It wasn’t the result they’d have wanted, but Phoenix Rising did credit to themselves in a 4-1 extra time loss to the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup.

Felipe Andrade opened the scoring for the visitors with an open header from a free kick, before Dariusz Formella brought the scores level from the penalty spot just before half-time.

Houston wouldn’t regain the lead until the first half of extra time through a sensational Jack McGlynn strike, before Ezequiel Ponce and Sebastian Kowalczyk added to the visitors’ tally late.

Not a usual Open Cup lineup…

Open Cup play is often an opportunity for higher division squads to rotate their personnel. While Houston Dynamo did make changes to its starting XI, only one of the team’s starters did not feature in the matchday squad for a Major League Soccer clash the prior weekend in Los Angeles. Unlike others in MLS, they did not use the competition as an excuse to give players from their reserve side in NEXT Pro minutes with the first team.

Phoenix Rising, however, entered the side with a paper-thin squad that portrayed the injury crisis that the club is currently enduring. With Ascel Essengue cup-tied and numerous others out for issues including injuries and visa processing, Rising started with Carl Sainté and Braxton Montgomery at the center-back positions. Emil Cuello, who hadn’t featured since the team’s last Open Cup match against FC Tulsa and hasn’t been in full team training, started and lasted for 90 minutes.

The entirety of Phoenix’s bench — with the exception of backup goalkeeper Triston Henry and still somewhat-minute restricted Damian Rivera — had either been unable to feature for weeks due to injury or was a teenager.

That led Rising to make just one substitution in the 90 minutes of regulation play, before making a handful of swaps in extra time.

Scouting plan

The Houston Dynamo’s style of play is not a secret, and Phoenix Rising knew what to expect.

“We know the quality that they possess is playing through the middle,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “After we switched it when we went to 4-2-3-1 in the defensive shape, I think we caused them more problems at the time. Again, they scored, but we were still in the game, and I think they couldn’t figure out because their plan was playing through the middle. I think we stopped them from playing through the middle, allowed the center-backs to play, forced everything wide.”

Ultimately, Rising did force Houston out wide. Even more notably, of the 15 key passes Houston recorded, 9 were from corner kicks.

“I don’t think we were truly in trouble until they decided to bring their big guns, and that’s what you get,” Kah said. “Overall, when you look at the gameplan and you look at them, I don’t think many could say there was a difference between us in the 90 minutes. That’s something that I’m very proud of because tactically I don’t think they showed something that we were not planning for.”

Phoenix Rising shows heart, even in defeat

“They gave it their all, and that’s the only thing that you hope to see, that they fight,” Phoenix Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “They did it. They played toe-to-toe with them, to be fair. That is the difference when you have 30 million people coming off the bench, and we have a 15-year-old that we have from our academy. That makes a difference.”

Despite all of Rising’s issues with injury and other absence, the team managed to hold Houston to just one goal in the standard 90 minutes of play. After Dariusz Formella’s equalizer late in the first half, Phoenix did struggle with chance creation, but also refused to give up much in the way of clear cut chances to their opponent until the second half of extra time.

That was despite Rising being able to bring just one substitute on in the second half of the match, compared to five sets of fresh legs for Houston during the same stretch.

“The second goal, what can we do?” Kah said. “He put it top corner. Absolutely, you know you gave a fight, but it becomes a bit deflated, which you understand. Then you want to throw numbers up to try and make it 2-2, and then you lose 4-1. If you look at the whole 90 minutes, I think it’s something that we’re going to continue to build on and be very proud of.”

Owain’s take

When I first saw the Houston Dynamo lineup, I wouldn’t have been shocked to see a 4-1 scoreline at the end of the match. With Phoenix Rising as hamstrung as the team has been in terms of selection, why would I have been?

What was surprising? The fact it took 120 minutes to get there.

Rising showed incredible heart, desire and talent as well. They played through adversity and were a credit to themselves.

Are there individual moments that Rising could have been better in? Absolutely, just as there are in almost any match. But to dwell on them in here coming off of a fight that gutsy would be unfair to a team that instead, honestly, deserves to be praised far more than face any criticism.

Let’s give some credit to Emil Cuello, a man who isn’t yet back in full training yet put in a 90-minute shift in which he won nigh-on 70 percent of his duels. Let’s give credit to Patrick Rakovsky in goal, who made several key saves to keep the scores level. Let’s give credit to Braxton Montgomery, who was put into a position not many would have envisaged several months ago.

Frankly, let’s give credit to the entire team. This wasn’t ever going to be an easy match, and Houston didn’t make it one. But Rising’s team, even with very few options open to them in terms of personnel, showed that they could hang with top-flight players. The goal that ultimately changed this match, a sensational strike by Jack McGlynn, was not anything that Rising could have legislated for.

There will be questions looking to the weekend, of course. It won’t be easy to take a thin squad straight from a 120-minute clash to face a particularly loathed foe on Saturday, especially as New Mexico didn’t have to play in midweek themselves. Especially, too, as Rising has to finally find a way to break away from its slow start to the season.

For now, though? Now is time to tip the hat, accept a hard-fought showing from a team that hung in with an MLS squad and refused to give in until the point where they physically couldn’t do otherwise. Scoreline be damned, that’s something that can and ought to be applauded.

Top image: Phoenix Rising FC