Ask Khano Smith 18 months ago if he thought his Rhode Island FC side would be playing in the USL Championship final, and he wouldn’t have believed you. After all, the team that he agreed to manage didn’t technically exist. With no stadium, players or fans, this was an entirely new entity. He may have put pen to paper, but he had 12 months to sort this whole thing out.
Fast forward, and it’s all very real. In its inaugural season, Rhode Island FC – which plays at Beirne Stadium, home of Bryant University – is 90 minutes away from becoming the sole team in league history to win USL in their first season as a club. And it’s been quite the journey to get here.
“It’s nice to be rewarded with this. But yeah, I don’t think anybody in the wildest dreams would have thought that we would have been here,” Smith told GOAL.
None of this started particularly well. In January, Smith was still piecing the roster together. Assembly wasn’t easy, he admitted. Without much name recognition, the coach looked far and wide for some top talent. Yes, he managed to snag a star player or two – including eventual Golden Playmaker award-winner Noah Fuson – but this was mostly about depth and character. It’s a cliche, Smith concedes, but this was a process.
And so it turned out to be. Rhode Island needed a 92nd minute own goal to snag a draw in their first game of the season, played in front of 5,000 fans. It took more than a month, though, before RIFC had something to truly celebrate. They went six matches without winning, and found themselves on the right end of a result in just two out of their first 14 games.
“We were in every game, and competitive,” Smith said, “and still to this day, we have been, and we didn’t lose many games. And it also took us until September to lose back-to-back games. It sucked not winning for that while, but we also weren’t losing, and ultimately, we have the third least amount of losses in the league.”
In mid-June, halfway through the season, they were in 11th place – and falling.
Then, something changed. It all started, Fuson says, with a loss. RIFC threw away a 2-0 lead against Memphis, conceded twice in second-half stoppage time, and had to settle for a 2-2 draw. But then, they went on the road to Louisville FC, then the league leaders, and battered them. They ran out 5-2 winners, and proved, if just momentarily, that something could happen.
“We went on to beat Louisville at their place by a hefty margin,” Fuson said. “And I think that that was honestly the turning point for us in the season where we’re like, ‘OK, we just beat arguably the best team in the league. We just beat them in their house. Let’s see what else we can do.’ “
The forward, hailing from Glendale, California, but with stints for Forward Madison and Columbus Crew, was right in his summation. They enjoyed an eight-game undefeated streak midseason, and made a real playoff push. There were a couple of shaky results after, but RIFC finished the season without losing in six.
Smith claims that potential was always there. It was just a matter of time.
“Even when things didn’t go well in the beginning of the year, I didn’t really lose sight of what we were trying to do,” Smith said.
The numbers make for interesting reading by season’s end. RIFC finished the campaign with a USL record 15 draws, but only lost seven. For Fuson, those stats weren’t exactly encouraging.
“We had been struggling so much early in the season holding leads, and we’re giving up leads late in games,” Fuson admitted.
Smith sees it a different way. Yes, there may be a lack of edge for this team at times. But they were immensely hard to beat.
And it’s the latter that has proved true in the playoffs. Coming into the postseason as a No. 5 seed, it was, mathematically, unlikely that RIFC would host a game. And so it has held. But it also hasn’t really mattered at all. They have won three straight on the road, scraping past Indy Eleven, before bouncing both the first and second seed from the tournament. Louisville – the very same team that turned their season around – were done away with, 3-0.
“We respect everybody, but we fear nobody, and we just go up and try to be the best versions of ourselves, being difficult to beat on the road or at home. I think it’s is one of our principles,” Smith said.
This is where Colorado Springs come in. If the RIFC story has been one of immediate success, the Colorado one has been all about sustained growth. In 2019, they finish 18th in the league. By 2022, they were up to third. This season, they finished second, with a better goal difference than first-placed New Mexico United.
They’re chasing down a bit of history themselves. Although they have been around for 10 years – practically ancient by USL standards – they have never played in the final. Rags to riches this is not, but there is a first on the line here, too.
“We’ve got a lot of players in our locker room that have been on a journey throughout the USL that have have shown huge growth, and now are in a really good position, because we’ve won the Western Conference and have the USL championship final at the weekend,” head coach James Chambers said. “So I feel like it’s it’s just moving along and growing. Everybody is in the same direction.”
Colorado Springs, higher seeded, better balanced, and with home field advantage, probably come into this final as narrow favorites – even if Chambers won’t admit it.
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to turn up on Saturday and just win, because we’ve we’ve got the home field advantage. It doesn’t work like that. We’re also facing a team that have won three on the road, gone to number one and two in the west and turned them over,” Chambers said.
Still, Rhode Island have spent the last few months repeatedly defying expectations, and breaking the mold of how things are supposed to work in this league. Colorado Springs could make history. Either way, there will be a new champion.