It took until 20 minutes after the final whistle to finally confirm, but Phoenix Rising booked its place in the USL Championship playoffs on Saturday night following a 3-3 draw with Lexington SC.

Early goals for Phoenix Rising once again, but Lexington fights back

For the third straight week, Phoenix Rising found an early goal to take the lead.

Collin Smith’s cross-field ball found Ihsan Sacko, who buried to put Rising up 1-0. Twenty minutes later, Gunnar Studenhofft doubled the hosts’ advantage.

Unlike in previous weeks, Rising faced more of a fightback from their opponent. Phillip Goodrum brought Lexington back to within one shortly before the half-time whistle, although he did subsequently restore Phoenix’s two-goal cushion with an own goal in the second half.

However, shortly after the hour mark, Lexington restarted their comeback through an impressive strike from Braudilio Rodrigues, and a free kick from Aaron Molloy just ten minutes later brought them level.

Ihsan Sacko claims the golden boot

Ihsan Sacko’s opening goal moved the Phoenix Rising forward to 17 goals, earning him the Golden Boot as the highest goalscorer in USL Championship.

Sacko started the day level with El Paso Locomotive’s Rubio Rubin, but the latter failed to make the scoresheet in his side’s loss against New Mexico.

Albuquerque awaits

A 3-3 draw was not sufficient to guarantee Phoenix Rising a playoff place without help elsewhere.

Orange County needed to lose to San Antonio, which they did by a scoreline of 2-1. But a win for Oakland in Sacramento would have also been enough to knock Rising out from 8th place.

As the final whistle sounded at 38th and Washington, Oakland Roots led by a scoreline of 2-1. However, in the final ten minutes of the match, Lee Desmond and Kyle Edwards found the net for Sacramento to reverse the scoreline and clinch a spot for Rising in the playoffs.

Phoenix Rising finished eighth in the Western Conference standings, and as such, will travel to face top-seeded New Mexico United in a first round playoff match. That game will take place at Isotopes Park on Sunday, November 1, with the match set to kick off at 3:55 p.m.

Owain’s take

That could have been easier, couldn’t it?

Leading by two goals on two separate occasions didn’t prove sufficient for Phoenix Rising to clinch by themselves, and instead they had to wait for Oakland to falter in Sacramento.

Ultimately, Rising finished in 8th position thanks to results elsewhere. They will, barring the most bizarre of miracles, go for a fifth-straight season without hosting a single playoff match. There was a time when this club wouldn’t have seen scraping into the final playoff place as an achievement. That fact — and the entire body of work, not just a handful of results in November — should be used to judge this team once the road finally comes to its end.

But we aren’t at the end of the road yet. And while I know that I am sometimes prone to weighing into that negativity, it’s not the time to dig into that. The day will come for it, and we’ll have to look back and be frank about what we’ve witnessed in 2026. For now, that shouldn’t be the focus, and I’ll drop it until things finally reach their conclusion.

So let’s focus on the positives. Phoenix Rising will play another week, despite us fearing around a month ago that they’d squandered their chance to do so. They enter the postseason with several players hitting form right at the perfect moment. Ihsan Sacko is scoring for fun, and while Gunnar Studenhofft may remai a more limited player at times, the team seems to be finding ways to get the best out of him.

Albuquerque won’t be an easy place to visit for a postseason trip, but a close 2-1 loss there just weeks ago, as well as a 3-0 victory over United earlier this season, give hope that this match is in fact winnable. That’s the reality of the league that Rising plays in: despite New Mexico being the top-seeded team in the West, they’re a beatable side. Everyone is. Yes, there are more difficult opponents than others, but nobody that Phoenix could face is truly scary.

So what’s the ceiling for this team? It’s hard to tell, simply because of that unpredictability that permeates through the entire playoff picture. Rising’s weak away record may make you question if they can get it done consistently on the road, but their recent form overall has been exactly what you’d want as a squad entering into the playoffs.

So we’ll wait and see. One week at a time, just as the chase to even get into the playoffs has been all along.

And with that, we’ll see you all in Albuquerque.

Top image: Ashley Orellana/Phoenix Rising