Phoenix Rising FC loses home opener to Birmingham Legion on own goal


Its new black and gold championship banner overlooking the stadium in east Phoenix, defending USL Championship title winner Phoenix Rising FC opened the 2024 season with a 1-0 loss on an own goal to Eastern Conference side Birmingham Legion FC Saturday night.

Phoenix had more possession of the ball and more shots on goal with an 8-3 advantage, but couldn’t solve Birmingham goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel all night.

The match’s only goal came when Birmingham’s Diba Nwegbo sent a shot off of Phoenix defender JP Scearce, changing the low trajectory of the ball and allowing it to sneak between Rising FC goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo and the near goalpost in the 67th minute.

Rising FC had eight minutes of stoppage time after 90 minutes and pressed hard for a tying goal, but Legion FC was able to survive.

“As a group, that was an outstanding collective effort tonight, and I’m bitterly disappointed for them, honestly, that they didn’t get more reward from the performance that they produced, because I feel they did deserve that tonight,” first-year head coach Danny Stone said.

New Phoenix Rising FC head coach Danny Stone talks to media members on Jan. 22, 2024, after the team opened training camp for the season.

The match was played before a near capacity crowd of 8,187, with midfielder Renzo Zambrano serving as captain in the absence of defender John Stenberg, who missed the game with a minor knee injury. Zambrano was among seven players in the starting 11 back from last season’s championship team.

Birmingham got close to the game’s first goal in the closing minutes of the first half but Phoenix’s defense was able to clear the ball out of the goal area. Off a corner kick on one chance, the ball was ever so close to being over the goal line but no goal was given.

Rising FC attacked with regularity in the early part of the second half, but couldn’t put the ball in the net. Legion FC’s Mohamed Turay broke free on the counter attack and had a golden opportunity at the game’s first goal in the 57th minute, but rolled his shot wide of Rios Novo.

Second half substitution Emil Cuello’s stoppage time shot sailed high over the goal, one of a couple of chances in the closing minutes for Rising FC.

New players, new features

New midfielder Edgardo Rito was a factor on the right wing for Rising FC, with two blistering shots on goal from the side of the net saved by Van Oekel. Rito, a 28-year-old from Venezuela, signed last December.

Scearce, Pape Mar Boye and Laurence Wyke all made their Rising debuts as starting defenders, and Remi Cabral, a scoring machine from Major League Soccer’s developmental league, came on in the second half for his Phoenix debut and almost tied the game late.

Besides the banner overlooking the northeast end of the field, the large screen at the south end of the stadium now shows in-game replays. Rising FC’s next home game, March 23 against Oakland Roots, will air on local channel CBS 5 at 7 p.m., and the club has five home games with 8 p.m. starts in the summer this season as opposed to 7:30, which had been the most frequent starting time.

They said it

“We play to compete, but we play on behalf of the people that come in and come and watch us and I know how keen the group are to give them the moments that they deserve and the moments that they come to watch the team produce as well. And we will be at that point. And like I said, I was very pleased with what we managed to produce on the field tonight. The moments that we want to give to the fans, of course, is the next piece of that. And we’re desperate to do that, believe it, we’re desperate to do that. We’re very conscious of that. And they were fantastic tonight, I felt the energy in the stadium was very, very good tonight. And the message I would give to them is, don’t lose that..” –Stone, on the atmosphere at the opener and wanting to put on a good show as reigning champion.

“We defended well most of the game. It was a tough deflection. We didn’t really give them too much. … that’s football. And, you know, we had to create some good opportunities on the other end. I mean, it’s just football. ” – Wyke, on the game.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Rising FC can’t find net in season-opening loss at home



source

Recommended For You

About the Author: soccernews