place team to not get a result for us
to sneak through the wild card. It feels very
much like the to tie it back to world cup. There
was that there's all those graphs going around
for scotland of like okay how can scotland sneak
in with three points of like well a b and c d
e f and g we need like four of those all to happen
at the one the same point so in connor mcglin
we trust is what i'm hearing i mean it's really
not in our control or destiny you know real fast
want to talk about the the format of the tournament
there's 44 teams, I believe, in this between
USL 1 and USL Championship. Having now experienced
the expanded format of the World Cup, I really
wish that they had, instead of having most of
these groups be six teams, I really wish that
they had brought them down to four teams and
had the next two teams move on and then played
for something more. Because at this point, you
know, we're now playing games and so many teams
don't make it forward. It almost feels like a
disservice. Like I don't know like at this point,
you know, and I'm sure the teams are at the top
They've earned their way so they would say no
we fought for this. We deserve it and last year.
That was us, right? We were first in our group
But it's almost more fun To see this be something
where you limit the amount of teams and it's
two championship teams to usl one teams two teams
can move on and then you you Randomize the tournament
and then everyone can go wherever I know they
want to protect it from a financial travel perspective
But then it becomes too much like the open cup.
I really think for this to get traction and get
legs under it. I think they need to reduce the
groups, make the knockout games where two of
the four can move on and then see what happens.
And I think that's what I have to do. Maybe there's
a couple instances where, again, a third place
wild card can extend the match. But I this just
seems boring at this point that knowing there's
only one team out of six in Group five that are
making it and then the other five just are sitting
here twiddling their thumbs like it almost feels
stupid that this is how we're moving on. I think
you look at this and like a sicko like John Morrissey
will love all the different permutations and
enjoy that. But as the fan of a singular team,
you're like, well, cool, we're essentially knocked
out. So what does this game mean to me? I mean,
I'm looking at it right now. No one can catch
Colorado Springs switchbacks. They won group
two. So there's five teams that are probably
out. San Antonio most likely has group three.
Louisville Louisville and India are probably
the closest fight because they're only one point
apart Hartford and Brooklyn technically but Hartford's
gotta kind of give me since they're playing Westchester
who has two points so you could say that one's
done group six is actually at a cut through right
now between Charleston battery and Charlotte
independence and Tampa Bay route is already one
group seven so it's like Again, like it was only
one team moving on from each of these groups.
Where's the fun in that? Like I want to see more
in the future I don't want to see it come at
the expense of additional championship games
in regular season taken away but there's got
to be a way that we can find a better balance
to this because this doesn't feel and maybe actually
Maybe it does come from the fact that you play
one less game anyways than if you don't have
Four teams that you have to fight in the group
stage because we didn't even play everyone in
our group talk about unfair parity They're like
I think this needs to get a little bit reverse
engineered for the next year iteration not really
a fan of it right now but having said that and
while it's probably apparent to everyone on the
show that coming off of a short rest and we just
came all the way across the country and being
injury depleted it's probably not a great time
to be placing bets on RFC considering what we're
going to talk about in the starting 11 projection
here in a second and that's even if you could
bet on Pring's Tires action because I know firsthand
you can't bet on that on some of these websites
because I tried when we headed out to Hartford
earlier in the season. Yeah, and kind of get
into the previous match look in our head -to
-head record against Brooklyn. We've Surprised
only play them one time. They're a brand new
team And that was at home this year May 29th,
which saw both JJ and Josiah record Joe J. I
record a brace Given our FC a 4 -1 victory since
that match. They've played four league matches
They had a indie match that was postponed probably
due to some crazy weather in the Midwest You
know during those games they had a one two and
one record somehow that that one win. They picked
up a cheeky win against the one and only Pittsburgh
Riverhounds. Wasn't cheeky. Wasn't cheeky. It
was a brutal slug fest. And I literally mean
slug fest because our IFC alumni Albert Diqua
left the game early after punching Tommy McNamara
in the face before then getting dropped to the
pitch, getting sucker punched himself from a
Brooklyn FC player that I don't remember at the
moment. So definitely Diqua taking lessons from
J .J. Williams on how to attack players at the
neck and above. I listen I know that these are
different competitions, but you look like that.
