With just four games remaining on the USL Championship schedule and still sitting outside the playoff places, Phoenix Rising lost 3-0 on the road to Oakland Roots.

It could have been a huge opportunity for Rising to make up ground. Instead, goals from Bruno Lapa, Danny Trejo and Bertin Jackuesson mean that Phoenix sits five points out of a playoff spot.

First half bore

In a tale seemingly as old as time, Phoenix Rising came out of the dressing room in Oakland with a sluggish performance.

Out of the gates Rising’s defense struggled. They were picked apart by a sequence of passes before the center-backs lost opposing runners, and Oakland quickly found themselves with a 2-0 lead before the half-hour mark.

Even after conceding Bruno Lapa’s opening goal in the 7th minute, Rising’s attack never got out of second gear in the opening half. They tallied only three shots: two coming in the same 11th-minute sequence, and the third off an ambitious Juan David Torres free kick attempt in the 37th minute.

The dullness from Rising’s side could be seen from the very start of the half. The opening minutes prior to Lapa’s goal saw Rising play slowly in possession, holding the ball on the backline with little to no pressure from the Oakland press.

The ESPN+ commentators questioned on if the game would develop any excitement with Oakland opening the scoring early, but Rising seemed intent to show them a forgettable 45 minutes.

Same in the second from Phoenix Rising

When conceding the opening goal in USL Championship fixtures this season, Phoenix Rising entered Saturday’s match with a record of 0W 6D 7L.

It’s not a statistic that you’d like to read at halftime, with Rising already trailing 2-0, but it is a statistic that you begin to understand with Rising’s second half performance.

Oakland were understandably more than willing to cede the ball to Rising with the two goal advantage, giving Phoenix far too much time on the ball. With this, the already lethargic attack had too much time to think and wasn’t able to produce anything of note.

Rising took shots through the opening 20 minutes of the second half, but few seemed to cause any trouble for goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh.

Usually the forefront of Rising’s attack, forward Ihsan Sacko struggled to make any mark on this match, though he was shuffled around the pitch through Rising’s substitutions.

Then, the third goal came for Oakland. Defender Ascel Essengue lunged and missed at a ball aimed at Oakland’s Bertin Jacquesson, who calmly slotted it home for the hosts.

It was the cherry on top for a productive and efficient performance from Oakland. On only nine touches in the box, Oakland scored all three goals.

We’re talking about playoffs?

Entering Saturday, Phoenix Rising sat three points behind eighth-placed Orange County in the Western Conference standings. Phoenix was tied with Las Vegas on 33 points, who do have a match in hand, and also sat three points above Oakland.

At the end of the night, Orange County had beaten Pittsburgh Riverhounds, sliding them up the table. This lowered FC Tulsa into seventh on 38 points, with San Antonio behind in eighth seed, also on 38 points.

Las Vegas didn’t play this weekend, and of course Oakland were victors over Rising. This sets three teams outside of the playoffs on 33 points.

Rising now sits five points back with just four games to go.

FC Tulsa have a game in hand, but if it comes down to it, Rising hold the head-to-head over Tulsa, thanks to a 2-1 win on September 12.

Meanwhile, San Antonio holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Rising after a 2-1 win in March. Yet none of this means anything if Rising can’t make up the gap over the final four games.

Phoenix Rising ends the season with New Mexico away, Las Vegas at home, Orange County away and Lexington at home.

It’s not impossible, as New Mexico are sliding, Las Vegas and Orange County have had their bouts with poor form and Lexington have struggled away from home, but it’s certainly far from a comfortable position.

Rees’ take

The coffin for this season is built. There’s 26 nails for each of the regular season games thus far already hammered in.

There’s still room to escape the coffin, but with four nails left in the toolbox, or four matches left in the season, there’s only so much time that Phoenix Rising will have to find the way out of the coffin and into one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference.

In another world, this is the dictionary definition of a match played in the dog days of the summer USL schedule that you could move on from by the next match. An away game, with a few players missing, and it’s understandable that Rising wouldn’t deploy dominant free-flowing soccer.

Except that isn’t our world. Our reality sees Rising chasing one of the final playoff spots after a season that has featured far too many lifeless performances.

Rising could not afford a loss like this Saturday night. They needed three points tonight to rid some of the demons hanging overhead this team.

The demons surrounding the side’s poor form away from home, which hasn’t seen it win on the road since May. The demons surrounding the nonstop animosity between Phoenix Rising’s supporters and the club itself.

Saturday night could have been a reprieve from the ongoing negativity this season. Instead, it only added to it.

Again, it isn’t the final nail in the coffin. But as the coffin has this many nails already hammered in, whatever is inside it, is likely already gone.

Top Image: Oakland Roots SC via Phoenix Rising FC