Ihsan Sacko‘s sixth goal of the season was enough for Phoenix Rising to beat the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 1-0.

Rising kept its third consecutive clean sheet in league play, but more importantly earned its third consecutive victory in USL Championship league play.

Three straight clean sheets

A year ago, Rising’s biggest fault was its defense. The team could score goals seemingly whenever it felt like, but Pa-Modou Kah‘s squad also had a knack for conceding at similar pace.

Although they evolved to a more defensive side in time for the playoffs, Rising still conceded 48 goals in the regular season, the second most in the Western Conference.

To open 2026, it felt like Rising were headed down a similar path. They’d allowed eight goals through five games, while making many of the same mistakes as a year ago.

Yet in the last three league games, a switch has flipped in this Rising backline. Rising hasn’t conceded in over 370 minutes, dating back to its 2-0 loss against Sacramento.

Rising has limited its opponents from creating chances of quality. In this span, Rising has held its opponents under one expected goals (xG) twice — the lone exception was against Miami, where they allowed a xG tally of 2.51.

The defense is also making goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky‘s life easy. He’s only been forced into six saves in this stretch, with a goals prevented mark of 0.65.

Sacko scores again… then bit by injury bug

With Phoenix Rising’s single shot on target, forward Ihsan Sacko made the most of his self-created chaos to find the back of the net in the 64th minute. Pittsburgh’s defense stood around as the ball continued to bounce favorably for Sacko, before the Frenchman slot it home.

It was Sacko’s fifth goal in his last three USL Championship games, as he netted braces against New Mexico and Miami. It was also his 10th goal contribution in all competitions, as Sacko has been in the best form of his Rising tenure.

That makes it all the more worrying when Sacko went down with an apparent lower-body injury in the 70th minute.

Across all competitions, Rising has scored 16 goals this season. When you consider that Sacko either scored or assisted on ten of those goals, Rising’s attack could find itself in big trouble if he’s expected to miss time.

Regardless of Sacko’s injury, Rising entered Pittsburgh with a lengthening list of injuries. Rising had six players on the injury report, which doesn’t include academy product Anthony Capetillo, who is set to miss time following a surgery.

It certainly doesn’t help that Kelvin Arase was excluded from Saturday’s matchday squad, after only playing 28 minutes this season. On social media, Rising’s sporting director Brandon McCArrthy confirmed that Arase missed out due to injury.

With all the injuries, Pa-Modou Kah only named three professional players to the bench — goalkeeper Chituru Odunze, defender Adrian Pelayo and forward Gunnar Studenhofft.

Nine points from three for Phoenix Rising

After five games to open the USL Championship season, Rising had drawn three and lost two, but were still in search of their first victory in league play.

Three games later, Rising have won three on the trot, by a combined scoreline of 7-0. It hasn’t been perfect, but they’ve looked strong on both ends of the pitch.

Somehow, someway, with a revolving door of available bodies, Pa-Modou Kah is willing his side to victory.

Rees’ Take

To pick up three points away to an Eastern Conference side will always be impressive in my eyes.

In a vacuum, was the performance impressive? Certainly not. But what matters is that this team found its third consecutive league win.

However, the question “where does this team go from here,” feels like an impossible answer. It feels unfair to judge a side where we don’t know what the best eleven is, nor if we’ll ever see the best eleven.

It’s also tough to answer because with this side’s injury luck — or lack thereof — it feels as if it is a ticking time bomb before someone else gets injured.

But yet again, I return to my original point. After a difficult start, they’re finding ways to win, with whoever they can find to make up the squad.

Against New Mexico, it was dominance. In Miami, they were clinical amidst chaos. Versus Pittsburgh, they only needed one chance.

Different recipes. Same three points.

Yet, it’s only a start. 12 points from eight matches has Rising mid-table in the West, but they’ll have their sights set on reaching the top four and beyond.

Top image: Pittsburgh Riverhounds