Hello, and welcome to Raising Anchor Podcast, your source for all things Rhode Island FC. I'm your host, Matt Entrykin, and this is your Monday Mailbag for May 26, 2025. Jason, Rhode Island FC, yet to find a win, yet to find a goal against this Pittsburgh Riverhounds side. And guess what? They get to do it all again a little later this week. You were there. Give us the rundown. How
are the vibes at the vault? uh it was good vibes um the weather was a little little wacky um there was one part during uh it was still like at the tailgate before the match and it just started downpouring for like five maybe 10 minutes max i think um so we all kind of huddled under some pop -ups and stuff to stay dry and it was a little bit like that where it would just kind of rain off and on here so bit of a gloomy overcast day i think maybe it kept some people away um you
know the reality too is it's it's a three -day weekend so i imagine a lot of people had some plans doing some stuff out of town and whatnot so overall though like everything is still positive everyone excited to be there you know had a really great time despite the uh despite the result you know sometimes you just gotta go out of town yourself and watch a game like that from a laptop screen and remove yourself from the problems right so i uh i will say it was it was difficult
to watch this one and we'll we'll talk about more at length you know in the week to come but today we are long overdue on doing a mailback because between the trips the many midweek games uh the interviews we haven't had a chance to answer fan questions and a lot of them have been stockpiling here and i've felt bad but i mean If you look back in the last three weeks, we've done two episodes a week. Two weeks, we did three
episodes in a single week. So very much need to get back to the format if we're going to be able to continue these for fans. Yeah, it has been a bit of a busy week with all their few weeks with the season opening, the five games in 14 days. But these are always fun, so it's good to get back to that. You ready to jump into this? Yeah, let's just give it a shot. So Joe writes in, he's angry, Jason. Another frustrating loss for the guys. We had opportunities early,
but they were missed. Pittsburgh got their goal and clamped down. Kudos to Mertz, Wati, and Griffin. We need a killer striker. Jason, it's more of a statement than a question. Do we need a killer striker? I think we got one. He is on the mend right now. You know, I was watching this game, and I was thinking this game is crying out for JJ. I think... with how informed he started the season. I think he could have, uh, put some pressure
on that back line there. You know, I, you know, I, I think that it was a tough pill to swallow, but maybe, maybe Lily ball just kind of has Connell's
number. So what did more way to either? Like I, I went back and rewatched the highlights and there was a lot of good opportunities that on another night we, might have finished some of those chances yeah and i mean you look at the goal too it was kind of a freak goal it wasn't necessarily a well -earned goal from the riverhound side and you know to the point of what joe wrote though once once bob lilly goes up he he makes it almost unbearable to play it doesn't become
soccer anymore it becomes kind of a keep away that both teams it just it wasn't fun soccer to watch at that point and i historically i've never really enjoyed the pittsburgh matches because they're not fun products, right? The 0 -0, then our 2 -0 loss, now our 0 -1 loss. These are quickly turning into the most unwatchable and unfavorite games each year against this Riverhound side. I mean, Lily Ball is maybe a version of football terrorism. Next one here from Pete. We lost the
game, but didn't move in the table. You guys usually try to find the positives. Help me believe in this team. Pete's on the edge already. We're three home games into the regular season at home, and fans are already crying out. Listen, Pete, the only thing I can tell you is, and someone else asked this question a little later, so I'll save some of it, but we've been here before. So I don't know if you're new to the fandom in
2025, and if you are, welcome. If you were here last year, then I would just tell you to dig deep and remember exactly where you were this time in 2024, where we had only gotten one win in the history of the club. Lots of draws and a couple of losses stacked up. You know, we're now 3 -3 -4, and so that's not a bad spot. We're still in sixth place, somehow, miraculously.
And, you know, I think if you're looking for the positive, the only thing I can tell you, fourth game in a row where we strung together 500 passes. So, like, hey, at least we like to move the ball side to side. I won't say we went forward. That would get too unrealistic. But at least we had some promise there. I think this team's close. And I think, again, J .J. Williams comes online. I think a lot of our problems get solved. Right now, just we have nowhere to go
with the ball. So I'm not, I'm not yet out of hope. I'm not, I'm not coping, you know, I don't have the copium going right now, but I think, I think we're fine. Jason, do you, do you think otherwise? Yeah, no, I think, I think we're doing all right. I think we're technically, we're probably doing better than we were last year. Just a reminder for those of you who were with us last year, and maybe to those of you who were new to the
season, like, like you said, Matt, welcome. But we didn't get our first home win until June 26 against El Paso Locomotive. The team that everyone was getting their first wins against because El Paso was bottom of the table. Yeah, and then from that, I mean, we kind of already had a away match before that that kind of sprung Bordas into a good, pretty productive season last year. But we've already seen some good results away. Home form will come eventually. They'll figure
it out. agreed uh sean writes in it's time to not just bench diqua but get rid of him we aren't good with him on the pitch ooh sean's out for blood i don't like i don't like getting rid of players but i understand the frustration i understand the frustration i think that unfortunately for diqua he um with that 20 goal season he had he kind of you know raised the bar to a certain extent for himself um I checked his stats here before. He's got three goal contributions, two
and one this year so far. Out of nine games, that's what? One every three games, a goal contribution. Obviously could be better, but I still think it's early in the season with a lot of the injuries, rotation, some of the form we're going through. If the team can catch good form, we start winning games at home. I'm confident that he will be a contributor like he was last year. He ended up with, was it 14 or 15 goal contributions? Like 10 and 4 or something last year? I think
13 or 14, yeah. So if he can get to double digits, get himself a handful of assists, obviously I would love 20 goals, but I don't think that it's anything to be too concerned about right now. I think it's frustrating for people because JJ's not healthy right now. You know, for me, what it is with, you know, and I'm okay with benching Chico until he solves what he needs to work on. We've seen him benched before for performance problems, and he came out the other side of it
