IRVINE, Calif. — Phoenix Rising ended July with a disappointing 4-1 loss to former head coach Danny Stone‘s Orange County side.

Despite Ihsan Sacko‘s goal giving the visitors some hope in the second half, the scoreline confirms that Orange County will hold the first tiebreaker against Phoenix should the sides end level on points due to their superior head-to-head record.

Phoenix Rising’s Attacking woes return

It may not have been Phoenix Rising’s worst match in terms of chance creation, but over the course of 90 minutes, the visitors failed to seriously threaten Colin Shutler on too many occasions.

“We had opportunities to score which we didn’t, and that’s football,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said after the match.

Rising would generate a total of 1.75 expected goals — a higher tally than Orange County, the 4-1 winners, would produce — but only three of the team’s shots all match ultimately found the target.

“Having watched Phoenix this year, we know that it’s a very athletic group overall,” Orange County coach Danny Stone said. “We had to find a good balance in being prepared for the verticality, but not playing in a way where we were on the back foot and sitting in too low a block.

“That was probably the key, is finding that balance of readiness to deal with the more vertical threat but I really wanted us to stay on the front foot as much as we could tonight and disrupt with our press in both forwards and within our block a little bit as well when we had to. I think, overall, both of those aspects were key to make sure at any moment we were prepared for them.”

Rising was given hopes of a comeback when substitute Ihsan Sacko’s header found the back of the net, but the team was unable to find another goal.

“I think [Sacko] was brilliant,” Kah said. “He could have had a hat-trick. He scored, but he had two other opportunities he could have scored.”

Incisive moments from Orange County find gaps

“We were in the game, but then little mistakes cost us,” Phoenix Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said after the match.

In the end, four strikes in congested penalty areas proved the difference, as defenders seemed to just step off enough to allow what could have been difficult shots to be taken.

Orange County also found some success cutting through a midfield that featured two more heavy pressers in Xian Emmers and Hope Avayevu, leaving youngster Pierce Rizzo the responsibility of holding down the anchor. However, after the match, Kah said that he thought his team “controlled the midfield.”

“We played [Phoenix’s press] well in the first half, but I think in three or four occasions we may have played into the wrong areas a couple of times and maybe gave them the press that they were looking for a little bit too often,” Orange County coach Danny Stone said. “We adjusted a little bit at half-time for the second half just to clarify, I think, where were the most appropriate areas for us to try and do that.

“I was really happy with the second half performance. I think it was a very spirited and very combative, competitive performance out of possession, and I think in possession, we probably found a little bit of a better balance between bypassing the press when we needed to and then still having the bravery to connect and to play through midfield into those pocket spaces when that was available. I think we played some good stuff in the second half in those moments.”

Pape Mar Boye sees red

In the 82nd minute, Pape Mar Boye received his marching orders with a straight red card for violent conduct.

Boye had entered the match just five minutes earlier as a substitute.

“Pape goes in the challenge on the goalkeeper,” Phoenix Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “It’s a foul. I get it. He’s trying to run away, somebody pushes him in the back, and then they don’t call it. He shoved a guy… he shoved a guy and he gets a red card, but the one that shoved him don’t get nothing.”

The red card marked Boye’s second in as many matches with Brandon Stevis as the referee this season, having previously been sent off in Monterey Bay.

Kah said postgame that he wasn’t sure what specific act the match officials had said led to the send off, but did add that “we should not put ourselves in that position.”

Owain’s take

This isn’t the first time that Phoenix Rising has lost by a scoreline of four goals to one this season. But this one doesn’t really feel at all like that one did.

Back in June, facing Charleston, Rising fell by that same scoreline on the road. There are some parallels that you could draw: Rising created more than they put away; they didn’t seem as though they were completely played off the park despite what the scoreline would suggest; and a few things going differently could have completely changed the outcome of the game.

That match, even considering the scoreline, didn’t feel like a match you took any shame from. Charleston are a team in true championship contention, and for good reason: only Charleston or Louisville have any hope at this point of coming away with the Players’ Shield for best regular season record. That was a test of a level you don’t see too much of in this league, and while Rising failed it, they didn’t look wholly out of place.

Against Orange County, the underlying numbers don’t paint quite as stark a picture as a 4-1 defeat would suggest. But Orange County isn’t Charleston. It isn’t a team everyone is expecting to be battling for silverware at the end of the year. Frankly, a few weeks ago and before their recent spell of form, there was good reason to cast some doubt on if they’d be sneaking into the playoffs come year end.

I think about how Rising would have reacted if the two squads from the match in Irvine were flipped.

This would have been one of the better results of the season. It would have been lauded as evidence that clearly, Phoenix Rising is starting to work things out, and that the attacking talent and pedigree was starting to show.

But it wasn’t Phoenix that won this game. It was mid-table Orange County. And if Orange County can pull off results like this, frankly of late with more consistency than Rising are able to, what does that tell us?

It tells us that Rising isn’t just a team temporarily sitting in mid-table in the league. It tells us that this Phoenix Rising team is a mid-table team, and unless they change something, that’s what they’ll likely be come end of year.

And being mid-table in a league where four points currently separates hosting a playoff match versus missing out on the postseason altogether?

This could be a bumpy, bumpy ride to the end of the year.

Top image: Orange County SC