Rising come from behind twice to earn its first home point of 2025
For a second week in a row, Phoenix Rising came from behind to earn a valuable early-season point. Following the club’s 2-2 draw against Rhode Island FC on March 22, Head Coach Pa-Modou Kah, forward Ihsan Sacko and midfielder Hope Avayevu spoke to the team’s slow starts, an attack finding its momentum and scoring goals at home.
HEAD COACH PA-MODOU KAH
General thoughts on the match…
“The first five minutes were poor. We got smacked in the face. It took us five-to-ten minutes to react, then we get the goal, and again a little bit of a switch-off. The second half began much better, but we have to make sure we’re ready to go from the get-go.”
On the team’s recent slow starts…
“If I knew then we would have started better. I mean that’s the beauty of the game for me. The biggest thing is it’s a process, right? So, a process is going to take time, but we have to start better.”
On starting Jamison Ping and its impact on other young players…
“(Ping) has worked his tail off in the preseason, and he’s worked himself into being a starter with JP (Scearce) and Carl (Sainté) out. So he fully deserves it. I hope (other young teammates) show the hunger and desire to even want to take his spot. That’s the way it should be, because for us to be that football club that we want to be, we also have to look within ourselves and give the opportunities. Because I know there’s a lot of great young, young footballers running around in Phoenix, even in our academy. So for us it’s about utilizing that because you are as good as your academy.”
On the performance of the wingers…
“It’s what you want from your wings to score goals and assist. We were very pleased with Damian (Rivera) scoring a goal because he has been dangerous. He could have had two (goals), and him in those positions, yeah you expect him to score because he shows and do it at training. But we are happy for him to get his first goal and I think he’s just going to keep growing from there. Like I said, we are getting our strikers to score goals, which is very important for this group.”
FORWARD IHSAN SACKO
On his thoughts on the match…
“I think today, it was a good game for the forwards. We missed some occasions, but I think it’s all about the duels. We didn’t win a lot of the duels in the first half. I think the team was so confident about this for the first and second half, and then I think we have to be more efficient in the last 15 meters. We will work this week on being more clinical and fix it for the next game.”
On where he likes to play…
“To be honest, I can play everywhere. I don’t have a special position. If the coach puts me at nine or on the right or left wing it is the same for me. I just want to be on the pitch and help my team win.”
On playing up top with Jearl Margaritha…
“We don’t usually play a lot together. I think in the future, we will play a lot together, and it will be fun. I enjoy playing with him because I love him and I know we can make a difference together.”
MIDFIELDER HOPE AVAYEVU
General thoughts on the match…
“I think we didn’t start the game in the right way, but obviously we are a team. We talk about it, so we came back with a mentality to win a game. Even though we didn’t win, we got a point at home, which we will take. It’s good, its good to score goals at home. But obviously we want to win at the end of the day.”
On the team struggling early…
“That’s a good question. We want to start the game on the front foot. We want to score the first goal and second and the third. But it has been really hard, and I think we still are talking to each other about it. That is something we need to work on more. But obviously it’s just a game. Sometimes it happens, but we will get comfortable with each other, then we’re going to work on it and go after the first goal the next game.”
