Phoenix Rising has the quality on its roster to secure a win against Reno 1868 despite being the lower seeded side, according to winger Santi Moar.

Earlier this week, Reno captain Brent Richards told reporters that his team’s “tough system” makes it hard for top players, including those on Rising’s roster, to perform.

“When you play against good teams, they will hide our skills a little bit more,” Moar responded. “When you play against a team that is not as good, obviously you are going to show your qualities much more. They are a good team. They are going to try to keep us in their shadow the whole night, but usually good players also get a way to shine a little bit sometimes.”

After a gritty 1-0 extra time victory last Saturday, the Spaniard is calling for his teammates to put in the same collective effort in Reno in order to advance.

“We just need to stick together,” Moar said. “At the end of the day, I believe we can get the result with the quality of the players that we have.”

The last time Phoenix travelled to Reno, they weren’t able to get a result. Two second half goals from Foster Langsdorf and Corey Hertzog were enough to secure a victory for the hosts.

“I think it was a very even game,” Moar said. “We made two mistakes, and they punished us. So obviously we’ve got to be sharper, try to avoid those mistakes, and try to exploit weaknesses that we didn’t exploit the last time.”

Because of that loss, Reno took the regular season title, granting them home field advantage. For Rising, that means they’re looking up the table in the postseason for the first time since 2018.

“We are usually the favourites,” Moar said. “We are usually the team to beat, and this time around Reno has proven they are the team to beat this year. We’ve just got to be even more motivated.”

Phoenix was the team to beat last week, but it took a controversial goal from Solomon Asante to give them the victory over Sacramento. Despite the vocal criticisms on social media, Moar, who recorded the assist on the goal, doesn’t look back on it negatively.

“We forced the mistake of the referee, and at the end of the day, we were knocking on the door,” Moar said. “We were creating chances. We were looking for that opportunity and it came off a crazy situation. But at the end of the day, if the referees make mistakes… Sometimes they don’t get it right, and we’ve just got to live with it when it is in our favour and when it is against us.”

Now, with the playoffs well underway, Moar’s former team, New Mexico United, remains in contention. If both United and Rising win on Saturday, it would set up another meeting in Phoenix between them in a week’s time.

“It’s going to be interesting to see,” Moar said. “In playoff matches, anything can happen.”

Earlier this season, Moar had said that he moved over to Rising because he felt the team was more competitive. But will those words come back to haunt him?

“I increased my chances of winning a championship by coming to this team, and that’s how it is,” Moar chuckled.