Fielding an especially youthful side, Phoenix Rising dropped its Prinx Tires USL Cup opener 1-0 at home against Colorado Springs Switchbacks.

Isaiah Foster’s deflected strike proved the difference, as Rising couldn’t get on the board despite several late chances.

Heavy rotation for the USL Cup

After a busy stretch to start the season, Phoenix Rising rotated heavily in its first USL Cup match.

“We played a lot of youngsters, rotated a lot which was necessary for us given the travel that we had, the games that we had,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said.

Rising started four academy prospects, while also making changes elsewhere. Gunnar Studenhofft started up top in place of Ihsan Sacko, while Chituru Odunze started in goal over Patrick Rakovsky.

A new youngest starter

Among Rising’s four academy prospects starting in Saturday’s USL Cup match was Jaethan Irwin, a 15-year-old record breaker.

Irwin had already made his club debut away against San Antonio in the season opener, but his appearance against Colorado Springs held more meaning as he became the youngest starter in club history.

“It means a lot to me,” Irwin said. “I’ve been with this club for I think eight years now, and it means a lot.”

Irwin played 88 minutes in midfield, winning three out of three aerial duels during the course of the match.

Chances, but not quite enough

Colorado Springs had more than a hint of luck around their opening goal, but Isaiah Foster’s first half deflected strike was still adjudged to have crossed the goal line after Chituru Odunze was slow to react to the ball. That meant that Rising had to chase the game, and while they did record several notable chances, they never quite managed to find the net.

Gunnar Studenhofft saw a second half goal disallowed by referee Trevor Wiseman after the forward plowed over Switchbacks goalkeeper Colin Shutler.

Later in the match, substitute Kelvin Arase had the best opportunities to score, recording 0.75 expected goals (xG) from just two shots. However, he failed to put either of those shots on target.

Owain’s take

Las year, Phoenix Rising started its USL Cup campaign with a 1-0 loss at home. Now, in 2026, we’re right back there again with the exact same situation.

In honesty, the writing felt like it was on the wall from the minute the lineup was announced. Rising’s heavily rotated squad may have been necessary, but it still had the effect of weakening them from the off and making it harder to chase the game once they had fallen behind.

With four teenagers on the field and second-stringers in other positions, it felt as though the main goal had to be to simply keep things close so that, by the time subs were made, the team would have a chance to rally. In fairness, that’s exactly what they did. Once Ihsan Sacko and Collin Smith had been introduced to the side, Phoenix suddenly found 74% of its total xG in the match, and the best chances of the game fell to a substitute in Kelvin Arase.

The mass rotation for this game, in particular, reminds us of the status of the USL Cup compared to other competitions that the club features in. Last year, Pa-Modou Kah compared picking between competitions to picking between his children, but with four youngsters fielded in the starting lineup for this game in particular, it’s quite clear who the unfavored child is.

That being said, the coaching staff clearly wanted to get a result out of this game. You could see that in how irate they became with the referee late in the match, even though, in my opinion, the officials did not have any significant impact on the outcome of this game.

Rising may have needed to rotate at some point due to fixture congestion, but to do it in this game, and to this extent, is a choice. It’s not necessarily a wrong choice to make: I myself have been critical of the USL Cup, its format and its role in the calendar. Of course you may want to win it, but it carries a very similar feeling to the EFL Trophy in English football. It’s a nice piece of silverware at the end of the season, but until you get within touching distance of the prize, it’s just a bit of quirky sideshow.

Still, in a run of just four group stage games, and with few teams qualifying for the next round, this is a blow to Rising’s chances to advance. Cups may not be the bread and butter of the calendar, but they do provide some redemption for underperformances elsewhere. A good run in the USL Cup would be a sign of improvement over last year. Fail to do so, and the focus solely returns to league play, with a sense that if Rising doesn’t finish in the West’s top four, that the project this club is building hasn’t really made any steps forward over last year.

Anyway, it’s still April. There are still plenty of games to be played, including three more in the USL Cup, and they may well not need redemption. Two 3-0 wins in a row in league play certainly point in that direction.

But, nonetheless, it was disappointing that Rising couldn’t dig out something a little better for its largest home crowd of the season.

Top image: Phoenix Rising/Ashley Orellana