Phoenix Rising‘s unbeaten run came to an abrupt end at Patriots Point, as the team fell 4-1 to Charleston Battery. The hosts opened the scoring within ten minutes through MD Myers, before Hope Avayevu found an equalizer. An Arturo Rodriguez brace ultimately won the match for Charleston, before a late Houssou Landry strike from the halfway line served as an exclamation point for the Eastern Conference side.

Changed lineups

Going into Saturday’s match, neither Phoenix Rising nor Charleston Battery started with what would be expected to be a first choice lineup.

For Rising, both Pape Mar Boye and Mo Traore were once again out through injury. In the attack, Rising remains without Jearl Margaritha who instead started for Curaçao in their 1-1 draw versus Canada, and Damian Rivera who has yet to be named to a matchday squad while with Guatemala. Carl Sainté and Rémi Cabral were also unavailable for selection.

None of these were new absences, and all six players missed the prior game in Tulsa. Some, such as Boye and Cabral, have been long-term absences.

For Charleston, league-leading scorer Cal Jennings started the match on the bench and was substituted on in the 59th minute. Aaron Molloy, who is widely considered to be one of the best midfielders in USL Championship, was an unused substitute in the match.

Phoenix Rising possesses, can’t punish

Against Charleston, Phoenix Rising attempted 504 passes. That was their highest total in the league this season, and underlines that Rising dominated possession in the match, but simply didn’t do enough with the ball.

During the course of the first half, Rising recorded three shots on target, ultimately culminating in Hope Avayevu’s 36th minute goal. But Rising’s ten-minute spell of pressure was unable to produce enough to prevent Phoenix from going in behind at the break.

In the second half, Rising recorded 73 percent of the possession. Their only shot on target in the 65th minute, courtesy of Charlie Dennis, came from far outside the penalty area and failed to seriously challenge Luis Zamudio in the Charleston goal.

Defensive miscues

Against a top-scoring team like Charleston Battery, Phoenix Rising had to play one of its best defensive games to date. That ultimately never materialized.

Within minutes, MD Myers — one of the league’s top scorers — was found in plenty of space to give the hosts the advantage. Later in the first half, Arturo Rodriguez punished his old side by catching what felt like the entire Rising backline wrong-footed, before slotting it past Patrick Rakovsky.

Things didn’t improve in the second half. Rodriguez would make the most of yet more poor defending from the visitors in the 77th minute, before Houssou Landry caught Rakovsky away from his goal with a strike from the halfway line.

Those weren’t the only chances that Charleston had in the match, and Myers’ effort from just yards out in the 72nd minute stands out as just one of several opportunities that the hosts could have taken advantage of further.

Owain’s take

The good run had to end at some point.

Coming up against a top Charleston Battery side, on the road, while missing several key pieces? Yeah, that’ll do it.

In all honesty, it didn’t feel as though it was a particularly bad Phoenix Rising performance. At the same time, Charleston could have, and potentially should have, won this match by an even larger margin.

There’s no shame in losing to a top Eastern Conference side on the road, and this match isn’t a warning sign of any real variety. It is, however, a little bit of a reality check.

At the start of the season, Rising’s results showed a degree of misfortune: the team’s performances and talent probably should have yielded more points than they did. There’s a good argument to be made the opposite has been true in recent weeks.

None of this is to say that Rising isn’t a good side, or that they won’t be comfortably in the playoffs at the end of the year. It’s also not to say that they are far from being a contender, they they won’t become one by the end of the year, or that a bit of luck and the nature of the playoff system could push them on to a title.

But Charleston represented something different. Charleston was a team that we all just watched play against Rising, that didn’t seem to completely dominate much of the match, and yet came away with a 4-1 win. Frankly, they probably should have won by even more.

So what’s the conclusion here?

Phoenix Rising may have taken strides in recent weeks, but they still have work to do if they want to really be one of the top sides in this league.