Phoenix Rising squad “built” for 2026 season

In the first media availability of the 2026 preseason, Phoenix Rising‘s coach and sporting director both indicated that the club’s forays into the transfer market are over, for now at least.

Pa-Modou Kah and Brandon McCarthy expressed confidence in the depth already present in the club, while also outlining the strengths of additions to the backline and their pair of new center forwards.

The offseason focus

It didn’t take long for Phoenix Rising to put the 2025 season behind it and start working on a new chapter.

“Same night at the hotel [in Tulsa], because I don’t dwell on losses,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said.

Kah sat down with sporting director Brandon McCarthy and club president Bobby Dulle for around three hours that night.

“We started going through player-by-player what we needed to do, how we lined up, what were the things we needed to focus on,” McCarthy said.

“We have to be better,” he added. “Really, it’s as simple as that gets. More points, more wins. Our home form, number one, we just weren’t good at home for whatever reason, better away. Making sure the form we ended the year with, starting the year with that.

“But then just continuing evolving. A new manager, a new coaching staff: there’s a lot of new things that happen in year one. You’re just trying to figure out… you’re learning him. He’s learning us. Everybody’s just kind of figuring out what everything is for the longest period, and then once you settle in, it’s like how do you grow on this for next year so you don’t take a step back.”

Squad building done

Just two weeks into the start of preseason, Rising fans shouldn’t expect to see much in the way of transfer news still to come.

“I think Brandon, Bobby, and us, the coaching staff, have done a wonderful job identifying players that fit into our identity, and what it means to play for a club like Phoenix Rising,” Kah said. “So we’ve done a tremendous job by being ahead of things, which we didn’t have time for last year, you know, but that’s the beauty of building rosters. We are very satisfied and very happy with the roster that we have, knowing that we can go into the season having pieces in place already.”

The one exception is a new goalkeeper, who is already training with the team but waiting on additional paperwork to be completed to make his signing official.

“Right now, we consider ourselves built,” McCarthy said. “We are two deep everywhere. We need to get some players back from injury. We’ve still got [Daniel] Flores coming back right now, Charlie [Dennis] is still getting back to full, so we’re just getting everybody back in. But everybody is here, and it’s the group we want right now.”

Taking care of business early was a specific target for Phoenix Rising going into 2026.

“Last year, you saw stragglers coming in at the end, and it’s not a great thing to miss the whole preseason,” McCarthy said. “We want guys here from day one.”

Biasi’s versatility

Rising’s first signing was leaked just days after the end of the 2025 season, before being announced shortly after. Luke Biasi joins the Phoenix back line from the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, who claimed the USL Championship title after a penalty shootout in Tulsa.

“Biasi is a champion,” Kah said. “He knows what it takes. He walks in with a different level of respect from the guys not just because he’s champion, but he’s a good person, a great character, but also a good football player.”

With Daniel Flores currently out injured, Rising’s coaching staff indicated that Biasi will start off by playing on the left.

“The great thing with Luke is that Luke is a very intelligent footballer,” Kah said. “We know he can play right back. We know he can play center back, but right now, we know he can play left back as well. For us, him giving us those options is massive for our coaching staff.”

That ability to play in multiple positions is one of the key things that led Biasi to becoming a Phoenix Rising player.

“I personally just love the idea of versatility,” McCarthy said. “You don’t have a 30-person club depth. This isn’t a massive club. You’ve got to be creative with where players can go, and if they can get pigeonholed quickly, and they can only play in one place, and if someone beats him to that space, you kind of have a dead roster spot. A player like Luke, you can use him in three different spots comfortably without a drop in quality.”

A Mexican International in Midfield

Phoenix Rising has had many national team players through the years, but only one who had played for Mexico. That was Omar Bravo, who joined the club in its rebrand season in the twilight of his career.

Diego Gomez is not Omar Bravo. At 22, he featured once in a friendly for El Tri against Bolivia in 2024. His career hasn’t quite panned out as expected since, but he’ll be looking to get back on track with his move to the United States.

“He’s going to add experience,” Kah said. “He’s going to add technical quality and a bite to him. He’s a good footballer. He’s really a good footballer who understands and plays the game at his rhythm and tempo, so I think it will be very important to our squad and the way that we want to play.”

What makes Gomez’s transfer particularly interesting is that Phoenix Rising did not court him. Instead, it was the player himself, along with his agent, that set up this move.

“We had really scouted in Mexico heavily but he wasn’t a player that we thought was an option for us, and it was actually his agency that reached out to us,” McCarthy said. “They turned down great offers before. Necaxa had started to change their recruitment philosophy, going older, more expensive players and so he found his playing time dwindling as a younger player and said I need to come somewhere where I can get games and get minutes and be in a competitive environment.

“The more we looked into him was like, OK, this is a really, really top player and one who can vibe with our community. There was just a lot of upside with him.”

Forward line

By the end of the 2025 season, it was no secret that Phoenix Rising was struggling to consistently score goals.

“One of the things we felt like we lacked last year was the ability to be physical,” McCarthy said. “Some teams, they press you man to man. Some teams, late in the year, you saw it in the final, Pittsburgh and Tulsa, they’re not pure football teams. The ball’s not on the ground. It’s physical. Sometimes you’ve got to be able to play to your striker.”

That is where two new players up top — Juan Carvajal and Gunnar Studenhofft — come in.

“Both are physical players,” Kah said. “Carvajal loves to play football, seek spaces, play spaces. Obviously, you have Gunnar who is a runner, a physical player as well.”

Carvajal comes highly touted from Colombia, where he did feature infrequently as a youngster for Millonarios but struggled to break through into first team football.

Meanwhile, Studenhofft comes off a five goal season in MLS NEXT Pro, and possesses “something in terms of his speed that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in person before,” according to McCarthy.

Top image: Phoenix Rising FC