American lower league soccer is nothing if not a community of dreamers. People who want a team in their community that connects with supporters and presents a high-level product on the field. They are rarely expecting that brand new team down the road to compete with the established teams at the top from the very beginning.

Enter Rhode Island FC and some of the most serious behavior we have ever seen from an USL Championship expansion side. A stadium on the way, a well-executed brand, a serious head coach and a very serious playing squad, they are looking like the real deal.

The club started by having a 10,000 seat stadium approved in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This author has his own views on public funding of stadiums but the reality is that this is not easy to do. El Paso, New Mexico, Memphis, Tulsa and others are well-thought of clubs who currently ply their trade in baseball stadiums. While they will begin play in Bryant University’s Beirne Stadium in the 2024 season, the groundbreaking on their Pawtucket home was just shy of 18 months ago and the Tidewater Landing facility is funded and due by the 2025 season.

While Rhode Island FC is not the most unique moniker for a new club, the branding is also so good. The colors, “amber and bay blue,” officially, set the team aside as well from a visual perspective. The crest is sharp without being overly busy, the “RI” monogram with the I being the stem of an incredible, hooked anchor design, is old school without being overdone. The shape of the badge, an asymmetrical hexagon just tips in what is one of the strongest entries in the division.

This is all well and good, but the reality is no expansion side ever won anything off the field and the decisions around their coaching and playing staff would ultimately decide whether or not they could be taken seriously. In hiring Khano Smith, Tommy Soehn’s assistant at Birmingham Legion for the last five years, they took a step in the “serious” direction. Khano has a near impeccable reputation in USL and American soccer in general. Born in Bermuda, he had a successful professional career where he appeared exactly 100 times for the New England Revolution between spells in USL PDL with Carolina Dynamo and in his native Bermuda. You would have to imagine he will have a similar approach to Soehn so what can fans expect from Khano’s teams in Rhode Island?

Soehn is far more consistent than many of his counterparts in USL Championship in terms of team shape. The team nearly unwaveringly used the 4-2-3-1. A flat back four in front of the keeper, with two holding midfielder, three attacking midfielders of which two occupy wide areas and a lone striker. The team liked to play relatively direct, averaging less passes per 90 and less possession than their opponents in 2023. They were relatively happy to be without the ball as well, averaging 11.99 Passes allowed Per Defensive Action (PPDA). If the opponent had possession and were passing it around their own half, Legion was fine with that. So keep this all in mind as we discuss where Rhode Island got really serious, the roster.

Rhode Island’s signings this offseason went from “I like the business they’re doing” to “Hold up, they’re cooking” to “This is a contender” in stages. It felt like it happened all at once. They added Koke Vegas and Grant Stoneman from San Diego Loyal which felt like solid and opportunistic business. This was the sort of thing you saw from savvy expansion teams, finding experience in the division without paying a fee for it while you set up the rest of the roster. Conor McGlynn and Mark Doyle felt like additions that can certainly add something but fell in that category of signings that you would expect an expansion side to make. One experienced central midfielder in McGlynn and one attacker from abroad in Doyle. Then they added Prince Saydee from Hartford. This grabbed some attention as he was one of the few bright spots on that abysmal side from last year. Again though, snagging a guy off one of the worst teams in League history did not really move the needle in terms of how people thought of Rhode Island. This is where things started to shift.

Rhode Island debuted their kits and along with it striker JJ Williams, most recently of the Tampa Bay Rowdies.Here is the thing, JJ was announced as returning to Tampa Bay already at this point. Rhode Island paid a fee to get a player who contributed 22 goals either through scoring or assisting off of a conference rival. This is not just serious behavior, this is “I’m leaving here with somethin’” type behavior. The shift continued as Rhode Island added Marc Ybarra who was fresh off a Players’ Shield win with Pittsburgh and widely regarded as one of the best midfielders available on the free agent market. In just two signings, Rhode Island had changed the perception of them from an interesting expansion side to genuine USL Championship title contenders. What we all did not realize is that they were not done.

The biggest name in USL free agency this offseason was Albert Dikwa, bar none. 20 goals won him the Golden Boot in 2023 for the best team in the USL Championship regular season. There is not more of a commercial that needs to be done for just how sought after he was. There were rumors across the USL and beyond. Word was that he had an MLS trial, perhaps was attracting interest from abroad and anyone who was anyone in USL had a bid in (DM me if you want to hear who, I’m not putting people’s dirty laundry on display here.) That said, amongst a bidding war that was surely intense, it was Rhode Island who went out and got it done. They have some work to do to be sure, with about five-seven roster spots still unfilled but this team is shaping up to be something special.

You might be wondering now, “How is it going to work though, if Khano is going to play with a lone striker and RI have Williams and Dikwa?” I’ll tell you how. Dikwa was the purest form of striker in 2023 in Pittsburgh. He scored 20 goals and assisted zero. He is going to start up top, without question. What he brings to the table is unmatched in terms of pure finishing ability. That displaces Williams in theory but I would offer that JJ playing just off of Albert in a 4-2-3-1 is mouth watering. JJ was lethal for Tampa but he had ten assists as well and his link up with Cal Jennings was not just from balls lumped up to them. He would often drift deeper into midfield before releasing a pass for Jennings to run onto. This sort of linkup between Williams and Dikwa could be one of the finest attacks the League has seen. Add in Prince Saydee making an impact off the wing, and you have a forward unit that is one winger away from being the best on paper by a distance.

Listen, Leagues are not won on paper and like I said, Rhode Island still has some work to do to be a true contender. Ideally some depth in defense and midfield, along with a left wing dynamo still remain to be signed. The work this club has done so far, from the stadium to the players they’ll put on the pitch, has made the rest of the League stand up and take notice. They have set a new standard for expansion clubs in the League and I hope it spurs the existing teams and any new expansions being planned to raise the bar further in the future.

- Phil Baki