This season, despite palpable pressure, Rising has endured.
There was no miraculous run to the final or a USL Championship like last season but success came at a cost after the departure of Coach Juan Guerra and several Rising players.
To begin its new season, Danny Stone was named new head coach and it quickly awakened hope for another successful run.
It wasn’t an easy start—four of its first eight games resulted in losing three and drawing one—and even though Phoenix caught momentum and went on to only lose two of their next ten games—three of the games were wins, every other game resulted in a draw.
A 5-1 loss to Memphis resulted in the next day firing of Danny Stone—interim head coach Diego Gomez stepped in.
The team’s biggest weakness was scoring. Many of their games, the defense held the other team to one or no goals, but the same would happen to the offense.
During Stone’s tenure, the team scored three goals in a game only twice, and the attack of Rising was questioned.
As Gomez began, it was more of the same, hard-fought losses, close wins, or tight games that ended in a draw.
Nearing the end of the season, Gomez became critical of the attack, especially after two back-to-back draws at home, where the defense didn’t allow a goal.
For the month of September, not a single draw was noted, as they won three games, and lost three games.
In an especially tough loss to Las Vegas, heading into stoppage time, Phoenix was 1-0 up but by the time the whistle blew, Las Vegas had won 2-1.
Rising had been teetering between being eliminated from the playoffs, or being able to defend their title.
Unfortunately, a loss to Monterey Bay lowered their odds at a playoff spot, but back-to-back wins against big teams renewed their chances.
With San Antonio tying Louisville Rising was able to sneak into the playoffs as the 8 seed despite their 1-0 loss to Memphis.
“Message is that…we need to look forward, to keep trust in the team,” Gomez said after the match.
“Last year…it was a similar situation so there are many players that have seen this situation already. We had two good performances on the road, we are going to need to it again-now for the players and the message is like, we need to focus on key moments…key moments that are changing games and focus on those.”
