Having reflected on his side’s dropped points over the weekend, Rising coach Rick Schantz accepted his share of the blame for the result during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“My feeling was that I made the wrong decision of making an extra attacking sub at the end rather than going with a fifth defender,” Schantz said. “After three days, we were dropping very deep. We would have been better off with a fifth defender rather than putting another attacker up front.
“We switched to a 4-2-3-1 there at the end. The idea usually is my personality is to make attacking subs to release pressure from my team. It just didn’t work out. I should have put another defender in.”
Rising had trailed early thanks to a goal from Roberto Molina, but set pieces goals from Santi Moar and Aodhan Quinn gave Phoenix a lead going into the break. However, an 84th minute equaliser from Mohamed Traore was enough to secure a point for the hosts.
“We played on a really difficult field,” midfielder Arturo Rodriguez said. “It was not the greatest field, and I think that’s not good for our type of play. We know how to play, but when we play on those types of fields, it’s difficult.”
One of the biggest talking points raised by Schantz after the match was his frustration with the performance of the officials – with the Rising coach perceiving that calls being made against his side weren’t being called against the opposition.
“Originally, my initial reaction was the refereeing on the weekend was inconsistent,” Schantz said on Tuesday. “But I think it was inconsistent for both teams. After watching again, the result, the referees, the pitch, everything. 2-2 is probably the way it was supposed to turn out.”
The match against Vegas marked the end of three games in eight days, with two of them away from home. Rising went unbeaten over the stretch.
“It was tough physically, mentally for the guys, myself included,” goalkeeper Andre Rawls said. “I think going in seven points out of nine is definitely something to write home about and something to be happy with.”
However, one notable absence across the spell of three games was Tobi Adewole, who didn’t make it into the matchday squad once.
“Tobi, he’s doing well,” Schantz said. “He’s fit. He’s been working hard. We brought Manu [Madrid] in, wanted to give him an opportunity, but right now, Joey Farrell is playing at a different level, and Musa’s been extremely consistent.”
Meanwhile, Rufat Dadashov failed to make the 18 on Saturday, although he did make a substitute appearance in Oakland. After the match at Cashman Field, Dadashov embraced his coach on the field wearing club attire.
However, Schantz declined to provide detail as to why the Azerbaijani missed the weekend game, leading to speculation online.
“Rufat, right now, there’s no comment,” Schantz said, “but some really exciting news in the future.”
Rising will next face Orange County on Saturday at Wild Horse Pass, kicking off at 7:30 p.m.
Want to hear more? Preview Saturday’s game with Rising Matchday – streaming at 9 a.m. Saturday morning on YouTube and Facebook, and available on demand shortly after.