In a match that could have been a dominant home win, Phoenix Rising threw away a three goal advantage to take just a point against El Paso Locomotive.

A brace from Ihsan Sacko and a phenomenal solo effort from Darius Johnson had given the hosts a 3-0 lead early in the second half, but after Ascel Essengue’s red card for a second caution, El Paso responded with three goals of their own to claim a share of the spoils.

Clinical from Phoenix Rising

For the second match in a row, Phoenix Rising mostly took its chances when they arrived in front of goal. They did so early, too.

There may have been a hint of offside around Ihsan Sacko‘s opening goal, but his finish was well taken.

“We started decent in the first half, then after we got pinned back, we suffered a bit,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “Then we rode it out, which was good to see.”

The second half saw Rising come out of the gates hot, with Sacko adding to his tally courtesy of a Kelvin Arase assist, while Darius Johnson’s run from the halfway line saw him take on seemingly everybody on the opposing side before rounding the goalkeeper to slot the ball away.

“It’s good to see we’re creating opportunities,” Johnson said after the match. “We’re a scoring team and exciting going forward. It was just unlucky we received the red card that took our momentum away, because with 11 men on the pitch, we finish that game out and even score more goals.”

Ascel Essengue picks up red card

Just as Phoenix Rising felt the match may have been in control, defender Ascel Essengue picked up a second yellow card.

It was a 63rd minute late challenge on El Paso Locomotive goalkeeper Jahmali Waite that saw referee Muhammad Kaleia give the center-back his marching orders.

“I think that could have been avoided, especially when you’re on a yellow,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said after the match. “I don’t see the reason why you have to go and slide tackle into the keeper on a cross.”

El Paso comes back

After the red card, Phoenix Rising made several changes. Within minutes, Pape Mar Boye replaced Hope Avayevu to give Rising an extra defender.

El Paso found their way back into the match with a goal from Amando Moreno, before Rising made a triple substitution, replacing Ihsan Sacko, Darius Johnson and Daniel Flores with Ryan Flood, Xian Emmers and debutant Rafael Czichos.

But Rising’s defensive changes didn’t see them secure the three points. In the 81st minute, ex-Phoenix man Gabi Torres scored for the third time against his old club this season, before Ricky Ruiz pounced on a ball spilled by Patrick Rakovsky in the eighth minute of stoppage time.

“You always want to push the line forward, but it’s a natural reaction to sit deeper. I think we pressured well. They were down to only crosses. The second and third goal are avoidable, but it’s all hindsight,” Pa-Modou Kah said.

Owain’s take

It looked as though it could have ended so, so well. But once again, at 38th and Washington, it did not.

Phoenix Rising’s Jekyll and Hyde season continued on Saturday night, putting in a clinical display in front of goal before a sending off ultimately exposed Rising’s questionable defensive record once again.

Funnily enough, before the match, it was Rising’s front line that I was questioning. I wasn’t sure if the group that started was, on balance, going to work in this match.

They quickly proved me wrong. Ihsan Sacko’s finishing was spot on, and Darius Johnson’s effort for his goal was nothing short of sublime.

The problem is what came after that.

Ascel Essengue’s decision to launch into a challenge on El Paso’s Jahmali Waite was questionable, especially as he was already on a yellow card. But from there, the match was simply played too negatively, ten men or not, to make this kind of a result feel anything but inevitable.

Rising had to sit back to an extent. They had to bring on Pape Mar Boye to fill in for the space that Essengue left at the back. But from the minute Rising went down to ten men, over one-third of their touches of the ball came in their own penalty area. They invited wave after wave of pressure from El Paso in a way that felt certain to make the dam break.

To suggest that solely individual errors cost Phoenix Rising the game misses the point. They did, but they’ve cost Rising uncounted times this season. They’re no longer something that could, or should, ever come as unexpected. They are a factored-in, natural cost of doing business with this Phoenix team. When you stress test a defense that has conceded the joint-most goals of any club within USL Championship, is it really a surprise that they will eventually fail?

Nobody expected Phoenix Rising to put in a display resembling peak Barcelona when they were reduced to ten men, but there’s a large spectrum of possibilities between that and repeatedly lumping the ball forward aimlessly, in the direction of nobody wearing a red shirt. Rising bought itself a whopping five seconds of relief every time, but gave themselves no real outlet to do so for any longer stretch at all.

They simply handed the ball back to El Paso Locomotive every single time, and despite Pa-Modou Kah’s assertion that “it’s not like [El Paso] created much,” they did take over five times the number of shots that Phoenix Rising did over 90 minutes. Inviting wave after wave of pressure for what ended up being over 30 minutes of gameplay down a man was almost certainly going to lead to lapses defensively, because again, that is what we have seen all season long.

This isn’t the first week any more. We’ve seen 22 league matches for this iteration of Phoenix Rising, and by now, we’ve seen nothing to suggest that this team can sit back, bunker to the extreme and come away positively.

We’re wrapping up August and this team still has more than enough of a chance to finish the year in the top four. At times, we’ve seen them play like they deserve to. They still have plenty of matches left to secure that, and the points gap across the entire Western Conference is miniscule.

But nights like Saturday, throwing away a 3-0 lead? Much like against Detroit, and much like against Birmingham, they illustrate again a case of Phoenix Rising not helping itself when points are on the table.

Top image: Phoenix Rising FC