Phoenix Rising welcomed El Paso Locomotive on Saturday night at Phoenix Rising Stadium FC.
Phoenix was coming off a 2-1 win over Tulsa, while El Paso had beaten Loudoun United 4-1.
Despite winning two out of their last three games, Phoenix had a tough opponent, as El Paso was riding a six-game winning streak.
El Paso sat first in Group West, while Rising sat ninth.
Despite that, only four points separated Rising and third in Group West, while El Paso were six points clear of third.
“We can’t change where we are in the rankings,” Rising head coach Pa-Modou Kah said.
“We can continue to go. We got five more games to go so we have everything to play for.”
With such a tight Group West, every game mattered, especially with some teams having a game in hand.
It wasn’t going to be easy, but while even a draw would be impressive, anything but a win could diminish Rising’s playoff chances.
El Paso started off hot, pressuring Rising from the get to, but Phoenix’s defense held firm, but not for long.
In the 11th minute, El Paso broke the deadlock, as some nice passing found El Paso forward Rubio Rubin sent it past Rising goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky, giving the Locomotive a 1-0 lead.
“Tough,” Rakovsky said. “Mostly unlucky to concede the goal. I think we were pushing a little bit more than them. You can see the quality of a team who is number one right now, who needs one chance with a quality striker like Rubin.”
El Paso continued with pressure, but Phoenix began to create chances on the other end as they looked to draw level.
In the 17th minute, that opportunity presented itself for Rising as a cross led to a scrum for the ball, but no Rising player got a touch on it.
Five minutes later, El Paso had a golden chance to make it 2-0, but whiffed it, keeping it a one-goal game.
Rising played with possession, and was utilizing Damien Rivera down the left-hand side, while El Paso was bringing pressure and physicality.
“I think his progress is going in the right direction,” Kah said. “You hope for more and you wish for more. You just got to continue to go with him, slowly, step by step.”
In the 29th minute, Rising made a crucial error at the back, leaving Rakovsky one-on-one, where he made a big-time save before it was headed out for a corner.
El Paso kept bringing the pressure, while Rising looked for the equalizer.
In the 41st minute, Rising got the goal they were searching for.
“Great fight from us,” Rakovsky said. “I feel like a decent chance from another corner, but then great effort from us to come back.”
Diego Gomez swung a cross in from a corner, where midfielder JP Scearce got a touch on it.
The ball deflected to the back post, where Phoenix defender Rafael Czichos found himself all alone, as he sent it past El Paso goalie Pedro Henrique de Oliveira Cruz to make it 1-1.
The would be the score entering the second half.
Just six minutes into the second half, Rising found themselves down again as El Paso midfielder Eric Calvillo got a low cross sent to him with space, where he struck it into the right-hand side of the net to make it 2-1.
“We were not sharp enough,” Kah said.
Rising began pushing for a second goal, while El Paso looked to bury the game.
Rising made a substitution, subbing off Rivera for Ihsan Sacko.
“I think he was okay,” Kah said. “He’s still finding his rhythm, but we know what Sacko is going to give us, so we have 12 points to play four, so that’s what we’re going to play for.”
With only 15 minutes left, Rising kept pushing for the equalizer, while El Paso got defensive, as they looked to close the game out.
In the 80th minute, Rising defender Luke Biasi put in a hard tackle, and having already picked up a yellow, the referee showed him red, reducing Phoenix to 10 men.
“Every red card or every goal can change the game,” Kah said. “So that was unfortunate in the moment that you’re trying to push.”
Regardless, Phoenix kept pushing for the equalizer, looking to salvage a point, as they threw everything forward as the fourth official indicated four minutes of stoppage time.
In the dying moments, Rubin found himself one-on-one against Takovsky with a defender trailing him.
Rubin sent both players flying as he faked a shot to their right, before calmly slotting it into the back of the net.
Shortly after the final whistle blew, as El Paso walked with a 3-1 win.
“I don’t think it was a bad game,” Rakovsky said. “I think we can still take stuff from here. I think we created stuff even with a man down. They are really defensive but still, how we played out, a lot of crosses today and also other chances. Just got to keep building on that.”
Rising will visit the Oakland Roots next Saturday at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.