Phoenix Rising opened their preseason on Saturday against Portland Timbers of the MLS.

It was Rising’s first action after their magical run to win the 2023 USL Championship as well as the first chance for new head coach Danny Stone to see his team at game speed.

Some clever passing by Portland allowed them to open the scoring in the fourth minute, but neither team could find the back of the net from there.

Both teams created chances—Portland to finish the game and Rising to try to equalize—but in the end, that single early goal was the only one that found its way onto the scoresheet.

Stone broke his squad into two separate teams, rotating the sides at 20 minutes into each half.

“First of all, I’m extremely happy with this, because I think every player that was out there got a lot out of it from my perspective on the sideline,” said Stone. “It’s our first outing and our first preseason match, and the first thing you look at is that level of fitness improvement.  From a performance point of view…again, extremely pleasing.  I mean the game itself presented us with different challenges in each half, which saw us as far as our development and growth and learning as a team.  That’s a great first experience.”

Stone emphasized that preseason friendlies like Saturday’s match are important to grow the team and learn what they have while bonding and building levels of chemistry out on the pitch.

“The chemistry between the group for 10 days in is, I think, very good,” said Stone. “I was really pleased with the performance from both halves, from both starting groups of each half, and obviously each group that finished each half.  Nobody was expecting it to be perfect, nobody expected to be completely fluent, but I for sure saw elements of what we spent time working on.”

It seemed like this first match was a good test for not only the players, but also Stone, seeing how he can manage with each player in addition to getting everyone as much game time as possible.

Rising’s next preseason match will be against Minnesota United on Feb. 10, at the Coachella Valley Invitational near Palm Springs, Cal.