a little bit more improved. And I think you're right. You know, we got to stop thinking about him as the 2023 Golden Boot winner. But the problem really is, and smarter people have caught on to this as well, I just don't know where he fits
in Conoball. you know you look at a player like jj and his two biggest assets are his verticality in the sense of he can take the ball collect it be strong on it keep you know do do something with whether he wants to turn and take a little goal or you know pass it pass it back towards an oncoming midfield to generate attack or he dominates in the air right so from a crossing perspective i think we're still accurate crosses fc it's one of those things where Like, that's
the player profile. We know what we're getting with J .J. Williams, and that's why he's so important to this team. Chico, I mean, two years now covering him, I don't necessarily know what his thing is. Because if you look back at Pittsburgh, he thrived in a two -striker system where he got to be, you know, when a player gets to the age that Chico is, a lot of it becomes your soccer
IQ. right it's your positioning it's understanding the players around you understanding the opponents and then just being in the right spot at the right time so a little bit of luck too and but that's that's where chico was at his best was just like oh i'm right here and i'm gonna like do the tap in or i'm gonna take the shot with no one marking me because everyone was somewhere else on the pitch i don't know how this works in the future because we've said about chico
in the past he's not good enough to go solo But then in the limited minutes and someone last week on the Thursday show, I think Matt Jean did the calculation. The two strikers, JJ and Chico, have only played like 900 minutes total across both seasons, across all competitions, whether due to injury or due to formation selection or form. They've only played about 900 minutes together. And in that time, I think Chico's only got one or two of his 10 goals from last year
in partnership with JJ Williams. i don't that's my problem right now as someone who wants to talk about this team and someone who wants to find the positive i don't know where chico's dimension brings this group into where they need to go right like if if if i could see it and then it's just more of a be patient and let the system unlock itself then i'd be having it i'd say hey give him as many reps give him as many looks as he needs but i don't know where he's
at and i was i wasn't at the game but people yesterday were saying that kano was screaming directly at him for a majority of the time this wasn't like the normal kano getting himself engaged in the game and like trying to chess master everything this was like strictly targeted at chico so i i don't know and i'm not going to speak about someone losing their their livelihood but like you can say that the the performances need to improve immediately like right now is where we
need chico the most without jj and we need him to step up in a big way We asked the same thing about Maxie. Noah's been quiet until just recently. Maxie's looking like he's taking his first step forward now. I think Noah is just getting closer and closer. I don't see a progression with Chico just yet. It feels like it's a backslide. Yeah, I'd say with the exception of the currently injured JJ, I think a lot of our forwards have not really been living up to their reputation this season
so far. There was a bit of a rough start for our defense, but honestly, they so far have been the strongest point of this team. And so trying to get some sort of offense goal scoring going is the one final puzzle piece, I think, to get this team back to where they were last season. They can't all be on Joe Brito's shoulders, right? That's just not fair. Not fair at all. Let's get to the next question here. Is it mine? I think it's mine. Yeah. No, it's yours. Yeah.
Rachel here says, who do you think is the better conference this year, East or West? It's always the East. It's always the Eastern Conference. You'll see it right now in the quality of the points within the table. There's always like those two teams per conference where they're so bad that they're making, they're propping up some of the normal actors that wouldn't be that high on the table. But when you look at the point spread. right now, the East is dominating
in most of the stats. So it's a fiercer competition internally. I haven't, I didn't take the time. Maybe we'll talk about it on the Thursday show on like, where do we fall in West competitions versus East competitions? I'd be kind of curious at this point where we're dropping points and where we're gaining them, especially for later on. Right. Cause like, again, losing to Pittsburgh as a conference rival, that's a problem down the road versus like, Hey, here's three points.
Who knows what that will mean at the end of the table standings at the end of the season. But historically, the East has always been the best. You look at Charleston right now, they're completely on fire. Lew City, no one's talking about them, but they're just as good in the standings. They show it. Loudon's had some slippage, but no one thought Loudon would be there. So East is absolutely the beast. But just remember, the Eastern Conference hasn't won the USL championship in like, what,
five years? So at the end of the day. Does it even matter if you're that good and you don't get the prize at the end of the day? Yeah, I was going to actually bring that up. Good point there. What I will say, though, I guess to the West's credit, is that their division is very spread out. So I think a lot of them are used to the travel. So when it comes to a lot of that late -season travel in the playoffs, maybe they feel like there's a bit of an advantage there
in their regards. The other thing I would say is that maybe with the East being historically strong every year is that by the time we get to the end of the season, we're all beat up and broken from fighting each other. And then that final version, whoever gets out of the East alive is hanging on there by a thread. It's a similar issue that a lot of... pundits in England would complain about where for a long time, historically,
they were bad in the Champions League. They're like, well, we have such a busy, condensed holiday schedule where you've got, you know, Boxing Day matches, FA Cup matches, Carabao Cup matches. And then the time they get to the later rounds of the Champions League, they're all worn out. And that it can be such a dogfight in England where some of the other leagues, as great as the talent that they have are, You typically only see maybe like five or six teams realistically
who have any source of winning. I mean, technically it's kind of like that in England too. But a lot of the bottom teams have really gotten a lot better. There's almost like a top eight at this point where there's a decent amount of teams that have the finances to really make the Premier League a tough battle. So maybe the East needs to find a way to balance some of their stamina. Try not to, you know. Get to the final dance there, but try and get there in one piece maybe.
