Rising Looking To Dim The Lights In Phoenix This Saturday
Following the recent loss to New Mexico United, Phoenix Rising has little time to dwell on the result with just three matches remaining in the regular season. Rising returns to 38th & Washington to face the Las Vegas Lights, holding an 11-5-6 all-time record against its Western Conference opponent. The last meeting ended in a 1-1 draw in August, with Danny Flores finding the back of the net to help Rising earn a point after a comeback effort.
“Right now, we’re just trying to build on what we did well against New Mexico, while working to lessen the mistakes we made,” Arase said. Eventually, we’ll turn our attention to Vegas, look at where they are, identify their weaknesses and see where we can catch them to get three points.”
GAMEDAY INFORMATION –
WHAT: Phoenix Rising vs Las Vegas Lights FC
WHEN: Saturday, October 10 (7:00 p.m. PT)
WHERE: Phoenix Rising Soccer Stadium (Phoenix, AZ)
HOW TO WATCH: CBS5, ESPN+, Rising Radio (English), 90MasRising (Spanish)
STILL FIGHTING
Despite recent results, Phoenix Rising has continued to show it can compete with some of the Western Conference’s best. Over its last two matches against Oakland and New Mexico, Rising controlled large stretches of play, created consistent attacking opportunities and outshot its opponents in both contests.
Phoenix recorded 12 shots against Oakland before following it up with a season-high 24 shots in Albuquerque. With the playoff race still within reach, Rising returns home with three points up for grabs and plenty to fight for against the Las Vegas Lights.
“If you don’t have the right mentality, you won’t be able to do what you love doing in football every single day,” Arase said. “I think we’ve had a little bit of bad luck, but that’s not an excuse. We still have three games. Let’s focus on those three games, starting with Vegas, and do what we need to do.”
LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK
With just three matches remaining, Rising needs five points to secure a playoff spot, making every moment of the final stretch count. Rising returns home looking to bounce back and close out the regular season strong on its home turf.
Phoenix has been difficult to beat at home this season, posting a 6-3-4 record in front of its home crowd. The final push will also rely on Rising’s key attacking contributors, led by Ihsan Sacko with 12 goals. Gunnar Studenhofft who follows with four, while Sacko and Diego Gomez have each recorded four assists to lead the team. Kelvin Arase and Rafael Czichos have been among Rising’s most recent goal scorers, providing an added attacking threat.
“In football you have three games left…go do your job. If we do our job, that’s all we can ask for,” Kah said. “It’s not focusing on what others are doing or we need something else, we need to do our job right. At the end of the day, you do your job, you can always go home knowing that you gave it your all.”
LEVEL WITH THE LIGHTS
The Las Vegas Lights enter Saturday’s matchup with a 10-11-6 record and 36 points, currently sitting ninth in the Western Conference and two spots ahead of Rising. On the road, Las Vegas is 5-7-1 this season and has gone 2-2-1 in its last five matches. The Lights are coming off a 1-0 win over San Antonio FC where they are led by Johnny Rodriguez with 12 goals this season, followed by Oalex Anderson with nine. The Lights have scored 35 goals while conceding 38 on the season and are still looking to be in playoff contention.
“Everything you do, you have to be mentally ready. We need to build off the performance we had in New Mexico and take that into this game against Vegas. I believe we have a great opportunity to take three points, and that’s the only focus we have,” Kah said.
