Phoenix Rising recorded its largest margin of victory this year in a dominant 4-1 win over Colorado Springs Switchbacks.

Four separate goalscorers found the back of the net for the hosts, in a game that was likely Phoenix’s most complete performance of the season.

Phoenix RIsing attack finds form

In recent weeks, Phoenix Rising’s attack had stalled.

Against Lexington, the team managed just one shot on target, and that in itself was barely a shot. In the first half against Tampa Bay, the club didn’t even attempt a single shot, on or off target.

That changed against Colorado Springs. Over the course of the first 45 minutes, Rising took six total shots, and all six were on target. Of those, three were goals, and two led to rebounds that were in turn tucked in.

“Today, I think we took our opportunities,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “But we still could have taken more. That is just me being greedy for them.”

Overall, Rising had 10 shots on target against Colorado Springs. That’s the same number of shots on target as the club had managed over the prior four matches combined.

Pierce Rizzo gets second goal in as many games

Pierce Rizzo became the youngest-ever Phoenix Rising goalscorer last week, and added to his tally against Switchbacks.

“I remember the first time we came to watch them” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “They were playing an academy game, and right away you could tell that he would be able to play in this league and this level.”

Following a team of the week performance, Rizzo’s effort from the right side of goal proved to be Rising’s only non-rebound goal in the first half, and was well taken even as he slipped.

Yet the 18-year-old right back’s contributions went beyond just his goal.

“He defended [Colorado Springs] well,” Kah said. “Even though they targeted him, I don’t think there was a lot that he had to deal with. He stood his ground, and also he understood the time to go forward and he took his chances. We want him to showcase his quality, and he did that.”

Big win marks start of home games

38th & Washington may be home for Phoenix Rising, but it isn’t a place that had brought the club a lot of joy this season.

The club had only won two of its eight home league matches in 2025, and desperately needed to turn that around. They started that process with a big win over Colorado Springs.

“That is a great win, but again, we’ve got to continue,” Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah said. “It’s not enough just having this great win and then next game letting ourselves down. Like I say, we’ve got to sustain this, maintain it and improve.”

Rising plays at home for the next two weeks, facing El Paso Locomotive and Las Vegas Lights. Overall, seven of the club’s final ten fixtures are being played in Arizona, including likely six-pointers against clubs such as New Mexico United.

Owain’s take

Finally, I get to sit down in the early hours of a Sunday morning and not have a whole lot to pick at from a Phoenix Rising performance.

Rising took its chances in a clinical first half. In the second, they prevented Colorado Springs from seriously threatening their goal, before adding another to the tally to make this the largest margin of victory in a Phoenix Rising match this season.

Pierce Rizzo continued to impress at right-back, while Rémi Cabral also took another step in his recovery by finding the back of the net. Plus, we got a chance to see Kelvin Arase, a signing we’ve been long waiting to officially be added to the squad, make his debut at home.

It’s remarkable that just a week removed from when I commented that I wasn’t certain that Phoenix Rising would make the playoffs, I’m now going to speculate in this column that they could actually end up hosting a first round match this year. That’s a testament to the insanity of the Western Conference in 2025, where just four points separate 2nd from 8th, and where essentially everybody save for FC Tulsa seems more interested in playing a game of chicken with the playoff line than actually kicking on and playing consistently.

That is what makes this final run-in so critical for Phoenix: they have a chance to step up and do something special, especially with the number of home matches remaining on the schedule, but they could equally collapse in spectacular fashion. A victory over Colorado Springs at least helps assuage fears of the latter, although there’s still a long way to go, and the same number of points between Tulsa and 2nd-place Sacramento also separate Sacramento and last-place Las Vegas. Predicting anything in a Western Conference that tight is a fool’s errand.

Still, after a rough run of fixtures, this was a very welcome response. Colorado Springs may not have brought much on the night, but you can only ever beat the team that’s in front of you in any given match, and Rising did so in quite some fashion. The key for Rising now, as Pa-Modou Kah raised in his postgame comments, is to actually use this match as a springboard to put together more consistent results going forward. If this club can do that, with the margins as tight as they are in the standings, it’s possible that we could all be out at a game in Phoenix come November.

Will they do it? I honestly cannot tell you. But the next two games will tell us a lot more on if the 4-1 win was simply a good night at the office, or if this squad has actually turned a corner.

Top image: Phoenix Rising FC