Yeah, I mean, it's both a marathon and then it's a sprint once you're in the postseason. So completely agree. Moving on, Bob writes in, what was worse, the Detroit game last year or this year's Pittsburgh game? Very disappointing. I don't know if he's, he must be referring to the loss at Bern. Yeah, I think the Detroit one at home was worse. I think this one. This had a nil -nil draw written all over it. That one goal, unfortunate. I went
back and looked at it a few times. I don't think I would be too harsh on Koke there, especially because he made a few really good saves to keep it even. Grant Stoneman made a goal line clearance at the end. The defense was fighting hard to keep us in this match. We just couldn't score. So at that point, the Detroit game felt like we were never in that game. Like, they just outclassed us, and we were like, you know, couldn't have
any sort of answers for that one. Honestly, it's so interesting about Grant Stoneman in this case because Grant Stoneman's kind of deliberately responsible for the goal in a weird, freak way. And then, you know, you talk about that clearance
that he had. He's also the player that set up... the attack run on koke to begin with and just kind of like he takes us i think it was wealthy he dribbled through seven or eight players and stoneman is the last line of defense and stoneman takes a step and walt he just goes around him like he's a traffic cone and grant doesn't turn and try to like catch up grant just like almost like well i tried Like this was the best I could
do. And so as the play, you know, kind of shifted further towards the left side of the pitch, Stoneman does finally catch up. And it's because he was so behind on the play that he was just trying to get into the box. Like if he had been on his player man marking, he would have never been in that position to be able to clear the ball in the first place. So it's good that he made, you know, he cleaned up his own mess, but also kind of involved in some of the most promising.
problems for rhode island fc for the night interesting interesting times and when you go back and if you look at the the goal that pittsburgh scored if you pause it real quick before uh is griffin right i think before he hits it there are four rfc players blocking coque vegas's line of sight yeah and so when you look at anything why didn't he yeah but that and then the problem too is after that clearance They looked a little lackadaisical
in terms of pushing to clear. Maybe, I don't know if the instructions were off there, but they didn't. Someone should have closed the gap quicker. Obviously, you're still defending a set piece. Maybe someone should stay back. Maybe not block Koke's view. I mean, it just kind of is what it is, but it's disappointing to let something in like that. It didn't feel like they
were really the better team on the night. There were some opportunities, like you had said, that we were giving them, but ultimately it felt like it had nil -nil written all over it. Yeah, and I don't blame Koke at all. That was absolutely an obstruction case against him, so I don't blame him on that. I will say that the team felt really
slow. and disorientated at times like in their passing sequence i know they had 500 passes but some of that was just you know that horizontal recycle um they didn't for a seven day rest you would i would have expected to see kind of the same hunger the same drive that we saw in three games and seven days the week prior and uh it i don't know i i thought maybe you know it was the weather and thinking because of where i am right now it's you know this fan is the only
thing keeping me somewhat cool and i but then i realized you guys just come off the nor 'easter so it couldn't be that like i don't know why this team seemed to have lost a step last week and i again maybe it came down to the coach's tactics and the way that they're running off pure adrenaline then they got actual they got actual rest and they had to kind of warm themselves back up again kind of get going It always reminds me of Turnbull when he used to say he liked traveling
because there was no distractions. There was a little bit more anxiety because you were in someone else's fortress. And maybe there's a truth to that. Could you imagine if we become a great road team again and then we see no success? That is the darkest timeline for new fans getting excited about this club. Yeah. Next one here. Ashley, it was great to be home. but disappointing not to see the stadium fill to capacity. How long do you think it'll be before we regularly
sell it out? I would say... Wait, wait, hold on. Before we start, what was the attendance? Because I don't know what it was. I could maybe look it up real quick. I thought I heard five -ish. So north of 5 ,000. So if we were at burn, it would have been a sellout. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's what matters right now. That is the ultimate base. I know there's going to be a lot of people who start crying about, oh, you can't even fill your stadium now. And, you know, it's Memorial
weekend. That's no excuse. Bad weather. We're all New Englanders. You know, that's going to get thrown around. But the reality is, as long as you never fall below a burn stadium capacity, this is still a success year over year. Right. So I'm OK with that. As for when we sell it out, I mean. I haven't heard from the club. I mean, they'd love to, but their numbers aren't sellout for every game. They're like somewhere between 7 ,500 and 8 ,500, and they're hitting their
KPIs of what they want. So I don't see that as a bad thing, but I think I interrupted you. No, yeah, sorry. I mean, I asked you the question anyway. I just want to kind of jump in as I was there too and mention, you know. although we should all be used to it, the weather, but like, let's be honest, not a lot of people do use that as an excuse. Even when you, you kind of live in that area, it was, it, or still is a holiday weekend. People probably had plans to be out.
