On Saturday at 38th St/Washington Phoenix Rising battled a familiar foe in New Mexico United.
The two teams faced off in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on April 26 when New Mexico eliminated Phoenix 2-1. They also played on June 21. Rising won that matchup 3-1.
Phoenix is coming off a great week, after clinching a playoff berth last Saturday, with a 1-1 draw against Orange County.
Saturday’s match was Rising’s final regular season home game and the fans made sure to be there.
Rising got the evening going with a special entrance—the lights were shut off and fans lit up the stadium up with flashlights and red glow sticks radiating throughout the stands.
The game began slow, with neither team scoring a first half goal.
Things seemed fairly calm, but the second half would prove otherwise.
A lazy mistake by Phoenix defenders would result in New Mexico’s first goal not long after halftime.
New Mexico’s second goal would come when Justin Portillo converted a penalty kick after Greg Hurst drew a foul in the box.
Rising’s Dariusz Formella scored a late goal after receiving a pass from Carlos Harvey and slamming the ball into the net, making the score 2-1.
Tonight’s defeat was Rising’s first loss in nine games, but with last week’s playoff berth, they remain safe.
Obviously, the loss didn’t have much impact on Rising and head coach Juan Guerra understood that.
“Everything is still the same, we have to focus, we got to keep pushing, and it’s very clear you cannot relax, cause if we relax here, the margins are too close. And at moments tonight I felt we were too relaxed,” Guerra said during the post-game conference.
After the game, Guerra spoke about the lack of offensive production despite having two of the leagues top scorers in Manuel Arteaga and Danny Trejo.
“We have the top three or top four goal scorers in the league—we got two—in how many leagues in the world do you have two players on the same team fighting for that? We have to stay patient and we have to stay strong in our beliefs, we have to stay calm and understand that we’re going to be okay,” Guerra said.
Phoenix will learn their first-round playoff destination following next Saturday’s game at Weidner Field against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC.
