SAN ANTONIO — A second half fightback proved too little, too late for Phoenix Rising as they dropped the 2026 season opener 2-1 against San Antonio FC.

Jorge Hernandez and Alex Crognale scored for the hosts, before JP Scearce brought one back for Phoenix from the penalty spot.

The slow starts return

Slow starts plagued Phoenix Rising in early 2025, and that was no different in the first match of 2026.

“We gave two away which I think didn’t help us, giving away goals too early in both halves,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said.

In the first half, Rafael Czichos went down under challenge from a San Antonio player, ultimately giving the hosts a numerical advantage in the attack. Jorge Hernandez duly tucked away the ensuing chance.

In the second half, Alex Crognale scored within minutes of the kick-off to double the hosts’ advantage.

A game of two halves up top

Phoenix Rising struggled to create chances in the first half, with only two recorded shots and none of them on target. The visitors started with youngster Tony Capetillo up top, while wingers Ihsan Sacko and Darius Johnson struggled to impose themselves in the opening period.

“It was a cat and mouse game in the first half, trying to figure out each other,” Kah said. “I think we settled down in the first half and played our game and therefore the opportunities came.”

After the break, JP Scearce buried his opportunity off a penalty kick to give Phoenix a fighting chance at rescuing a point. However, while Rising had several chances in the second half, with one goal ruled out for offside, and another late chance cleared off the line, they failed to capitalize.

Phoenix Rising Squad joins player protest

In the first minute of Saturday’s match, all players from both teams stood still after the ball was kicked off. Players from both San Antonio and Phoenix Rising’s bench also stepped up to the touchline to join in the demonstration, which was organized leaguewide by the USL Players Association over the lack of a new CBA to start the 2026 season.

“I think as players, we really care about this league,” JP Scearce said. “We want to be a part of the growth and the change that the league wants to make, and I think for that, the players deserve professional standards, and that’s all we’re asking for.”

Last week, USLPA members gave the union bargaining committee the authority to call a strike if necessary, and it was unclear if the opening weekend of games would go ahead. Strike action remains an option on the table, and could still impact matches over the coming weeks.

“For me, I’ve been on both sides of the coin,” Kah said. “The biggest thing I always say to two parties is find a solution.”

Owain’s take

Three goals. A protest. Coming home with no share of the spoils from an opening road game.

Yeah, there’s a fair bit to break down.

I’ll start with the football. In many ways, this match felt a lot like the Phoenix Rising that we saw at times last season. This was a team that gave up some unnecessary goals, then huffed and puffed at the other end and, in fairness, would have probably come away with a point on another night.

That’s both a good thing, and a bad thing. You would hope that this is setting the floor for Phoenix in 2026, and that things only get better from here. That’s only made more true by the fact that some players, such as Juan Carvajal, are currently recovering from injury. Would their introduction make the difference? You would hope so, but until they do return, we won’t be able to say for certain.

The opposite view is that this team hasn’t learned its lessons from the past. It’s possible that that’s the case, but it’s also far too early to definitively state that to be true. You have to give this team far more games to see if they push on, or fail to really progress relative to the others in this league.

But that’s where the problem lies, and it’s where I want to stop talking about the actual football that was played in the match. Because every time I thought about how this team may progress in the coming weeks, I had to remind myself: there’s no guarantee that they even play next weekend.

That’s the elephant in the room, and it’s not something that we can bury our heads in the sand about and ignore. In fact, the reason I feel the need to spend as much time in this article talking about that is because so many of the usual sources of information within USL have completely ignored it.

As both San Antonio and Phoenix Rising players held their protest before kick-off, the cameras on the host’s match broadcast lingered for just a bit, before cutting instead to the crowd and away from the field. The commentators said that “currently kick-off of this match is a little delayed, so we expect the match to begin shortly.” Eventually, a graphic reading “tonight’s match is currently delayed” was displayed on the screen.

None of those things were true. The match had kicked off. The clock was ticking. The ball was in play. There was no delay. That’s why only a solitary minute of stoppage time was added to the first half. There was no stoppage: the ball was in play.

I don’t blame the commentators for what happened. It is abundantly clear that the league, and its teams, do not want to address this issue in a way that the most casual fans of the league would be able to identify it. That may be good business for them, but it’s simply burning credibility at this stage.

Consume any USL-produced media over the last week, and you’d be unaware there was anything really wrong. The broadcasts, the articles, the league-sponsored content… Who’d have guessed there was anything pressing behind the scenes?

Yes, there is some good content that the league produces, but you simply can’t rely on it to tell you the full story. Once it becomes genuinely negative for the league’s image, it stops. At the end of the day, it’s nothing more than public relations. So when it’s faced with a genuine story that overshadows frankly everything else, the illusion fails. Depth charts, transfers and systems may make for good content when things are operating as normal, but when they are the sole focus during a week where games are in doubt, you’re missing the entire story.

I’ve always been an advocate for independent journalism around this league, and I am now more than ever. Both the league and players are in dispute, and fans deserve to actually know what’s going on. League-sponsored media can never, and will never, rise to the occasion of a moment like this. It is simply not the purpose for which any of them are employed.

So, forgive me. I’d love to break down the football we saw in San Antonio. I’d love to talk more about how Phoenix Rising’s season got off to its start, and what we should expect to see from them in their home opener next weekend.

But as I sit in my hotel room in San Antonio, typing these words out, that just doesn’t seem like its quite as important. And until all of us can look more than a solitary yet uncertain game into the future at any given time, I’m not sure it really will.

Top image: San Antonio FC