Gunnar Studenthofft scored in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time to rally Phoenix Rising FC to a 2-2 draw against Oakland Roots SC at Phoenix Rising Stadium on Saturday night, ending Oakland\u2019s 100 percent record to start the season while leaving Phoenix with two points from its opening three games.<\/p>\n
Roots had held a two-goal halftime lead on a goal and assist by Wolfgang Prentice, but Phoenix rallied late behind goals from Diego Gomez and Studenthofft to earn a draw.<\/p>\n
Here are three things we took away from the contest.<\/p>\n
1. Oakland Roots Had the Game Where it Wanted It<\/p>\n
One of the early themes of new Oakland Roots SC Head Coach Ryan Martin\u2019s tenure has been a greater adaptability in terms of playing style. In the club\u2019s Week 1 victory against Monterey Bay FC it eventually turned its dominance in possession into a late winner, while last week against New Mexico United it was happy to cede possession and turn its defensive structure into scoring opportunities.<\/p>\n
Against Phoenix in Saturday\u2019s first half, Roots was back to its ball-dominant best as it controlled the game\u2019s flow and picked through Phoenix\u2019s midfield consistently, creating numerous chances. Leading the way was central midfield duo Bobosi Byaruhanga and Tommy McCabe, who both put in sterling displays.<\/p>\n
Ugandan international Byaruhanga once again stood out, with his driving run into the penalty area creating Wolfgang Prentice\u2019s opening goal. The 24-year-old also ended the game tied for a team-high with three shots while also notching team-highs with six recoveries and three interceptions. Roots almost grabbed a third goal early in the second half on a good header by Peter Wilson that was well denied by Rising goalkeeper Chituru Odunze, but at that point it looked as though the club\u2019s third victory in a row was at hand.<\/p>\n
2. Phoenix Raises Its Second-Half Intensity for Fightback<\/p>\n
Oakland looked impressive during the first half, but a good portion of that came from a lack of intensity from Phoenix Rising which simply made the hosts too easy to play through defensively and offered little in the way of attacking threat. Rising recorded only 22 passes in the attacking third through the first 45 minutes and recorded no touches in the penalty area, with its lone two shots coming on long-range efforts by Charlie Dennis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gunnar Studenthofft scored in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time to rally Phoenix Rising FC to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[100,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-233746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}