Rising's struggles continue in loss to Birmingham Legion

For Rick Schantz and Phoenix Rising, the 2022 season is turning into a repetitive story.

Again, Rising failed to dominate a supposedly inferior opponent. Again, they didn’t create enough clear-cut chances. Again, the product at Wild Horse Pass was a far cry from the lofty standards established over the past five seasons.

And again, Rising lost.

Saturday night’s 1-0 defeat to Birmingham Legion reversed the positive momentum established in last week’s 2-1 win over Hartford Athletic, instead marking that win as another false dawn in a season that’s growing full of them.

“Our fans aren't used to this and neither am I,” Schantz said. “And I'm sorry for that.

In the first half, Rising’s stats looked the part of a dominant side. They had 56% possession, 15 shots and four shots on target. But clear-cut chances still evaded them.

“We lacked a lot of quality in the final third,” Schantz said. “On the first half, we were too anxious, shooting from 35, 40 yards out every time we got the ball rather than showing a little bit of ability. I thought we did enough, but going forward, we lost our creativity.”

The one legitimate chance in the first 45 fell to midfielder Joey Calistri in the 36th minute, punctuating a 20-minute stretch in which Phoenix controlled the game. Sivert Haugli — nominally a center-back playing as a defensive midfielder with Kevon Lambert on Jamaican national team duty — pinged a ball over the top into the path of winger Marcus Epps. Epps cut it back into the path of Calistri, who squandered the golden opportunity by hitting his shot too close to goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel.

Rising consistently got the ball into good positions in the latter part of the first half, but were undone by a combination of impatience and poor crossing from their wingers. Thirteen minutes into the second half, Birmingham made them pay for that wastefulness.

With both of Rising’s center-backs caught out of position, Birmingham midfielder Enzo Martinez got into a dangerous position one-on-one with left-back Baboucarr Njie. Martinez turned Njie too easily and laid the ball off to Prosper Kasim, who let fly from 20 yards. Although his shot wasn’t overly powerful, it beat Rising goalkeeper Ben Lundt to the far post.

“We lost possession, they hit us in a bit of transition,” Schantz said. “I'm not sure if he was offside.”

Replays were inconclusive on Martinez’s positioning. The USL does not employ video assistant referee.

Despite finishing the night with 23 shots and 55% possession, Rising failed to conjure up a response to Kasim’s opener. The closest they came to an equalizer was in the 83rd minute, when Santi Moar played a cross into Jonathan Dean inside the penalty box. The ball initially appeared to hit Dean’s outstretched arm but the referee correctly recognized that it hit Dean’s torso, denying Phoenix’s passionate penalty claims.

“We're not getting any luck with the referees,” Schantz asserted after.

On Saturday, the bigger problem was a lack of offensive impet.

Although Haugli asserted himself well as a defensive midfielder, the absence of Lambert’s dominant presence prevented Schantz from pushing his other midfielders as high up the field as he would like to. That posed problems for Phoenix, who is also missing Arturo Rodriguez, its most creative midfielder. Rodriguez suffered an undisclosed injury against Hartford and is out for six to eight weeks.

The lack of midfield creativity is amplified by the struggles of Rising’s wingers. Combined, Santi Moar and Marcus Epps have scored one goal in 1366 minutes of USL play.

Schantz, though, shied away from individual criticism postgame.

“It didn't matter who we played today,” Schantz said. “We weren't creative enough in the final third. I think we were at times too selfish and at other times, not selfish enough. It just comes down to decision making.”

Theo Mackie covers Arizona high school sports and Phoenix Rising FC. He can be reached by email at theo.mackie@gannett.com and on Twitter @theo_mackie.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rising's struggles continue in loss to Birmingham Legion