Defending champs to open season Saturday
Professional soccer offseasons go by quickly, as Phoenix Rising FC returned to the practice pitch in January after its season ended triumphantly in November 2023.
The season ended with the ultimate prize, the USL Championship title, won on the road in Charleston, S.C. on penalty kicks to complete a dramatic run to the final. Rising FC heads into its 2024 regular-season opener Saturday night in Phoenix, against Birmingham Legion FC, with a star on every player’s jersey, international soccer’s traditional way to signify that the team is the defending league champ.
Everyone in red and black knows the rest of the USL Championship aims to dethrone the kings, a challenge Rising FC is happy to accept.
“There is a real energy about the group. They are excited and focused, ready to start the regular season. I see a real confidence about the group in all aspects of the game,” first-year head coach Danny Stone told Rising FC’s website. “The attack is no different. We don’t have concerns. We have strong players and strong people. We’ll be attacking this game on Saturday.”
Stone takes over for Juan Guerra, who in January departed for an assistant coach job in Major League Soccer, the highest level of pro soccer in the U.S. Guerra had Stone on his Rising staff last season, so Stone was a logical choice to be named head coach.
His return is one of many that has Rising FC feeling confident that a repeat championship can happen.
Team captain Darnell King has moved into an assistant coach role, and defender John Stenberg takes over as captain as one of four returning defenders. Stenberg scored the goal that sent the match to eventual penalty kicks in the final against Charleston Battery, and Phoenix won in that fashion.
Forwards Dariusz Formella and Erickson Gallardo are back from last season, with Formella as the top returning goal scorer from last season (12). Six midfielders, including Panos Armenakas and his five goals from last year are also back, and Rocco Rios Novo returns to mind the net at goalkeeper after shining in the postseason.
“There is a real energy about the group. They are excited and focused, ready to start the regular season. I see a real confidence about the group in all aspects of the game.” Danny Stone
Phoenix Rising head coach
Top newcomers include forward Remi Cabral, who led MLS NEXT Pro (a developmental league for MLS) with 19 goals last season; defender Laurence Wyke, who played for the Tampa Bay Rowdies (USL) and Nashville SC (MLS) last season, and Italian midfielder Giulio Doratiotto, who has played in the Juventus system in his homeland.
Saturday’s opponent, Birmingham, finished seventh in the USL Eastern Conference last season and made the postseason. Rising FC went winless in four preseason games, one a draw.
Rising FC enters its ninth season of existence and has won three Western Conference titles (2018, 2020 and 2023), achieved the best regular-season record in the league in 2019 and has the record for the longest win streak in
American professional soccer history with a 20-match run that year.
Rising’s goal of a repeat title comes with something they didn’t do in 2023 — winning it at their home stadium on 38th Street and Washington in Phoenix. The club had to go on the road for all of its postseason wins last year due to a sixth-place regular season finish.
“To be successful as the reigning champions, we’re going to need as much strength in numbers as we can possibly get,” Stone said. “When we compete, we need to compete as a whole club, a whole community. We spoke about this a lot through the playoffs. The collective spirit, the collective unit we formed together … I certainly felt we had strength in numbers then. We were fighting as an army, not just 11 players on the field.”