You get a commanding 2 nil win against the team
like the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Is that a catalyst
for Brooklyn to find its feet here in Jager Meister
play or sorry Prinks tire play? I'll answer that
just a sec, but this fact that Albert Deque will
punch someone and it just like we've talked to
him and he seems like just like a quiet nice
guy like I did not think he had that dog in him.
So so have you seen the punch? It's like someone
discovering they have arms for the first time.
I think he went to shove him and then just like
a fist came out. I was like, hey buddy. And so
it didn't even look like a strong punch, but
of course a player sees a fist coming at your
face and it makes contact. You're going down.
So McNamara is on the ground. Like he's just
been knocked out and going through concussion
protocol. I don't think dikwa intended he just
got caught up in the heat of the moment he got
shoved it doesn't look like a jj williams haymaker
okay so i was gonna say is there something in
the water over there or what's going on in the
merrimack whatever like yeah so sadly though
fun fact too what's the mahogany river i should
know that uh the intent behind it it's not even
in the replays i had to go back to the feed like
usl doesn't even want the red card shown like
what are you doing usl when you get your youtube
highlights that's exactly what you put on there
we want to see grown men Fist fighting. Okay.
This is, this is, this is how the NHL sold their
stuff. Learn from their, uh, opportunities and
build upon your own. Yeah. Um, to tie back to
what you said though, I mean, we heard Clay Hulsad
said it right. They look at these games as another
game. They don't sit there and think, well, uh,
it's in a different competition. It doesn't count.
So realistically, this can help build form in
the same way that it could help our opponents
build form too. Um, and it does feel like they
are kind of starting to build something there.
There's blocks of consecutive losses and chunks
of relatively slow performance, but there's slow.
They're not as bad as when they started. Um,
they've only dropped points to Tampa Bay since
facing us. And who hasn't, right? I mean, minus
us, of course. Yeah. And meanwhile, drawing to
Louisville and Jacksonville while blowing out
Portland and now winning against Pittsburgh.
I mean, that's, that's not terrible. I mean you
could you could maybe bet that they're kind of
moving in the right direction uh would this team
sit in second in you know pranks tired cup action
in a week between games they have you know to
to bring their a game i mean also maybe this
gives us an opportunity to spoil their party
We're gonna need it. I mean, we're on the wrong
side of this. Getting into where Rhode Island
X really sits right now. Talking through that
availability report. CJ Williams, we saw him
on the bench. So off the availability report
we talked about, he should be ready and he was.
Go Go Peters, still questionable. Don't have
an update on him. Same with Zach Harrevo. Clay
Holstead, I think is gonna be out. I think we're
not gonna see him for at least a week or two
at a minimum. And again, we still don't have
an update on the severity. of that injury against
Orange County Soccer Club. And Omni Jobe, he's
going to be the question mark. Again, we talked
to him at Saturday's game. He said he was basically
ready to go. Kano gave us a conflicting answer
in the press. So don't know what that'll look
like. But either way, we've now been exposed.
We have now seen when key players are out. how
Rhode Island of Sea responds to that, where the
level of their depth or lack thereof is. Should
we be, should we start be talking reinforcements
at this point? I know everyone was like, Oh,
Matt was teasing Cal Jennings. Listen guys, if
I, if Cal Jennings comes, you can thank me later,
but I, he's not coming. I am. I'm so sorry. I
hate to do that. I had several people in the
mail bag go, what did, why didn't you not finish
your Cal Jennings statement? As of right now,
Cal Jennings is not a Rhode Island of Sea player,
but I would be. I'd get the tattoo if Cal Jennings
becomes the one IFC player. Where do we need
to get reinforcements now that we've seen kind
of some of the stretches or thinness in our formation?
Yeah, we've seen mid -season acquisitions in
the past and a lot of those have bolstered the
squad and kind of really helped us push for that
second half playoffs. With the injuries that
we have, I almost think we need a handful of
players. I look at our depth in the center backs,
like how many You know, do we need another center
back? Do we need another midfielder? Do we need
another striker? I mean, we just lost, you know,
Logan. You know. How many and then how many?
How long are these injuries going to take to
like come back so? But what would you want right
now? I mean, not just because we have limited
options. Assuming the back line sorts itself
as soon as Omidy's back. Clay, you could say
the same thing when he comes back. Is there a
player that you could say, yeah, I want him and
I want a better version of them than Clay Holstead
or Omidy Jope. And I want to go get them right
now. I mean, off the top of my head, I don't
have some names, but like maybe profiles. Yeah,
I want a, so up top, we need another striker.
