Reno 1868 will enter Saturday’s conference semi-final with all the momentum, according to club captain Brent Richards.

The defender told local media he believes his club has improved in both defence and attack since last meeting Phoenix, and that their big playoff victory over LA Galaxy II last Saturday is evidence of that.

“Getting four goals in a playoff match is big for us, so we feel like we have a lot of momentum going into this game,” Richards said. “[Phoenix has] kind of had some struggles here and there. They had a really tough game last weekend, so we’ve got all the momentum. We’ve got all the confidence, and we feel really good about it.”

Reno defeated Los Dos 4-1, with goals from Kevin Partida, Foster Langsdorf and a brace from Corey Hertzog.

For winger Christiano François, the biggest difference going into Saturday’s match will be that, unlike last week, the team has a better handle on its upcoming opponent.

“LA, we didn’t play the whole year, so we didn’t know anything about them,” Francois said. “Phoenix, we played them once, so we know how they play and we know some of their players are very good, and then we focus on that.”

That viewpoint was backed up by his head coach Ian Russell, who said that having the earlier meeting – which Reno won 2-1 – makes things easier to plan this week.

“Any time you play a team once, you get a good look at their tendencies,” head coach Ian Russell said. “You can always scout a team, but you’re scouting them against other teams. Stuff that we do is going to be different than what other teams do. So we can go back and look at our game against them and see what worked, what didn’t, what we can do better. We’ve already started doing that. I think having one good solid game against them is going to help us play even better in the next game.”

So how exactly do you handle a threat like Phoenix?

“They’ve got some good individual players on their team who can make a difference, and score goals, so we just need to manage them and stick to our gameplan,” Richards said. “We have a really tough system to play against, and so it kind of takes those players out and makes them less impactful.”

According to Russell, Reno needs to be clinical in order to come out with a result.

“You have to cash in, especially against the teams like a Phoenix, like a Sacramento, or whoever’s next,” Russell said, “because the chances are few and far between in the playoffs, usually. Last game was a different story. It was a pretty wide open game for us, but this next one, there’s going to be probably half the chances of the last one, so we’ve got to cash in a little better.”

Reno will enjoy one major change this weekend. When the sides last met in late August, Greater Nevada Field was empty. Last week, the club was able to let in a small number of fans for the first time this season, and they’ll be back in the stands for Saturday’s game.

“We were kind of expecting that, like, 250, it’s still going to feel like it’s empty,” Richards said. “But those 250 fans were fantastic. It honestly felt like the stadium was full. They were loud the whole time and it was a ton of fun to play in front of them.”

That’s exactly what 1868’s head coach wants his team to be doing – having fun. In fact, he thinks it could make a difference in the results this postseason.

“The key for us again is to enjoy the process, and not worry about the process so much,” Russell said. “It’s fun to be playing at this time of the year, and just to enjoy it, and go in loose and have fun doing it. I think that’s the big message I tried to get across to them our last game. Just enjoy it. Your career is not very long. It’ll last ten years maybe. If you’ve had it really good when you’ve had ten years out of the game, playoffs… you might get in three or four times. So enjoy it, and have fun.”

The message has certainly soaked in with François, who despite expressing his respect for the quality of Phoenix’s team, said he doesn’t feel any weight on his shoulders.

“I don’t think we have any pressure on us because we’re going to be at home,” the Haitian international said. “We’ve been training hard to get the result done on Saturday.”

For Richards, though? The confident captain threw down words that could be interpreted as both a motivational speech for his players, and a challenge for Rising.

“We’ve been in control of just about every game we’ve played this year, and it’s been really hard for other teams to come and play against us,” Richards said. “We want to control every aspect of the game defensively and then going forward as well, so going in with the expecation that we’re going to be the best team on the day and we’re going to get the win.”