Phoenix Rising held to scoreless draw by Hartford

Phoenix Rising followed up its first win in over a month with a 0-0 draw at home to Hartford Athletic.

A suspended Pa-Modou Kah watched from the stands as Rising failed to make Antony Siaha work especially hard to make six saves and record a clean sheet.

There were chances, but they weren’t put away

En route to a 0-0 draw, Phoenix Rising recorded a total of 20 shots at goal, with six on target to produce an expected goals (xG) figure of 1.35.

“I think we need to be a bit more cutting edge at times into the final third with a little bit more quality as well,” Assistant Coach Vikram Virk said. “If we just take care of a couple of things and score a goal, I think we can definitely start punishing teams when we have the chance.”

Three of Rising’s opportunities were deemed to be “big chances” by Opta, which represents a chance where a player “should reasonably be expected to score.”

“I think we lacked a bit of quality in the final third and played their game,” JP Scearce said. “They wanted to slow the game down and at times we were just too slow with the tempo of the game and didn’t put our chances away when we had clear opportunities to capitalize on.”

Kelvin Arase subbed off amid potential injury concern

Phoenix Rising winger Kelvin Arase was subbed off early in the second half, and appeared to be clutching his hamstring as he left the field.

“We’ll go assess him and see where it’s at and then take it from there,” Virk said after the match.

Arase only recently returned from injury, which has plagued the winger since joining the club last summer.

Phoenix Rising falls back below the playoff line

In a sign of how tight the Western Conference is, Phoenix Rising again fell below the playoff line after drawing against Hartford.

The club currently sits in 10th place on 21 points from 17 games. Oakland Roots and Las Vegas also sit outside the playoff places on 21 points.

Despite dropping in the standings, Rising remains only three points behind New Mexico United in fourth place. However, every team between third and eighth has at least one game in hand relative to Phoenix.

Owain’s take

A month and a half ago, I spent my postgame column after a loss to Louisville commenting on the sparsely-filled stands. I thought that was the last time I’d focus on that until we reached the end of the season, when we could stop to think about the year as a whole.

I was wrong.

On a Saturday night in which Phoenix Rising tried, and yet failed, to put anything up in attack, they were joined once again by their best friends: a horde of empty seats.

Don’t believe me? Why not take a peek at how last night’s action looked.

So, how much of a crowd can you see in this picture below?

If your reaction was “nowhere near enough of one,” then congrats, you’ve found the correct answer.

Want to try one more? Let’s go for it.

Unless everybody decided to wear gray tonight, and I didn’t happen to get the memo, I don’t think this one looks much better either.

Now, are these pictures necessarily indicative of the whole stadium? Maybe not. But they are indicative of large swathes of the stadium, and taken as a whole, I’d be shocked if more than around a quarter of the ground was actually occupied.

Officially, the crowd was just 3,380, and as always that is a reflection of the tickets distributed, not the actual number of fans through the door.

For anyone who remembers those oft miserable days of Arizona United, that’s an attendance figure that wouldn’t have been out of place back in 2015, in the lone season that they played in Scottsdale Stadium. Is that really where this club wants to go?

Before the excuses come in, yes, the weather doesn’t help. It never does, but this is summer in a part of the world where the weather is miserable year after year, and the colossal drop off in crowds over the past few years show this to be a deeper problem than any one-off spot of heat or rain or anything else. I’m simply not buying it.

Let’s be clear: this is one of several pitiful crowds this season. It’s far from unique. It says something that last week, coming off a home World Cup with record interest in the U.S., we were somewhat happy to see a crowd that was no better than Phoenix Rising pulled in every single time back in the old Casino Arizona Field era. Is that an achievement these days? I suppose it is, but that doesn’t make it a particularly impressive one.

I recall several years ago a member of the ownership group complaining to me on the regular about the size of the crowds not being sufficient. From there, things have only gotten worse.

Unfortunately, nothing has shown me that this club, and especially its senior leadership, really understands the gravity of this situation. I’ve grown tired of hearing about the efforts of the club president in working around the clock to find a new player, or sitting outside to take in another training session, while the stands sit at less than half full. It’s the equivalent of pondering if you should upgrade the sail on your ship, all while ignoring the massive hole in its hull that fills with water and will soon enough sink you to the bottom of the sea.

I hope I’m wrong about that. I really do. But what are we seeing to say that it’s wrong?

That’s where the largest frustration comes in. If this was a player or a coach performing at this level, you’d expect to see them fighting for their job week in, week out. You’d expect to see them leaving it all out there on the field, trying things to correct the direction that they’re going in.

But is that what we’re seeing? If it is, then it’s simply not working. The ideas, if there are any, outlived their usefulness long ago.

If it isn’t a reflection of someone fighting to show that they still deserve their job, then that is a colossal problem in itself.

And in either case, if you’re asking me to have confidence in the direction that off-field leadership is taking this club in, then you’re wasting your time. I’ve seen enough, and I just can’t muster any.

To be clear, I don’t blame this on Pa-Modou Kah, or on the players. They may hold their own portion of the blame for where the club is on the field, but the issues with a complete inability to draw a crowd do not stem from their own efforts.

After a frustrating night on the field, I often log on to that one Facebook group. If you’ve followed this club for long enough, you’ll know exactly the one I’m talking about. Its takes may often be wild and silly and confusing, but they show the pulse of the fanbase. They show how people are taking results, and how their interest changes over time.

At around 11:30 p.m., several hours after the conclusion of play, I couldn’t find a single post in that group about the 0-0 draw. I did the same this morning, and found the exact same result.

If I logged onto Twitter, it wouldn’t be much better. I remember, in the past, scrolling for hours after a bad result. It was something that would keep me occupied when I’d travelled halfway across the country to cover an iffy performance on the East Coast.

Now? If I tried to scroll, I’d be met with almost nothing. It’s a perfect reflection of where this club is, and how far it has fallen. In many ways, it seems nothing more than a shell of what it once was at its height.

Now, in its tenth season since the rebrand to Phoenix Rising, it’s time for the club to put up a fight. To try and rectify things. To try and actually get a crowd in. To try and regain some relevancy in its community. To show the fans that do show up every week that they actually do still care.

That isn’t something that comes about on the field. That’s something that needs direction from the top in all aspects. It’s something that this club is sorely lacking. Instead, almost everything just feels like they’re phoning it in.

If this club wants to see another ten years, the time for that conversation is now.

Instead, on the path it currently treads, I fear that Phoenix Rising has decided to go gentle into that good night.

Images: Phoenix Rising FC / Ashley Orellana