Does it have to be an exact replica of JJ? Maybe
I may like, I think it could help to like have
a consistent play style, right? Where you can
give JJ some rest. Put it in another guy who
sure, maybe he's not as good, but he can play
the same kind of bruiser holdup style. Uh, in
the midfield, if clay and Hugo are out, like
we just don't have enough, we just don't play
the game. It was just forfeit. So we need maybe
a certain, like an understudy to one of them.
Um, which was Zach Haribow, if he can stay out,
Zach Haribow second time. Yeah. Yeah. No, he,
he's been the last two seasons. He's kind of
struggled with his health. I'll remind you that
Zach Haribo, coming from Tampa Bay, had an injury
so bad that he couldn't lay down for like 10
months. So, you know, we just talk about a man
that just needs to stay healthy. Zach Haribo
needs to find that health and he needs to find
there quick. Yeah. So someone of that ilk who
can kind of play in that position and then just
probably another center back who. I'm Emma Beaker.
Where are you at? I mean, we know where he's
at, but yeah. Someone maybe who's got a little
bit more pace who can kind of balance out. Okay,
so we still have We sell the owl we still have
stoneman, but like we need a balance where okay
if Omni joke is not available Do we have someone
who's got legs and can kind of get up and down
the field? Rio Hope gun. Do you think he wants
to come back? You just scored it the other day
for first time. Did you finally watch that goal?
We thought we joked who scored better that night.
Did you ever go back and see it? Nah, with the
World Cup, I don't have time for that right now.
Good thing you're in the media, my friend. It's
a good thing. All right, give us the projected.
Actually, no, it's not a projected level. We're
not doing that tonight because this one might
be the hardest test we've ever had in formations
guaranteed to be wrong. So I think the best way
to win this game is to not play it tonight. So
rather than do that, how do you want to approach
this when we talk about starting 11? I mean,
I wonder, do we finally see some rotation for
the goalkeeping spot? Because at this point,
not to say that this game doesn't matter, but
we have to win and we also have to have the dominoes
fall in a certain way. So, you know, if we don't
see anyone here, we will never see another goalkeeper
this season barring some sort of injury. So I
think this is the time to at least give someone
one appearance just so they can update their
transfer market or, you know, page. So so do
we need to put like a Jack Daniels bet on this
because you know they may or may not be a part
of the game day experience coming up this weekend
we I have the scarf somewhere they they found
us at Trinity Brewer house and gave us this and
I was like do you know who I am I didn't do that
but do we need to put this and then because one
of us will end up drinking on the day the other
person has to do soccer reporting and go that
route do we do we want to put I'll let you choose
and I'll just take the I'll take the other Do
you want to make an actual wager that jacob castro?
Is oh, so are we gonna do a shot bet that jacob
castro but only the loser? Yeah, but then because
one of us drinks one of us can't do our job and
report on the game So that means then like, you
know You could sabotage yourself right now and
take the easier one so that you don't have to
be a reporter And i'll sit in the press conference
room and get yelled at and get stares from conno
smith How do you want to play this? All right
i'll take that back because i'm just gonna disappear
and go watch the argentina game anyway I wish
I could all right, so Did you anything else before
I want to chime in? But, uh, I mean, like, do
we finally? So we saw Danny Revere and Kevin
you thing. Uh, I mean, we saw CJ Williams before
he was injured. Did like, do we, we don't have
a lot of players to rotate, but do we actually
rotate this time? Like, how do we feel about
the squad? Okay. So, so here, here's my theory.
All right. I think we won't know right until
we see the lineup card come out an hour before
the game. But I think when we see that we will
know right then and there Kano's intentions on
how he's taking this match right because he's
got to give some of his players a break and He
has other players that he can call upon to play
in this match But the level of play between those
players is kind of where his intent will be on
is he actually going for it? Or is he just getting
a match out of the way and moving on with his
life? especially considering where we are in
the tournament and the deck being stacked against
us, that's the real answer, right? We don't have
to predict like we'll know, but we'll see everything
behind his intention based on that starting lineup.
Now that being said, should we see players like
Danny Rivera, Noah Fuson, who's got a battery
for days and busy, who got a limited number of
minutes in Sacramento? I think absolutely. I
think those are lock -on, they should be starters.
