Rising hosted Louisville at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium on Saturday night.
Rising was coming off a 4-0 loss to New Mexico in the USL Cup, while Louisville had grabbed one point out of their last three matches.
Phoenix sat fourth in Group West, while Louisville sat fifth in Group East. Despite that, neither team had much wiggle room in the standings.
It didn’t help that Rising had to play three games in one week, while Louisville was coming off a whole week of rest.
“It’s a three-game week,” Rising midfielder JP Scearce said. “We have to be smart in our recovery, and this game is over now. We just have to recover and focus on the next game.”
The first 10 minutes saw the two teams feel each other out, as Phoenix played with possession, while Louisville pressed up top, looking to force a defensive error.
In the 12th minute, Louisville had a golden chance after a great through ball pass, but Rising goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky made a big save to keep the game scoreless.
Three minutes later, Rakovksy came up with the heroics again, as he denied Louisville the goal to break the ice.
Louisville was playing well, making chances with the inability to finish, while Rising sat back with a defensive set.
Late into the first half, it seemed as if Phoenix’s defense buckled down, as Louisville struggled to get a shot off, while Phoenix remained to play with possession to no avail.
“It was set up so that we could have speed,” Rising head coach Pa Modou-Kah said. “But I don’t think we were efficient with the ball enough and we were just not good enough in all phases of the game.”
Alongside that, Rising began to make chances, but just like Louisville, they couldn’t find the back of the net, as the game remained scoreless entering the second half.
Both teams came out of the half with fire, looking for the goal to open the floodgates, and it didn’t take long.
In the 53rd minute, Louisville forward Mukwelle Akale was able to get free, and as he shot it, it was deflected, but it still went past Rakovsky and into the net, making it 1-0 to Louisville.
“Louisville is a very good team in this league,” Scearce said. “I think a lot of the times when we were defending it was because we were making mistakes, which resulted in us chasing and getting a bit too tired. The plan was for us to remain in possession, just play simple and move them around.”
Regardless, Phoenix began pushing forward for an equalizer as Louisville moved into a low block to prevent Phoenix from finding the net.
Rising subbed on Gunnar Studenthofft for Damien Rivera in looks for a goal.
In the 67th minute, Louisville midfielder Zach Duncan went on a solo run before slotting it past Rakovsky to make it 2-0, making things go from bad to worse for Phoenix.
“Disappointed with the result,” Scearce said. “Tried to get them tired, it seemed like we were the tired ones at halftime. I thought we did well in the second half. We found some pockets inside and broke them down but weren’t good enough in the final third.”
With a little than over 20 minutes to go, Phoenix had to search for goals and fast.
Rising made chance after chance, but couldn’t convert any of them, and as time winded down, they struggled more to crack open Louisville’s defense.
“You got to move on,” Kah said. “This is part of life, we had 90 minutes to do something, we couldn’t change it, so now we have to move forward.”
Despite the fourth official indicating five minutes of stoppage time, Louisville never broke down, as they won 2-0.
“Not good enough,” Kah said regarding the game. “Not good enough. For me, it’s part of football. I’ve been in football long enough and today was one of those nights.”
Rising will visit El Paso Locomotive on Saturday at Southwest University Park.
