Dariusz Formella, Charlie Dennis, Ascel Essengue score first goals of 2025 as Rising climb to three points out of first in the West
Phoenix Rising continue to find ways to pick up results, extending its league unbeaten streak to six with a 3-1 win over Orange County SC on May 31 at Phoenix Rising Stadium. Following the match Head Coach Pa-Modou Kah, forward Dariusz Formella and midfielder Charlie Dennis spoke with local media about the result, building momentum and taking the club’s winning ways back on the road.
Phoenix Rising Head Coach Pa-Modou Kah
General thoughts on the match…
“Very good first half. We started the second half a little slow, allowed them to come into the game, but then from that moment, we responded well, and I think it was a well deserved victory. Football is a very simple sport, right? It’s when you have new players, they take a little bit of time to gel with one another, you know, and we’ve had our misfortunes on both ends. Today I’m not very happy we conceded a set-play goal. I think we could have done better, but again, going attacking, I think we’ve done a great job.
For us, we’re happy, but we’re not satisfied. You know, when you’re winning, sometimes it’s very easy to forget everything. For me and for my staff and the players, we have one goal in mind, and that goal never changes, whether we’re winning or losing. Right now we have good momentum, and we want to carry it by doing the little things right.”
On hitting the road for the rest of the month…
“That was one of the messages I left with (the players). This is your last home game for a month. You need to send the fans away with a smile, but also a smile on your face, because you’re going to be on the road. We’re picking up the wins at home, which is important, but we go for a month away, which we’re going to embrace. We’re road warriors, you know, we always look ahead. We’re going to enjoy this today and tomorrow. But from Monday, we have only one thing in our mind, that is Tulsa moving forward. And for us home, away, doesn’t matter. We have the same mindset with the same goal.”
Thoughts on academy players being pulled up…
“We’re not afraid to throw players in because if you’re old enough, you’re good enough. That’s the mentality that we have…This is who we are as a club. We give opportunities to players when they deserve to play, but you gotta earn that right to play…We have a core group of academy players that are with us on a daily basis. And today you saw Cyrus (Kowall), you know, another day it could be Pierce Rizzo. Another day could be Zach Da Silva. Another day, could be Bimbo, you know, Alex (Balanzar de la Cruz). Another day, it could be Tony (Capetillo) or even Jan (Villegas). We have a bunch of academy players that we believe in, that we are working with every day and making sure that they see and trust the work that they’re doing every day in this pathway.”
Phoenix Rising Forward Dariusz Formella
General emotions coming out of the match…
“Great day. Good game. The most important, fourth win in a row, I think. Yeah, big step forward, and we have the day off tomorrow, and then Monday, we work again to win the fifth.”
Thoughts on his first goal since October…
“For every offensive player, the long break from the goal is something you don’t like…after the last Jägermeister game, when I had the PK and I chipped it and missed it, I had to talk with one of the coaches because I saw it’s not going in a good direction, and I’m not myself…I had a very good week of training. I was trying to focus only on all simple things, and it worked. So I’m very, very, very happy. Big game for me and a crucial moment. And yeah, I’m gonna enjoy today.”
On his chemistry with Hope Avayevu…
“I feel a very good connection with (Avayevu), like playing just one-two touches in training. We sometimes have very nice combinations. Today, we showed a little bit, but I’m telling you it was not even 20%. I hope we’re gonna have more chances to do it, and we’re gonna be able to show it, because we have much more to show…I like to play with Hope, he’s a good, intelligent player. It is very good for me, I played as a striker today, to have somebody like him behind me who can combine and play one-two touches”
Phoenix Rising Midfielder Charlie Dennis
On his overall thoughts on the match…
“There’s a lot of preparation that goes into it. I’ve been injured for 12 weeks and I’m just staying present at the moment. Doing what I need to do to get back to being healthy, and when my time comes, I’ll be ready for the moment.
Spells throughout the game…
“We did have a few spells there where we kept the ball well, but there were moments where we gave it away cheaply. If we clean that up, that’s if you look at the top teams that go on and win trophies, they don’t make those mistakes.”
Thoughts on playing high-ranked teams…
“That’s our identity, and that’s how we want to play moving forward, and that’s to play with confidence and dominate the whole game. We keep pushing, especially in the middle of the season, since there’s a lot of points to be made in more games this year.”