Could we also see Kevin Vang be a start at this
point? Could we see Jacob Castro get the nod
finally? Wouldn't be surprised. Is CJ Williams
fit enough to actually start a game coming off
of all this lack of availability? He could have
just been, I mean, we didn't even see him enter
the game despite some shaky defending. We instead
tried to go back at it, tried to get the equalizer.
Is CJ Williams ready to, is he ready to task
and be a starter? I don't know. But the other
question to it is that those are what five players
I mentioned There's six more that have to still
play and all of them have played over You know
close to 200 minutes this week on some very tired
legs like JJ Williams played the entirety of
Of this game. I think he played the entirety
of the Orange County game as well because again
There's no striker profile that can really replace
them in that forward position, and he didn't
get a goal in either game Is JJ Williams gonna
be our striker? Right or is that a Fonzo now?
Like that's it's Hugo backwreck who ripped off
a knee brace and has like you always see he's
got knee tape He he gestured about it almost
looked like he wanted to get subbed off But we've
made all of our subs right like does he have
it in the tank after being beaten up and bruised?
I I don't know like you know like our defense
like just does Grant Stoneman does you know senior
citizen Grant Stoneman? And I know he's I'm older
than him, but you know humor me does he have
it in the tank or like you know there's just
there's too many players that have had too much
mileage in this week can they go get the distance
because you would have expected at this point
for us to rotate but with what five players on
the dl right now like that's not really an option
and we haven't replaced some of the positions
that we never went out and backfilled in the
preseason so this is like one of those like funny
you know i know hashtag not an mos soccer show
but When MLS teams are having a bunch of injury
issues and all of a sudden they sign like Five
of their players from their like two squad like
a 30 -day contract and just throw them all in
there You think we're gonna see 25 -day contracts
by Friday. Oh Could that be something that we
just just to get hey, you're gonna play two games
tops and you're gonna you're gonna like it I
Mean it the the one we had worked out pretty
well for us I mean, as of right now, do you know
how many players we actually have on the squad?
Not counting keepers. I'm going to guess 16.
That is a very good guess. Are you cheating now?
Well, then you should be like a savant or something,
because we do in fact have 18 players. But you
were super close. You were super close. I don't
know. I don't have the answer for you. I just
maybe we have Will Meyer play as a defender in
this game. who knows the possibilities are endless.
Let's talk about this Brooklyn side. Not going
to get into the players, you know half of them
because they're former RFC alumni. Does Brooklyn
have a real chance of actually not just winning
this but moving on because this might be the
closest thing they get to any accolades in season?
Like are they a dangerous animal right now because
they have everything to play for or does that
make them more, let's call it, Risk at risk because
they have so much to go for as we really don't
so we can play a little more free a little more
brave I mean they're in a position to set themselves
up to be a pretty decent shout for a wild card
if they If they win that what puts them on nine
points for a second place team I don't know if
that's going to be enough But they're probably
thinking about that and saying hey like this
could be our opportunity to build something this
year Um, it really depends on how we take this
in terms of seriously. And like they, they have,
we just talked about their form, right? While
not amazing, they're starting to get something
together because when we first played them earlier
on, they were all over the place. They, they
picked up a win against Charleston, I think earlier
on, but so did, so did we. And Charleston was
really all over the place until they recently
kind of sorted themselves out. Think there's
a good possibility that this team is maybe finally
correcting some things and kind of moving in
the right direction So I don't expect this actually
to be the same matchup was when we saw them what
like two months ago I Mean I agree now asking
this question Kano famously denies this but I've
got the tape Good teams don't lose two games
in a row Does that count in this circumstance
with the injuries with the fact that this isn't
technically a league game? Do we get to give
an asterisk to Kano on this one? Would he ask
for like if we lose this game Do I do I because
i'm gonna lose this bet which which which did
you take by the way castro early or Vegas? You
took castro. Yeah. Okay. So now I know your intentions
behind this Do I sit in front of the post game
and ask him you told us good teams don't lose
two in a row Is rod Island FC a good team? Do
you want to tell me? I did I never said that
about usl tire prank act tire prinks tires action
So I would argue that like we aren't a good team
How many wins have we strung together going into
the you're going into the post game with that
attitude? You're setting me up for success here
We we aren't we're in ninth place. We just lost
to one to a Team who had been kind of struggling
and see her score and we gave up two goals against
them That doesn't mean that we can't become a
good team Because we we've seen the song and
dance before with this team they figure out what
to do in the second half of the season and we're
still kind of floundering around, figuring out
what our best lineup, figuring out what our tactics
are to kind of have something consistent. We've
had a little bit more success earlier on this
year, scored some more goals than we have. And
we're kind of thinking like, maybe this is the
year where we don't do the same thing we've done
the last two years, that we, you know, the definition
of insanity, doing the same thing over and over
again, expecting different results like turns
out, you know, Maybe this team is a little insane.
