The official kickoff to the 2023 season is finally here! Phoenix Rising will start their 2023 campaign in Charleston under the direction of new head coach Juan Guerra, 16 new players and 7 returning players.
Rising had a pretty secretive preseason with most of their matches being played behind closed doors or in Mexico. Rising fans got a small taste of what to expect this season when the team finished their preseason in a friendly competition with GCU men's soccer. If i had to guess, the lineup we saw at GCU will most likely be the starting lineup for Charleston. We saw a different style of playing for rising in the preseason than what we're used to under the direction of Rick Schantz. The team played a very high line keeping the field compact and fluidly moving the outside backs to join the attack and quickly slide back into position. But we saw rising become susceptible to balls being played over the top early in the first half their back line was repeatedly beat by GCU attackers with balls over the top, but the ball was usually played too directly and Rocco typically was able to come out and gather it before anything undue happened. But we also saw panic occur in the back line when center backs played the ball backwards to Rocco to alleviate pressure, and Rocco picked the ball up to avoid the attacker gaining possession resulting in an indirect free kick within our penalty area. Luckily nothing came of the mistake but at the professional level, panicking and pressure like that can lead to costly mistakes and results of games being changed. In the first half rising appeared to be fast on counter attacks and clinical in finishing their attack. Most of the time they were able to break past the GCU back line and would just cross the ball or play a through ball to an open player to slot the ball home to go up 3-0 in the first half against GCU. But rising was stunted in the second half as GCU were able to apply pressure and get a goal during the run of play and get a second goal off of a penalty kick. The preseason game ended 3-2.
Is preseason rankings rising has been placed high by multiple sources, including #8 in the league by the USL writers themselves. With rising having a new home in Phoenix, new uniforms, and bringing back $1 beer nights, will 2023 be the season which delievers us to the land of milk and cookies and gives us the elusive star above our logo? We're about to find out.
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