After matching its biggest win of the year with a 4-1 victory against USL League One club Portland Hearts of Pine in the USL Jägermeister Cup, Rhode Island FC will complete its four-game homestand on Saturday when it welcomes Birmingham Legion FC to Centreville Bank Stadium. Saturday’s game will mark RIFC’s first repeat opponent in the 2025 USL Championship regular season, after the Ocean State club bested Birmingham 1-0 at Protective Stadium on May 14. Rhode Island FC hold a perfect 3W-0T-0L record against the Alabama club, and will look to keep that record alive and string together back-to-back home wins for the first time this season against a team that sits just one point behind it in the Eastern Conference standings. Ahead of Independence Day at Centreville Bank Stadium, presented by Bally Bet, here is everything you need to know.
AT A GLANCE
Date | Saturday, July 5
Kickoff | 7:00 p.m. ET
Location | Centreville Bank Stadium – Pawtucket, R.I.
Broadcast | NESN+, CBS Sports Golazo Network
Radio | 790 The Score (790 AM)
Social | @rhodeislandfc (X, Instagram, Facebook)
Game Hashtag | #RIvBHM
Last Meeting | May 14, 2025: RI 1-0 BHM – Birmingham, Ala.
BIRMINGHAM LEGION FC
Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Matt Van Oekel, 18-Trevor Spangenburg, 57-Fernando Delgado
DEFENDERS (8): 2-Stephen Turnbull, 3-Phanuel Kavita, 4-Ramiz Hamouda, 5-Ethan Kos, 13-Jake Rufe, 20-AJ Patteron, 33-Moses Mensah, 43-Tiago Suarez
MIDFIELDERS (6): 8-Kobe Hernandez-Foster, 11-Dawson McCartney, 19-Enzo Martinez, 25-Roman Torres, 32-Temi Ereku, 47-Finn Calloway
FORWARDS (6): 7-Danny Trejo, 9-Ronaldo Damus, 10-Preston Tabort Etaka, 15-Tyler Pasher, 22-Lucca Dourado, 23-Sebastian Tregarthen
Find the Net
Following a scoreless draw vs. Charleston Battery on Wednesday, Birmingham Legion FC extended its season-long scoreless stretch to two games. It last scored in the final minutes of a 1-0 home win vs. Sacramento Republic FC three games ago on June 18. Birmingham has been shut out six times this season, averaging one goal per game, and has scored more than once just five times this season. The last time the two clubs met, Rhode Island FC became one of the six teams to keep the Alabama club out of the back of the net when it defeated the Legion 1-0 on top of a first-half goal from Maxi Rodriguez on May 14. Against an RIFC attack that most recently posted four goals in a huge Jägermeister Cup win, Birmingham will need to break its two-game scoring drought on the attack.
Valiant Van Oekel
Defensively, Birmingham has kept two clean sheets in its last three regular-season games, and that defensive structure was on full display when it became just the second club all season to keep second-place Charleston Battery from scoring in its 0-0 tie on Wednesday. A huge part of that success has come from 38-year-old goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel, who kept his 50th career USL Championship clean sheet on Wednesday, becoming just the fourth player in the league’s history to reach the half-century mark in his seventh season. His five athletic saves brought his career USL Championship total to 510, which is good for third all-time in the league record books. After Rhode Island FC fell victim to Sacramento Republic FC goalkeeper Danny Vitiello’s 50th career clean sheet in a 2-0 loss on June 21, it will have another tough task as it goes up against one of the league’s top-three all-time goalkeepers for a second-straight regular-season matchup.
Pick up Points
Although Birmingham Legion FC has won just one of its last five games, it sits just one point behind 8th-place Rhode Island FC, and just three points removed from sixth place Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in a jam-packed Eastern Conference table. Nearing the halfway point of the season, a road result on Saturday could be one of the biggest of the season for Birmingham under new head coach Mark Briggs, as the club searches to turn around a poor run of form that has seen it win just once in six games away from Protective Stadium (1W-2L-3T) this season.
RHODE ISLAND FC
Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): 22-Jackson Lee, 1-Koke Vegas, 13-Will Meyer
DEFENDERS (7): 4-Hugo Bacharach, 6-Aimé Mabika, 14-Rio Hope-Gund, 15-Frank Nodarse, 2-Dani Rovira, 3-Aldair Sanchez, 5-Grant Stoneman, 24-Karifa Yao, 16-Cole Dewhurst
MIDFIELDERS (10): 80-Isaac Angking, 18-Joe Brito, 20-Zachary Herivaux, 12-Clay Holstad, 17-Jojea Kwizera, 8-Taimu Okiyoshi, 21-Maxi Rodriguez, 77-Amos Shapiro-Thompson, 19-Kevin Vang, 23-Marc Ybarra
FORWARDS (3): 10-Albert Dikwa, 11-Noah Fuson, 9-JJ Williams
Historic Hatty
After struggling to score at home since opening Centreville Bank Stadium on May 3, scoring just three goals in five regular-season games, the Ocean State club’s attack finally came alive against Portland Hearts of Pine in the USL Jägermeister Cup last time out, fueled by a historic performance from Chico. Exploding for a 4-1 win, Chico scored his first career hat-trick for Rhode Island FC, netting the trio of goals in 58 minutes. The historic hat-trick was RIFC’s first of the season, the first at Centreville Bank Stadium, and the first-ever hat-trick in the USL Jägermeister Cup. Chico’s performance was the third multi-goal performance of his Rhode Island FC career, and first since the club’s 3-2 win over Miami FC on July 13, 2024. The tally brought the 2023 USL Championship Golden Boot winner’s all-time tally to 16 career goals for the Amber and Blue across all competitions, which overtakes JJ Williams at the Ocean State club’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Swing from the Wing
Rhode Island FC has proven it can generate chances this season, as it sits within the top five clubs in the USL Championship in total crosses, and third in the league with 73 accurate crosses this season. However, the club has struggled to turn the frequent chance creation into goals, suffering a league-high seven regular-season shutouts in 14 regular-season games. Against Portland Hearts of Pine, Khano Smith’s side remedied that issue in emphatic style on Friday, sending in 20 crosses and scoring a season-high three goals directly from those crosses. Aldair Sanchez, who leads the team in total crosses, picked up a pair of assists in the win, registering multiple goal contributions for the first time in his Rhode Island FC career. He first found Chico with an accurate low cross to the near post in the 50th minute to make it 2-0, before feeding Noah Fuson in the 87th minute with an inch-perfect curling through ball to wrap up the win. Jojea Kwizera also got into the action, finding Chico in the 58th minute with a high looping cross, which Chico rose above everyone to drill into the back of the net with a powerful header to wrap up the hat-trick.
Back to Business
Although Rhode Island FC holds a perfect 3W-0L-0T record in the Jägermesiter Cup, it now needs to find a way to translate that success into the regular season, where it has lost four of its last five games and sits just one point above the playoff line as the halfway point of the regular season approaches. With five of it’s next eight games at Centreville Bank Stadium through the end of August, the Ocean State club will need to start picking up more points at home, and a second-straight result in front of its home fans could be just what the club needs to find the momentum it has been searching for this season.