I don't know because it just doesn't, it doesn't
feel like right now that we, I would call this
a good team. We're inconsistent. We are key.
We can be a good team at home. I think we've,
we've had some results where two of the top teams
in this league came to center real bank stadium.
While we didn't beat them, we look slightly dominant
against them and we're able to hold them to one,
one draws. So I think you look at that and say
at home this team can be good So we need a home
playoff berth more than ever then yeah, except
for we We can't pick up any points away. So it's
gonna be it's gonna be a struggle. You know,
I look at this prinks tires Group standing and
one of the things that should we win and let's
say conor mcglin pulls out a worldy And gets
a hat trick and is the hero we deserve and somehow
we take the top of the table We still need goals
if it comes down to any kind of tiebreaker situations
right now We only have a positive two differential
most of the teams that are running away with
certain attributes They have like six or five
So not only do we have to win this game if we
have a hope of moving on but we have to win it
by like a three Plus goal differential Do you
think that we can pull that off in the eyes of
Brooklyn who are probably going to be pretty?
Protective of not going through that similar
experience of losing for one like they did in
league play Think it'd be possible with a healthy
squad. Oh, so it's not possible because we're
not healthy. Okay, I Think there's a very good
world where we can still win this match But our
is it gonna be for one again? Probably not. So
then knowing our soccer fans and please for the
the dozens and dozens and dozens of you in here
right now want to ask this question if we bow
out of the prinks tire now here whereas last
year we won it do we look at this as an objective
failure because this club could not reproduce
similar results and and does it make it worse
that we're potentially gifting the advancement
of our hated rivals in hartford uh taking that
on i'm curious what the chat says but while they
while they pontificate Jason, what do you think
about that? Should the fans get into an uproar
because we take an early exit out of pranks?
I mean, I think it'll be very disappointing.
If we do what we've done in the past and go on
a successful run into the playoffs, then I think
people forget about that. It's not going to be
a big deal. But if we get knocked out of Pranks
Cup action and then we also maybe don't have
a good Second half of the season. I think this
this will be looked on as you know a bad or unsuccessful
season Well, then how does Rhode Islander see
take three points here at Sonoma Bank Stadium
on the weekend? They're gonna have to score first
We saw last night it we get scored on first Doesn't
go our way very often if ever You know, the goals
really change everything. And I think this battle
tonight is going to be kind of Rhode Island's
midfield versus Brooklyn's press. Even with the
rotation, the midfield's got to dictate possession,
avoid cheap giveaways. So many bad passing sequences
in last week and yesterday's game. So many failed
combinations. Characteristically poor. Yeah.
And that if that first line of pressure is broken
consistently, Brooklyn will be forced to cheat,
retreat and defend deeper. If not, Rhode Island
risks valuable energy recovering from transition
moments. And that's what I have is because you're
so depleted, because you're going to be tired,
because all you're basically doing is regeneration
and very light practice, if anything. To me,
this is a game about conserving energy, being
efficient. I don't think we should see or anticipate
that explosive style of transition ball that
Rhode Island FC is historically characteristic
of because they just don't have it right now.
Brooklyn will have better legs and better rest
to match that energy. I think you're going to
have to play this one a little rope or dope,
a little cagey. Try to get something out in the
second half. Almost treat this like you're on
an away game performance, going for a draw first
and foremost. Be conservative, be compact, find
those moments and then go for it. But if it's
this trying over and over, And then it's just
bad passing sequences. It's it's not looking
up to find your your man. It's just sloppy like
that's going to kill them and they're going to
get punished on the counter from Brooklyn. I
mean, we go back and watch the Pittsburgh game
if you don't believe me and you could argue Pittsburgh
was in a much better, you know, endurance position
than we will be coming into this match. So. It's
been a great show. We do still have more, but
we're going to cut this for the radio programming.
So if you're still here with us, don't go anywhere.