And then maybe there's the reality that sure. We've won a few games away, but the buzz around this team is still building. So until we can win a few more home matches where people say, Oh, like I, I saw them win that. That was really good. We're. we're kind of starting over again in some way where you know it we've kind of got to build some of this back up again to a certain extent so i'm not too concerned i think the 7 p .m starts actually might help where with the
4 p .m a little earlier in the day people have a lot to do i mean there was like two softball tournaments across the street like tons of people and little kids and so in like that what you know like there are other things that people have to do 7 p .m. nightcap kind of end of the day, maybe a little easier on the weekends to still go out and do something, kind of come back and catch some RFC soccer. It's so funny because you speak of it as a single or a guy with no
kids. And everything we hear from the other side of that coin is like they want the 4 p .m. games because a 7 p .m. game is too difficult to manage.
with you know the flock around you so you're never going to make anyone yeah i mean i mean some of that's just speculation but i also know a lot of those parents their kids do stuff so like how are you going to actually take your kids to the match if you've on some softball or soccer tournament or something maybe for a lot of the people the goal isn't to go to every match anyway i don't know it's a better hit or miss you can never make anyone everyone happy
No, you cannot, especially in New England. So this is the real question of the night, and we got to address it. Ben writes in, is Tidewater actually cursed? Do we need to go back to Burn? No. I kind of mentioned it talking about the last question here, but in a way, this is a first season all over again. We are in a brand new home. It can... take a while for that home to maybe feel familiar to become your own home.
I know they get to train there at least with compared to last year where they had to train on like a side field because burn was being used all the time. Um, you know, I, I think once the, once the, uh, the first one comes, it'll be like, uh, you know, like an opening of the dam to a certain extent where like, okay, cool. We got that monkey off her back. We're fine. Now we can move on. Good thing we have Miami next week, or at least in the next home game. That's exciting.
That's not a trap game at all, Jason. Not a trap game at all. I already have the name of that episode locked in. Not a trap game. Oh my gosh. Alright, next question. Andrew says, does Bob Lilly have Coach Kano's number? I would think so. They probably talk to each other. Yeah, yeah, 8 -6 -7 -5 -3 -0 -9. Everyone's got Coach Gano. I've got Coach Gano's number. I actually forgot to say this, so I've got to go back a step, see my own notes. Back to the burn statement, though,
just so everyone remembers, too. Like you said, it takes time. At this exact point in our season in 2024, in terms of our home record, we had only scored one goal in four games. So we are,
like, perfectly on track with our normal. trajectory of performances early on in home games so like again when i tell people just relax like let's talk about this in two more months if we still only have one goal scored by us in our home stadium then yeah that's a problem but otherwise we're right on track as for does bob lily have coach cono's number this is curious we talked about this last week i think i said it incorrectly in the moment because you called me out we're
like this wasn't a bad game referring back to the high mark performance last season but i did think coach kano tactically set himself up for failure and it was probably his worst coaching performance of his season because it just didn't look like he'd set his team up for success i look at this one now and i tried to have that lens on as i watched the game especially as things started going sideways on us and you know looking back at the first one last year jackison's first
goal of his career in the usl championship was it was a good goal on you know running on to uh running at us and then the the sample goal was a fluke i mean like that that goal he couldn't recreate that nine out of ten times if he tried he probably couldn't recreate that goal ten out of ten times so like i look at that one compared to it and i i still see the same thing where we we talk about it at length lily loves shape he loves the team moving as a collective unit
and instead of like the individual parts and they're not a team that wants to get drawn out they're not a team that wants to get broken down easily i don't know why that's so difficult for us because we've broken down better teams so is this where coach kano needs to change it up for the next you know and spoiler alert, it's this upcoming week, or does he need to perfect
the system he has? Because this feels like to me now, this is the one team that we just can't, and I'm going to pull it up as you talk, but I don't think we had many final third entries in this game, or at least in comparison to where we normally are. It's one thing to not have a lot of shots on target or shots in general, but final third entries is something that we need to see at least to be dangerous. And I'm pretty sure they were pretty poor in relation to our
normal stat numbers. I could be way off. It just didn't feel like it at the time. Yeah, I think it's tough against a team like this, right? And part of this comes down to, as a manager or coach, what type of philosophy do you want to have? Do you want to be reactionary in the sense that you change your tactics and style based upon
the teams that you're playing? Or do you want to have your own distinct, unique style and be the best version of that self and be so good at it that you, even coming up against a opposing style that clashes or conflicts with yours, that you can still become the victor in that sense? And I think that, for instance, our lineup. I know it's just the way we start, but 4 -2 -3 -1, I don't feel lines up very well against a
3 -4 -2 -1. Right, so should coach have maybe shifted to, I know we kind of still somewhat play a 3 -5 -2 at times, but maybe been a bit more rigid in his 3 -5 -2? Should we maybe taken off one of the wingbacks, put another midfielder in or something? I don't know. But then at a certain point too, if you're constantly chopping and changing your own style, can you ever really get good at what you do yourself if you take
away that repetition? And so do we just accept this as a bit of a growing pain to get better as that 4 -2 -3 -1 in the same way we saw last year where it takes some time for the style to really implement. But once we get going, it's like a steam train that just keeps going and like the momentum carries us through the rest
of the season. Maybe ultimately you want to have the final destination be a little better, but I mean, honestly, if we made the final, like, you know, that was a pretty good first season. It took us a while to get there, but. So our final third entries were slightly below average, but our touches into the opposition's box was the second lowest of the season. And that includes the game. Like this was lower than our game against
Detroit city where we were down a man. So in that aspect, this is like, it was less than half of our highest performance. And it was probably about 40 to 42 % less on average than our normal amount at just 14 touches. Ironically, our worst. touches into the opponent's box so far this season was the Tampa Bay game. But that's because we just decided we were going to only shoot bangers from the outside. Didn't even need to go into
