Phoenix Rising travels to Monterey Bay this Saturday, March 16 at 7 p.m. on Arizona’s Family Sports and Goalazo Network. In its first road test of the season, Phoenix is looking to recapture some of the playoff magic that saw Rising tear through the top three seeds in the Western Conference in California on its way to winning the USL Championship Title on November 12.
“Monterey Bay is never an easy opponent to play,” said Rising Head Coach Danny Stone. “The way they generally operate is as a hardworking and consistent team. They’re good in wide areas. They bring a lot of energy. We expect a difficult opponent and a tough task ahead of us this weekend.”
While Rising outshot its season-opening opponent, Birmingham Legion, 18-11 on opening night, Phoenix was not able to get one past goalkeeper Matt VanOekel. The veteran goalkeeper made eight saves and punched away two more to earn USL Championship goalkeeper of the week.
Monterey opened its 2024 campaign last night, drawing El Paso, 1-1, in Texas.
“Monterey was effective in that match,” said Stone. “They had a very good first half, in which they caused El Paso problems. They pressed aggressively and created good transitional opportunities. Monterey was good in wide areas. They sent in crosses that were effective in creating opportunities. After El Paso scored early, Monterey settled into the game and became the more dangerous team. Credit to them, they pushed to the end of the game and scored a good goal.”
The goal came from Monterey forward Tristan Trager, who latched onto the ball at midfield, turned his defender and sprinted 50 yards towards goal. At the top of the area, Trager played a one-two pass with teammate Alex Dixon before hammering a shot high over the shoulder of the goalkeeper to make it 1-1 in the 87th minute. A member of the Charleston Battery last season, Treger started the USL Championship Final vs Phoenix in November.
“We’ll always go into games wanting to ask opponents as many questions as they ask of us,” said Stone. “We want them to have to deal with us. We plan to approach the match on the front foot. We’ll utilize the strengths we have to force them to have to play a difficult game, under pressure.”
The last time Rising was in Monterey, it was coming off a heavy loss, midweek to Sacramento on July 26. That 4-0 loss and subsequent 2-0 rebound victory against Monterey three days later galvanized last year’s squad, helping create the magic and “never say die” mentality the club leaned on to win three straight road playoff games in California.