It's going to be the mailbag when we return all
here on the Raising Anchor Soccer Show. Now let's
get back to the Raising Anchor Soccer Show on
990 WBOB with Matt Entrickett and Jason Carey.
Jason, this one's going to be painful. This might
be the most angriest mailbag I have ever seen
in my life. Joe P starts it off with just an
overall flat performance except for Shapiro Thompson
and Hugo It looked like jet lag hit this side
now We have injuries to deal with it is up to
the bench to pick it up. The talent is there
They just need the sense of urgency. They are
still in the playoff hunt This is the only nice
one of the night. Everything else just gets depressing
Joe always with the always with good commentary
there. Do you think though that do we we still
in the playoff hunt? I mean is the Hopi I'm still
with you We're on the outside looking in. You
did not just use a stained lyric on us. Uh, I
mean, we are in the sense that because eight
teams can make it through and there are some
teams below us that are pretty bad. And like
you said, I think Miami's the, the luster is
kind of following up, falling off of them unless
somehow they're, uh, Chris, how players come
back with that, like World Cup energy or something,
you know, we'll see though. Um, Bob D says, I
lost two hours of sleep watching this. Will this
team ever come from behind and win a game? Uh,
so I don't know if we've done it yet this season,
but we have done it in the past, Bob. I remember
very, very distinctly when the North Carolina
game, like the second game ever at home in center,
real bank stadium, it was like at the death maxi
bearing the penalty one last year. Also, I think
we had like two, two wins last year. I don't
know if we've done one yet this season, but hey,
listen, anything's possible. Okay. If Cape Verde
can hold Argentina to two goals for almost 120
minutes, like anything is possible, my friend.
Eric N writes in absolutely abysmal. We are wasting
games in hand with terrible performances. The
only silver lining here is at least I didn't
have to watch that result at home. Yeah, but
you had to watch ads. I mean, I mean, I kind
of, you know, I wouldn't use the word abysmal,
but I was. I was not feeling that performance
at all. And I'm kind of a little frustrated to
that the games in hand that we have are starting
to slip away. Uh, Lynn case says, I'm really
upset that I watched the match today, despite
knowing the result ahead of time. My day has
been absolutely ruined. I didn't know that Lynn
was a, uh, a fortune teller for seer of the future.
I mean, I can't, I'm not going to lie. I, no,
no, no, no, no. I got this, I got this email
at like 12 30 today. So she woke up, or he, I
don't know if this is female or male, or are
they Lin, but all I do know is that they're saying
that they watched, they saw that they must have
woken up to the score line, and then still actively
chose to watch the game. Oh yeah, no, that's
terrible. Or this is a delayed email, and I don't
know which one it is, but my guess is based on
the time of day they sent the email, that this
is how that went down. Listen. if you know the
result don't do this to yourself that's all i
can say just wait till the show comes on and
commiserate with us and and we'll you know we'll
give you the nitty gritties of what happened
and then you can pretend like it never happened
we have to watch the show unless you spend your
free time talking into a mic about the game if
you see the result is bad just Just don't do
it. I will remind people that when games happen,
whether they're live at Centerville or they are
away games, nine out of 10 times we watch the
game and then we rewatch the game one additional
time. So like we're trying to do that. We're
trying to do that for you so you don't have to
watch the match. We're trying to protect you
from yourself, Lynn. Rachel H writes in please
start calling out this team and Kano It looked
like they had no ideas and was eerily similar
to the US men's national team game earlier this
week My heart simply can't take these kinds of
losses. I Mean first off Rachel if your heart
is in any kind of cardiac duress go see a doctor
like Completely. It's just soccer at the end
of the day deep breaths That being said though
comparisons to the US not I mean like I can kind
of see it. They're very shaky in a way that is
like, what are you doing? The passes that they're
making, they look very disjointed. They're kind
of all over the place. There was also, I don't
want to blame Koke for that happening, but then
you also had a goalkeeper - Do not compare that
to Matt Friese. It's completely different, but
it's also a - Mean if it you will not slander
El Capitan like this on our show. I'm not I'm
not but they're the comparisons are there I would
say this I don't think Rhode Island gave up.
I just think they could never get back in it
I'd say the US men's national team. I think they
absolutely gave up in that game I think they
gave up after Tim Fries missed the ball Tim Fries.