the box. Yeah. And listen, I don't disagree with you about, you know, you perfect what you can control and you line it up. It just feels like maybe the right question is, it's not does Bob Lilly have Kano's number. It's like they're playing the game of rock, paper, scissors, right? Because that's kind of what you're doing at that point. This is my strategy versus yours. And it just
seems like every time. connor goes scissors bob lilly just comes in with rock and like just that's it so i i will say this just to kind of preface one of the final questions of this we it's really important we score a goal this week coming up like we need to at least you know whether or not we win the game like i'd like to see us win that and take a stronger stance in the jägermeister but like we now need to score we need to be able to prove to this team, to ourselves, that we
can find the back of the net against a Bob Lilly side like that, I think is the most important mission of the next week. Yeah, absolutely. So Kevin writes in for this next question. Is there concern moving forward with this team? The lack of scoring, we're in sixth place and falling injuries galore. Is this team below expectations or did we set them too high? And I'm assuming by we, he means the collective we and not you and I. Yeah. I mean, Sixth and falling, we were
just 11th, right? Like a week ago or 10th. We kind of jumped up there pretty quickly with two back -to -back away wins. Injuries are a concern, but a lot of those people are starting to come back healthy. I'd say within the next month to maybe month and a half, we're going to have almost everyone healthy at this point, assuming that no one else gets injured. I'm not concerned moving forward. Like we mentioned earlier, first home
win didn't come until June 26th. If it's July 1st, we're going into the rest of that summer stretch, and we haven't scored any goals at home, we don't have any more positive results to feel good about, then I'm going to start being concerned. In terms of setting our expectations high, like the collective, we maybe... We did make it to the final last year. So I think to expect this team to come right out the gate and just do the exact same thing again, you know, it doesn't
always work like that. So it's still early. I'm
not pushing any panic buttons just yet. Yeah, I think the only expectation that we're missing on right now is, and I forget how Coach worded it this year, because... he said it the way that everyone remembers last year like i never promised wins but i promised you'd watch entertaining soccer that had people committed like they were gonna leave it all on the pitch i am not necessarily entertained by the results but sometimes that's the beauty of it like a really good defensive
game you have to be able to appreciate that as you know the eye the b was the eye of the beholder or whatever so like in that case like these have been well fought matches on both sides. Like no team wanted to be the first ones to get dunked on at Centerville Bank Stadium. And I guess that narrative continues. And then there were other teams that wanted to get the first win and dunk on Rhode Island FC as the Eastern Conference champions and the runners up from last year,
right? We've talked about that at length too. Like a lot of teams are treating Rhode Island FC really different in comparison to how maybe they took the look at them and how they respected
them. in 2024 so yeah we're it's we have just we're on the wrong side of the curve right now we have a much higher climb and it's going to be difficult but i don't think anyone's expectations should be anywhere other than wait until august are we in contention for a home playoff berth if not are we all okay that we're still going to make the playoffs and then we can kind of start reflecting on the comparativeness of of where we are and where we need to be yeah All
right. And then what do we got next to Ross? How is our record compared to last year? I don't have the actual stat right off the top of my head, but I know based upon where we are in terms of the months, I think to this day, a year ago, the day we're recording right now, we got a nil -nil draw at home against Louisville. So at that point, our first, we only had one win. So we currently have three. So I think we're doing
better. It's frustrating maybe because we're not seeing the results at home like we want just yet. But so far, this team has been road warriors. So it's an improvement. You know, it's incremental. I'll take it. It's still a young franchise, if you will. Right. This team doesn't have a lot of history. So we're still kind of fine near feet. I mean, this is also Coach Cano's second year as a head coach. So he's probably still learning a lot of things himself too after taking
that over from being an assistant coach. So it's not too bad. There's still some hope. The way I look at it is this, is that it's more of a,
are we happy? with the additional wins early on versus the additional losses right because this is within one to two points exactly where we would have been and remember we were kind of trapped in the basement for a very long time until that june uptick where we were like 10th and not going anywhere so these winds have elevated us technically we're doing better than we were last year the only concern now though is is that we have i think double the losses that we had
in looking back in retrospect to 2024. Kano was very proud of the number of draws. I mean, he is the draw king when it comes to draw kings. And he was very happy about that. Like it was a badge of honor for him. So I don't know how you take that. Like in my world, like the wins are important because it creates the winning mentality. But draws can be just as equally important where it's like we will never give up and not
get points out of any single scenario. So like if you had to ask me which one would I rather have, if all the wins were at home in front of fans, I would say that I'd want this season. But looking back, like I kind of have to respect, it was only two losses, one win and like six draws that early on. Like I kind of, that was a little bit more of an interesting narrative. At this point, we're just like not quite sure
what our swim lane is yet. Yeah, the only thing I would argue against some of that was, Some of those draws, if we're being completely honest with ourselves, being removed from that season. Don't bring up the three nil -nil draws. Don't bring up that we had three nil -nil draws at this point in the season. I wasn't even going to say the score. I was just going to say some
of those were boring games. We were excited because we've got our brand new team here, but some of those, there was not a lot of excitement to have here. Whereas, even a few of our losses have been frustrating. I felt okay about the majority of the performance that the team put out, that there was just a few tweaks that needed to be had, or maybe the ball was a little to the right, it would have went in, little things like that. Whereas some of those draws last year were just,
they were tough. I should ask you, we always talk about the worst game, best game. Do you remember the most boring game of last year? I mean, I want to say it was either the Charleston or the Pittsburgh, both nil -nil games at home, I think, were pretty rough. Is there another one that I've just blocked out from my memory? Probably, because you can't recall it if your life depended on it. It was the North Carolina match. That was the most boring game. Oh, the
