Phoenix Rising led, then trailed, then led again in a 3-2 home win over Monterey Bay FC.

Despite dominating proceedings for most of the match, Rising could have slipped into last place in the Western Conference on the night, but goals from Dominique Badji, Kelvin Arase and an own goal from Ryuga Nakamura were enough to seal three points for Phoenix.

A bench restocked

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After naming just four senior players (excluding Jamison Ping, but including goalkeeper Chituru Odunze) to the bench in their last league match — and starting an academy player in that game too — Rising was able to name seven full first-teamers to the bench.

Collin Smith and Charlie Dennis all returned to the field after injury absences, while Daniel Flores returned after missing last week’s Prinx Tires Cup match as a precaution.

Dominant, but still making errors

From start to finish, Phoenix Rising controlled the majority of the tempo against Monterey Bay.

In the first half, Rising was clearly knocking on the door, with Gunnar Studenhofft’s chance in particular standing out as an opportunity to put the hosts up.

However, it fell to Dominique Badji to break the deadlock, with the forward scoring his first goal for the club by running onto a long ball from Jean-Eric Moursou and slotting away the ensuing one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Through 40 minutes, Monterey Bay hadn’t even attempted a shot. Yet their first effort found the back of the net courtesy of Anisse Saidi as Phoenix looked poor defending a corner.

In the second half, before Monterey Bay had a chance to add a second shot on the night, JP Scearce’s attempted clearance for a corner resulted in him heading the ball into his own net to put the visitors up.

Rising continued to dominate the game from there, and ultimately managed to secure the three points. Substitute Kelvin Arase found the net for the equalizer, with Conrad Ambursley’s cross later turned in for an own goal.

Ambursley makes his Phoenix Rising debut

Conrad Ambursley’s signing for Phoenix Rising was made official earlier this week, with the teenager joining from Coventry’s academy. He was substituted on in the 60th minute, making his professional debut.

“I think the fans can see what he’s all about,” Rising assistant coach Vikram Virk said. “He’s young, he’s fearless, he wants to take players one-on-one from his left or from his right. It’s really exciting to watch him play.”

Owain’s take

Finally. A Phoenix Rising win.

It’s been over a month in the making, and it hasn’t come a moment too soon. If Rising had lost that game, as it looked at one point that they might, they would have ended the night propping up the table in the West.

From the moment the game started, it was clear that the hosts were on top. Yet as the match progressed, it looked as though there was a genuine risk of it being another of those Phoenix Rising performances.

In many ways, it was: they dominated, but didn’t punish to the extent that their dominance would want you to see them do. They made errors at the back, allowing a team with no real business being in this game to fight their way into it. Then, they showed fight late and found goals, which is no surprise given that this is one of the most lethal teams late in games across USL.

On the one hand, you’ll absolutely take the win, given the recent struggles. You’ll also take it because they were, by far, the better team.

The thing that is frustrating, however, was that this team dominated the match and yet barely came away with the result. Yes, the performance was substantially better than we’ve seen in recent games. And yes, they were quite clearly better than a poor Monterey Bay side that itself is propping up the Western Conference. But, in the end, they won by a solitary goal, and you can’t argue that the team was a million miles from dropping points in this game by any stretch.

That said, that’s enough of the negativity. Let’s talk about some positives.

For the first time for a little while, we saw Rising with the ability to bring starting caliber players off of the substitutes bench, helping the team to chase this game when they were down with half an hour to play. Two of those substitutes — Kelvin Arase and Conrad Ambursley — played a role in getting the team over the line in the end.

For one of those two, the young Englishman, it marked his professional debut. Fans would have been keen to see Ambursley in action, and despite Rising’s coach trying to downplay some of the pressure on the 19-year-old in the build up to this match, he seemed at home on the pitch. We shouldn’t get carried away off a singular performance, of course, and it still was far from perfect, but if Phoenix Rising is reliant on Ambursley’s performances late in the year, something will have gone wrong elsewhere. If he can do a job as a youngster regardless, as we saw him do against Monterey Bay? Well, you’re not going to turn that down, are you?

It also marked the 100th regular season home win for the club, if you include their games under the name Arizona United, of course (which, in my view, you always should). That makes them just the fifth USL Championship side to get to that mark. It also propelled them back into a playoff spot, instead of sitting in 12th place.

For now, that’s something to build on. In a Western Conference with razor thin margins, they can’t afford not to build on it.

But as the attention turns to next weekend and a second home game, Phoenix Rising can do so knowing they’re coming off of a positive result. And that’s something we’ve not been able to say for a while.

Top image: Ashley Orellana / Phoenix Rising