PHOENIX, Arizona (Saturday, June 22) – Phoenix Rising FC (5-5-6) drew Charleston Battery 0-0 in a rematch of last season’s finale tonight at 38th St/Washington.
“What we saw was two very good teams playing one another,” said Rising head coach Danny Stone. “The game had good energy in it. We showed we wanted to go and attack the game tonight and try to get the win. Even though the game ended nil-nil, there was a lot of excitement in the game from the team’s energy and the way they attacked the game, I was overall very pleased.”
After missing last season’s playoff run due to an injury, Gabi Torres got things started for Rising this evening. He earned a free kick on the left flank, near the corner flag in the 31st minute. Renzo Zambrano stood over the kick, then curled a high cross to the back post for Pape Mar Boye. The defender got his head to the cross, but the attempted hit the wrong side of the post to keep the match scoreless.
Fede Varela stole the ball back for Rising and Mo Traore slipped a pass into the middle for Panos Armenakas in first half stoppage time. Armenakas picked up his head and sent a bending ball, high towards the far post but Charleston goalkeeper Adam Grinwis stepped to his left and dove high into the corner of the net to slap the chance out for a corner kick.
Rising continued to pressure and nearly took the lead in the 52nd minute when a corner swung into the middle was headed off the post by Traore. Alejandro Fuenmayor nearly got to the rebound but couldn’t put his header on frame.
Charleston sprung to life in the 58th minute when Chris Allan got the ball to Nick Markanich at the top of the box. The forward cracked a hard shot high on goal, but Phoenix goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo got a hand to the ball, pushing it up and off the crossbar to keep his clean sheet.
A few moments later Rios Novo was called upon again when a deflected ball ended up at the feet of Emilio Ycaza. The midfielder was in acres of space at the top of the six-yard box, but Rios Novo came off his line and made a left-footed kick save to once again bring the crowd of 7,244 to its feet.
The match became wide open the longer it went, with end-to-end tackles, saves and shouts for penalties, but nothing materialized for either side in the end and the game ended 0-0 after six minutes of stoppage time.
Scoring:
NONE
Discipline:
PHX – Alejandro Fuenmayor (caution) 3
PHX – Gabi Torres (caution) 27
PHX – Jose Andres Hernandez (caution) 39
CHR – Graham Smith (caution) 64
PHX – Pape Mar Boye (caution) 67
Lineups:
Phoenix Rising – Rocco Rios Novo, Mo Traore, Pape Mar Boye, Alejandro Fuenmayor, Renzo Zambrano, Jose Andres Hernández (Guilio Doratiotto 66), Fede Varela (JC Azocar 75), Edguardo Rito, Gabi Torres (Erickson Gallardo 66), Panos Armenakas, Dariusz Formella (Remi Cabral 75).
Substitutes not used: Patrick Rakovsky, Laurence Wyke, JP Scearce, Odle.
Charleston Battery – Adam Grinwis, Leland Archer, Josh Drack (Robbie Crawford 75), Chris Allan, Aaron Molloy, Emilio Ycaza, MD Myers (Jackson Conway 83), Diego Gutierrez (Juan David Torres 56), Nick Markanich, Graham Smith, Nathan Dossantos.
Substitutes not used: Daniel Kuzemka, Arturo Rodriguez, Beadyn Cobb, Charlie Dennis.