away one? Uh -huh, correct. Yeah, I think there was literally one chance that Doyle had, and
that was it, the entire game. The rest of it just felt like... okay we're just passing the ball around we're just playing keep away from ourselves but uh let's move on here brian writes in i heard you i guess he's referring to me on the qc say someone is trying to start claiming kano should get sacked ridiculous but do you think anyone's in a hot seat right now absolutely not it's it's so we're in sixth place like I, but Brian, I don't want to insult you because
that's not the goal of this. It's just to have a discussion. I don't know if I don't, cause I, you sent it through email. So I don't know if this is a, if this is like someone who's again, like it's hard, like, and do me a favor to anyone that's like listening, do me the honor of when you write a question and if I'm not scraping them from social media and you want us to answer it and I've never interacted with you before, right? Like when you became a fan, because then
that can help us tailor. the questions to it so brian i'm just going to assume that since you listen to quahog corner that you've been around for a long time and you would know that there are just certain individuals that want to say things for the sensationalism of it like jason just said we're in sixth place we are riding high we're basically perfectly balanced across our our table standings and we have so many games left we still have what 14 home games left this
year 13 now i i think it's is it 13 it doesn't matter how many home games we have the point is we're in first place in the jägermeister cup we are just fine in a playoff contention for the championship and some people they only can see the negative out there and maybe you can call us the you know the ever positive you know optimistics but like i will never i will never start the narrative of anyone should be in a hot seat uh or getting fired until the time we're
like the results need to improve immediately, right? And like, look at Brendan Burke, still with the club. Yeah, you look at Tampa Bay, Sacramento. How many, I think five teams have already recycled their coaches this season. And like, none of them have been eliminated mathematically from the playoffs yet. Look at Greg Vanney from the Galaxy. Hasn't won a game in 14 matches, got like a three -year contract extension. Like, we are perfectly fine. So I would advocate for
anyone that follows this club, please. Do not say anything around, you know, a player out, a coach out, a front office member out. Like, you can be unhappy. You can lament them online as much as you want. That's your right. But I would ask, like, let's save the pitchforks for when we need it. Because that way, it's not just a calling card. It's like, it's a movement. Like, if we ever need to say Kano out, and there's substance behind it, that's when the time comes.
And like, they take us serious. I don't know. I'm going way off the charts here on this one. I hate that. It's like the boy who cried wolf type stuff, right? I totally understand people being frustrated. I want people to, you know, it's great that there's so many people out there so passionate about this club, voicing their opinion. And, like, if they're frustrated and they're angry, they have all the right to be. They don't have to try and be as level -headed
or positive as we always try to be. But I think even when you're in swimming in those lanes, that there needs to be some perspective. Sixth place. I understand that there is like New England excellence in regards to their sports, but it's our second year. We made it to the final in our first year. Give this team some time. You know, like you said, if we end the season with 15 points, well, then maybe we definitely can have some, we'd have some more serious conversations then,
but we're. We're still early on. There's been some fight that we saw from this team. We've seen some good away victories. We've saw a lot of good performances. We know that we have a lot of good players. Maybe some of them are all not in form. There's still some stuff working through. There's a lot to be excited for in this team, I think, still. That it's a little too early to kind of go out there and start calling
for people's jobs. You know, sixth place. i mean playoff spot you you can say new england's like expects champions but they just don't the reality is they don't handle loss as well look at the celtics they got knocked out this year after winning it the prior year and everyone's like oh blow it up get a new coach get a new team it's oh it's it's over now now they're just laughing at the knicks losing yeah and now the bruins bruins you know not great patriots when was that
last and the red sox okay maybe i don't know that's plenty of baseball season left like Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot the big one, New England Revolution, because we're anti -New England Revolution on this hashtag not an MLS podcast. They're doing some good. I think that hashtag not an MLS podcast, they just gave up some goals the other day. No, but we're now looped into being anti -revolution, which, again, you know, whatever. Hey, if that's your team, support soccer. I mean, I prefer local
soccer, but, you know, you do you. Next question here is Brad. Is there a player in your eyes that can max this team a top three right now, and can we get him? Maybe some transfer speculation? Have you ever heard of Cal Jennings? I hear he's pretty good. Yeah. I hear he's pretty good. Yeah, I heard he's going to replace Christian Pulisic on the MLS. Not MLS. The USMN's national team. You know, I saw him. Again, not trying to bring up my Italy trip, but I watched him play in that
Milan game and wasn't impressed. I'm not going to say he cost Milan the game because it was other problems, but if that's the best we have and then he doesn't want to play in the Gold Cup, what are we doing? I don't know. Diego Luna is our savior. USL supremacy. Get Cal Jennings
up there with him, honestly. i'd love to see it they'd probably go out there and fight for the shirt you know there's the kid up in um vancouver that's tearing up the the western conference with the white caps right now he just got called up and and he's talking about how it's like the greatest thing that could ever happen to him i feel like some of our us men's national team players like they treat it like it's a job and not that it's like more important than anything
else you'll ever do in your life yeah but anyway us men's national team but back to uh any any uh players you think i don't i mean i don't know the preface to this so it's like i mean i made the joke about cal jenning you can go up and down i know on all the other um rhode island fc stuff people always want benzini from uh tormenta because that that was the that was the bargain value that we were supposed to grab that we didn't um i i championship wise there's there's no striker
that's sleep that's been slept on. Every team that has a need for him, they're using them. I don't think that there's... I would like someone that's quick and can just stretch. Especially when JJ gets back, if we had a quickness to the front line, maybe like a Cameron Dunbar in the... Well, that's a phone call. I didn't know there was a phone call in this office. Maybe I'll edit that out later. That's fun. It's part of the mailbag. When was the last time you had a phone,
like a landline? I haven't had a landline in years. Is it at least like something fun, like a hamburger phone? No, just an old Panasonic that was white at one point and is now very much that plastic yellowed needs to be changed out.