Did you say Tim Fries? Yeah, sorry I was I was
looking at the next name Tim Ream and and and
Matt Fries combined is now used together they
did the fusion dance to make the you know most
mistake prone soccer player of all time but rachel
seriously go to go to a doctor if you're having
heart problems we we need you out we need you
you're one of the regulars continue to write
in and uh it's just a game at the end of the
day yeah we'll get through this together uh tim
are so are we bad i think we're bad at soccer
uh yeah yeah yeah i mean that game was not great
uh i don't think we're at the five alarm fire
bell yet tim um but i do think that we should
probably start Like, again, I play players in
their natural positions. Don't experiment. JoJ
needs to go back to the right. Frank probably
needs to stay in the middle for now. Stop getting
injured. Yeah, stop getting injured players.
That's all it is. I'm so sorry. I forgot it's
that easy. There's a couple of things I think
Kano can do to improve the squad and play less
experimental and less, like, nuanced, beautiful
soccer. Yeah, I think we need to give back to
some good old 4 -4 -2 football terrorism for
a while. and until the players are back to health.
Because again, we talked about this last night
with some of the fans at High Motor. A draw is
never fun, but a draw is something we can keep
our heads held high to. Losses never are going
to pave the way to us making any heads or tails
inside the playoffs. It's just not going to work
out. Stacy L writes in, why do we keep losing
to bad teams? This team needs a mental examination.
Maybe a sports therapist could help. I don't
know if I don't think we have a therapist on
the roster. Maybe it's a part of their benefits.
I don't know. I think Stacey and comment back
if you're in the chat or comment in an email
back to us. But I know she's like referring to
like I know in Ted last so they have a therapist
and sports. I know it's a real thing. It's a
very real thing. Do we think this is a therapist
driven like mental block or do we think this
is just the lads like they just they've had a
bad week? It's it's it's so hard to to really
figure out like from the outside because we can
only speculate like we've we ask Questions, oh,
they don't invite you into the locker room all
the time like they do me Yeah, no, they don't
I've never been in that locker room fans of the
club have been in a locker room That is a place
that is will remain alien to me for probably
my entire time Covering this club. I am I am
NOT welcome in that locker room It's it's really
hard to pin down exactly what's wrong because
one week will look great. We'll go out there
Everything is just going. Well, it's nice and
gravy in the next week. It's just like that meme
from was a community with just that like you
walk in with the pizzas and everything is on
fire and just it's like What happened? How did
we get here? This doesn't make any sense How
do you how do we get from point A to point B?
I don't know what the behind the scenes like
What is causing this? Because it's just it's
so much inconsistency. So I maybe that's the
answer, but I think that's something that the
team and the staff would have to kind of do some
soul searching and say like, hey, maybe this
is something we need and not kind of something
for us to decide. Brian A says, I swear we are
the unluckiest team in the league. That first
goal would only happen to us. I mean, I, I kind
of agree too, but I mean, I think we kind of
touched on it and I cheated. I probably brought
this up when we were talking about howlers in
this league, but like, it just feels like whenever
we give up a goal, somehow it's the most amazing
goal ever. Like this, this T this player has
never score scored a worldly before. Or it's
just like a comedy of errors. Oh, Malongo's goal
in the second goal for Sacramento was that was
good. That was a great goal. The argument wasn't
that he took the goal and he probably couldn't
replicate that, you know, three out of 10 times.
The problem was we gave him so much space to
encroach into the top of the box to line up for
that shot. Grant Stoneman didn't come out. Grant
Stoneman caged in and tried to block down the
shooting lane. He didn't he didn't he didn't
mirror and match it correctly. But when you bend
a shot like that, there's very little you can
do. The question's not on the second goal that
Sacramento got. It's that first goal and our
failure to respond to it in its entirety. But
I agree with you, Jason, on that. And I also
agree with Brian. We probably are a bit unlucky
in that regard. I still think, too, that... We
still need to do some sort of seance or something
to like uncurse the team. That comes in September
or August when we haven't gotten that... Second
half, you know swing that we all like when it
becomes the second half slide That's when we
start hitting the panic button start doing the
burn pit in the center of Centerville Bank Stadium
I will say this though one of the curious things
about how teams line up Do you think because
what I don't see has seen success? I mean, we
haven't won anything ever but we have gone further
than most teams in the last two years Do you
think that causes a like? Chip on the shoulder
of our opponents to a certain degree like we're
not loud and walking in with you know, our our
Laundry still dirty and asking them to use their
machines to do it before the game. We are a Maybe
in the same way that when they come to like our
nice stadium and it makes them play better because
they feel like they're in Like I think it elevates
their game. Like I I'm a I'm a real professional
athlete. I'm not playing on some high school
field I mean, I just I'm wondering if Rhode Island
FC has a reputation amongst other teams. It's
like they're a team we can't take for granted.
