At Phoenix Rising, like at any USL club, people leave every year.
But that doesn’t mean that Phoenix Rising ever really leaves them.
“Sometimes they make fun of me here, but if I’m on the bus and you guys are playing, I’m watching the game,” former Rising coach and current Houston Dynamo assistant Juan Guerra said. “If we’re in the meal room, I put the game on my phone. If I’m in the locker room, I’m watching it as well.
“I care. I care about Phoenix.”
Guerra first joined Rising as an assistant coach under Rick Schantz in 2021. Halfway through the 2022 season, he returned to the club to replace Schantz as head coach.
Now, he’s on the other side. After winning the title in 2023, Guerra accepted an offer to join Ben Olsen’s backroom staff at Houston in Major League Soccer. The Open Cup, U.S. Soccer’s national knockout competition, has now brought him back to face his old club on Wednesday night.
“I know what this game means for Phoenix: for the city, for the supporters, for the ownership group, coaching staff and players,” Guerra said “I mean, you guys are hosting an MLS team at home, and this is something that we wanted to do when we were back in Phoenix.”
It will be just the third time that Rising has faced a team from the top flight in meaningful competition. The prior two games saw Phoenix take the lead, before losing 2-1.
Despite the Dynamo’s status as a Division I team, the Venezuelan played down his club’s status as favorites going into the match.
“I know what it is to coach Phoenix,” Guerra said. “When you coach Phoenix, you never feel like an underdog, especially when you’re playing at home and there’s a team visiting you […] No one in Phoenix feels like an underdog. It’s going to be a tough game so we’re going to have to be ready.”
Guerra would know a thing or two about succeeding in Phoenix even when others would have written the team off. In 2023, he led to the squad to a USL Championship title despite playing all four playoff matches on the road.
“When you’re in Phoenix… I always call it, and I say this with a lot of respect: Being in Phoenix, it’s a beautiful problem,” Guerra said. “At the end of the day, there’s pressure. You have to win. They want you to win. You’re surrounded by winners. At the end of the day, you have to ultimately keep bringing good results.”
That pressure, especially after a slow and heavily injury-disrupted start to the 2025 season, is there. It may be different in a cup competition, but it is there.
Still, while Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah wants his players to treat Wednesday’s clash like any other game rather than getting caught up in the occasion, he knows that this match carries its own meanings.
“These are the games that these players, they want to test themselves because this is the next level they want to go to in America,” Kah said. “After USL, it’s MLS, so now you want to see how they perform and how they step up to the level.”
That will be the challenge that Rising faces on Wednesday. The chance is there to make club history, but it’s not going to be an easy task.
“It’s going to be a battle,” Guerra said. “Because I know you guys want it, but I also know that you guys know how bad I want it.”
The full interview with former Rising coach Juan Guerra will air on the PHNX Rising Podcast at 6pm on Tuesday May 6.
Top image: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