um but back to it so like a camera dunbar like a speedy player like but someone that can get into the attack that's i think where we would want to go i've heard rumors about some mls sides that are looking to find a striker to loan to us um i didn't hear this from the rhode island fc camp i heard it from a journalist that covers an mls team in a market and like they were asking me if i knew anything The club has not confirmed or denied anything at this point, and nor would
they. I don't see us seeing any kind of transaction until after League's Cup at this point, because like, why would you let go of an asset, especially like that's the time to potentially get them minutes or get exposure. But yeah, I think, I think there is probably a player out there that can immediately transform this game. I just don't know if we go the route of an aged or washed out championship slash MLS player who comes down.
or if it's some bright and upcoming USL1 kid that no one's paying attention to or a collegiate player that just hasn't gotten their look. So for my answer, my legitimate answer, let's get Kai Kamara in. He gets his 10 minutes with team number 18 in the MLS, and then let's just have him retire at King down here in Rhode Island FC. He jumps on our channel all the time to listen to the pod, so why not? Yeah, actually, I remember saying on there, is this the real Kai Kamara?
Hey, sign up. Some sort of, yeah, some sort of striker. I think at this point, you know, I'm not a, I'm not a Chico hater, but he's, he clearly hasn't been putting up the numbers. I think that we really want to kind of win us some games. Do you think that Chico needs more competition to give him an X factor or an edge? Maybe in the sense that like it, not that he's like just sitting there thinking, ah, no one can displace
me, but. When you have to fight for your spot there, maybe it gives you that little bit extra, the little mental edge to really push yourself to be the best version of yourself. And maybe, unfortunately, he just doesn't have that right now. He's in a little bit of a funk. But yeah, I think we've been talking about this for a while. A third striker. I mean, we said we didn't think we needed it. Obviously, we do. We own that. I think we both said we're going to be fine.
I just asked ChatGPT who's the best striker that we need to pick up, and ChatGPT is telling me we need to go out and get Alex Harris or Alec Hughes. So I know Alec Hughes, actually. He's in Massachusetts. So we just need to get one of those two players, and we'll win everything. So thanks, ChatGPT. Who needs scouting? You've got ChatGPT. So let's do this. Solve all our problems. I swear it'd be hilarious if one of those two players now gets picked up. We'll know
Coach Kano's entire system. Next question here from Leighton. Good name, Leighton. When do we start panicking? I think we kind of touched on this earlier, but when actually is the date where we go, okay, let's push the button and let's get our tinfoil hats on? It's crazy that Everton left back Leighton Baines is a fan of RFC. Yeah, I don't think we need to start panicking until July if we don't see an improvement in regards to points, because like I mentioned a few times,
we didn't get our first win until June 26. It's a month away from right now, and that is home, sorry. So the results are, we still have some time to quote -unquote be better than last season. In some ways, we kind of maybe are in regards
to positioning and points. so stop sugarcoating it what is the date the hour the time that we hit the panic button uh i don't know i mean here's our schedule what games do we play in july all right july 5th we we host the birmingham legion uh then we go away to indie then oh towards the end of july there's the double header with hartford maybe that's that's kind of like too late from there there's still a decent amount of the season after that but at that point maybe if we are
not in a a decent spot maybe that's where we can kind of feel like the rest of the we really have to be lights out the rest of the season to actually get where we want because you have a double header towards the end of july there with hartford i would say i'd say the second week of august because at that point the summer transfer window should be kind of locked down That's where any players or any performance changes we're going to have, that will be where we've
completed the Jägermeister group stage. So if we advance, that's where we'll know if hardware, immediate hardware is closer to being earned and on the line. So yeah, I would say by the second week of August, you can make a date between the 8th and the 16th right there. That's the panic time. There's still 12 matches after the Hartford doubleheader. So that's a decent amount of... Matches to pick up some points. Next one
here, though. Jude found you guys doing research for the MLR final hosted at your new stadium. Have you guys ever been to a rugby match? But I hope I have. It's fantastic. I've been to rugby in three different continents and it is it is my second favorite sport. And it I think I think I heard this once from a movie. that soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan game played by gentlemen. So it is one of the most fantastic things you will
ever watch. Jason, when I get back, if there's still time, I don't think there is actually. It's probably why this guy or gal, Jude could be either. Is it Jude Bellingham maybe? A lot of famous soccer players listen to this RFC podcast. It's pretty crazy. I just think Jude just got out of all of his soccer season and he's like, you know what I need to do? I need to catch up on some raising. Hey, it's always good to see Jude's a rap fan. You know, that's where it really
matters at the end of the day. But we will absolutely go to the final, no matter what. We'll go and attend that unless something gets in the way. But I want to go see that at least. And next year, if we've missed the free Jax window, I have to take you up and catch a free Jax game
because it is. it is a ton of fun and anyone should go and watch it they do a really good involvement from a promotion standpoint like on and off the field um the merch is like just some of the best in the business and the players are very involved it's you can tell it's a like professional yes but also like very community driven so awesome experience i'm down check it out you don't get a choice i'm gonna kidnap you and just take you to the game so like i appreciate