Not that any team would be, but like we have
to show up extra hard for, you know, JJ Williams
is going to smack us around if we don't play
our game. I don't know. We'll have to figure
that out. Last question of the night. Dave S
writes in. Why should I go to the game this weekend?
It's a cup competition we are out of. Well, maybe
not. Dave, I don't know. We did the numbers earlier.
But it's sandwiched between two quarterfinal
World Cup games and knowing us, it'll probably
rain. Convince me to go. Jason, how do you get
Dave from glass half empty to glass half full
right now? I mean, well, the S stands for sicko,
right? So we know that you're a sicko, Dave.
You know, apparently there may or may not be
some sort of Jack Daniels event there. There's
bobbleheads. That's not this weekend. Oh, it's
not that's not that's the that's the Hartford
game. Okay, so there is it's pride night. It's
pride night. So there's not nothing. It is pride
night celebrated outside of pride. There's also
Cape Verde and heritage night that they've announced
a lot of things and some of them have to be overlapping.
Because the yeah, because Cape Verde is July
5th is their independence and so they didn't
want to share it with America's 250 So they're
sharing it with pride night and stuff. Okay,
so we didn't have we only had one game in June
So too many things happened. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
and then also because We have the best community
in all of yourself Also, I hear you I am worried
about the overlap of the Argentina game starting
It while this game is still going on. I'm curious
How would I see one will be attended and how
they will manage? Like when you see fans leave,
if the game is like a blowout one way or another,
like, are we going to see what we used to see
back in Los Angeles? Like people leaving in the
70th minute because they want to go on that hill
and Dodger Stadium. So you got to leave. All
right. Well, Dave, I hope to see you there. We
will be there. And I just know this. I will be
in the postgame press scrum sitting there for
20 minutes interviewing people who Want to maybe
be interviewed while the Argentina game is almost
at halftime. So if I have to suffer you should
have to suffer too, buddy I'm not giving you
roses. I'm giving you the doom and gloom or suffer
with me watching Argentina What's the ref reporter?
Uh, yeah looking at our refs here. We have Guido
Gonzalez jr. Assistant refs are Tom Felice and
Andrew Karen with the fourth official being Justin
Saporito. I don't think we've ever had Gonzalez
Jr. as a ref. Tom Felice looks familiar, but
I think he's always been an AR, so who knows?
We'll talk about whether they are a storyline,
as we almost always do. in the recap next week.
Watch information for this game. A reminder,
it is Pride Night at Centerville Bank Stadium.
Tailgate lots are opening at 4 .30 p .m. Rest
of parking at 5 .30 and gates, of course, opening
at 6 .30. Kickoff set for 7 .30. As of right
now, Dave, it's a 78 degree beautiful evening.
No rain in the forecast. But like you said, who
knows? And you should always just bring an emergency
poncho just in case because you never know. Yeah.
Just pack a sandwich. It's Rhode Island. Pack
a sandwich, pack a poncho. I don't know if it's
because it was a tough match that has somehow
made us revert back to our old selves and we
somehow win an hour plus. No, it's too much to
talk about. It's World Cup. We have three games
in seven days. We knew we knew we were going
to blow the timeline off of this one. I already
sent the I already sent the report to the radio
station like, hey, this is not going to be easy
for you guys to mix back into the station. This
one's not going to be a fun one. So. That's on
them. That's why they pay us the big bucks, you
know? Yeah. Anyways, it's always great. Thanks
for joining us, guys. We'll catch you next time.
Anchor's up. Anchor's up. or wherever you listen
by searching for Raising Anchor. Make sure to
check out all of our coverage over at the Blazing
Musket for all your New England soccer coverage,
including RAFC news at theblazingmusket .com.
Fans, we thank you for listening. We ask you
to be kind and courteous to your neighbors as
you leave the show. We thank you for joining
us and look forward to seeing you again. Until
then, I'm your main man, Juju, and on behalf
of the Raising Anchor crew, goodbye for now.
And as always, we are Rhode Island FC.