you that you want to go but This was a foregone conclusion. And then last question of the night, Rick, any significance of seeing the same next week? I think team. I don't know if I messed it up, but I'll try this again. Any significance of seeing the same team next week at their home? Does a win there negate what they did to us this Saturday? I mean, I don't know. I want to say a win would negate it, but it would. But it's
a different competition. I think we're definitely going to see a different lineup in the sense like, you know, we'll have Leonette. And with the long season and maybe after that loss, I wouldn't be surprised if Coach maybe changed it up a bit just to kind of try some things out. That's kind of what cup competitions are usually for. It gives you an opportunity to... try things outside of the scope of the league and maybe not worry about this is three points dropped,
right? This is, this is a cup competition. You, you try and do your best to move on to the next round. Obviously you try and put out the team there, but to win, but also that this is a deep squad. We just talked recently about like how much depth there is in the back lines. Maybe we see a bit of rotation there, you know, Joe Brito. Maybe we get him another look up there,
see what he can do. So I don't think it will negate, but I think it will, because it is the same team, I think if we can come away with a positive result, it will be good for the morale of the team. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, I look at it as, remember, too, in the Siegermeister tournament, there's still one more USL 1 team, too. So, like, if Kano... Wants to get some professional minutes to some of the, you know, the least seen players like Cole Dewhurst
or Kevin Vang. Those could be opportunities, you know, for that, that heart, the hearts game a little later in June. So I could still see him taking the points here and going for it.
Maybe not quite a secondary team, but. most of the starting 11 because again it's seven days and you know there's something to be said about form and performance like you want them getting minutes you want them being able to stay uh you know fit in that regard and I I do think too like this is a little psychological like how what better way to wash away a loss than to go and get a win like the next week like it's very often it's very rare excuse me to get these kinds
of looks at teams a second time. So this could be a big ego boost in the right direction. And who knows? I mean, we've seen Danny Rivera now, like, out on the training pitch. Mark Ibarra one week is available, next week he's not. So, like, there's a lot of players that we haven't had, we haven't seen in a lot of minutes as of late. So I don't think this is, like, we're going to throw the B squad out and treat it like an
Open Cup kind of situation. I think there's points to be had, and I think Kano will want to take
Jagermeister Cup serious. uh the entire time and he and he said that so i i think this is i think this is significant as an optics piece but i don't think it's significant if we drop additional points and go oh we still can't win it'll be a terrible narrative that we still can't find a win against this team but i don't think that it i don't think it changes much i and i i don't mean like the entire team but like a handful of players kind of rotating and then
still have the the quote -unquote a squad there to to kind of cycle through them as the game goes but I think you bring up a good point, too. It's very possible that he might want to just, for the narrative, the optics, try and put out the strongest squad he can there to kind of see if they can, you know, undo what happened this last weekend. Yeah, I mean, it would be fun to see three former Pittsburgh Riverhounds take the pitch against them. Chico needs the minutes,
whether you like it or not. Like, if we're going to get this guy fixed, he needs to get out there and, you know, at least get like 15 to 25 minutes or more. So he'll at least make some sort of showing unless he picks up a knock between then and there. You get Marky Barr out there and then Danny Rivera. Let's see if the way to beat Bob Lilly is play Bob Lilly's players against him. That's the problem. There we go. That's our summer transfer signing. Just sign the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
What's the Starship Troopers like? To beat the Bugs. You must think like the Bugs. You must become the Bugs. Anyways, I think that's our show. That's where we're going to end it. Any final thoughts? Any final words before we catch up next Thursday for our regular stuff? I'm excited for the team to take another shot at glory in the Jägermeister Cup. It's my new favorite competition here now. I hope you bring Jäger shots to the guild. And then I hope you get banned for bringing
outside alcohol into the establishment. Nah, I'm not going to do that. It is unfortunate that we don't have any tailgate where we can do Jaeger shots and I can inflict those upon people. Just reach out to Derek from the guild and see if he can bring a bottle in, courtesy of Duffy and the rest of the guild partnership. Speaking of drinks, by the way, I've been crushing this Hawaiian Sun Passion Juice. And it's delicious. I haven't had one of these in a long time. It's like my
Capri Sun from when I was a kid here. But then I just looked at the label. It's only 2 % fruit juice. So I don't know what we're doing here. I don't know what's in this can, but I've drank like three of them now. So it's a problem. All right, let's just wrap this up. So everyone, what's going on? I was going to say, can you do this off the cuff? Yeah, go for it. I got it. I pulled it up from another document. professional
over here. As for as many times, I think I'd memorize this by now, but make sure to check our friends over at the blazing musket for all of your new England soccer coverage, including RFC. And that's at the blazing musket .com. You can follow us on Twitter threads, Tik TOK and blue sky at RFC podcast. We have an Instagram at raising anchor and there's that website raising anchor podcast .com. Anchors up, everybody. We'll
catch you all on Thursday. Anchors up, and don't forget to keep writing those questions in for the next time. See you later.