Published for Phoenix Rising FC fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
🔥 Phoenix Rising Fans — A Decade in the Desert, One More Run!
Season 10, a Golden Boot race going down to the final day, and a Fan Appreciation night with a playoff place in Rising’s own hands. Red shirts, full voice — this is the week to rise as one.
The Club
Phoenix Rising Football Club was founded on March 13, 2014 as Arizona United SC and rebranded as Phoenix Rising FC on November 28, 2016, ahead of the 2017 season — which is why the club calls 2026 its 10th Anniversary, Season 10, a decade as Rising. The ownership group is part of the story: Chairman and CEO Pablo Prichard leads the club, founding owner Tim Riester remains involved, and former Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba is a co-owner, a name that still stops conversations across American soccer. On the south end of the stadium, supporters groups Red Fury and Los Bandidos bring the noise every home night.
Home is Phoenix Rising Soccer Stadium at 38th Street and Washington in Phoenix, a 10,000-capacity soccer-specific stadium that opened on April 1, 2023 against San Diego Loyal SC in front of a club-record crowd of 10,437. The trophy shelf built around this ground is serious: the 2023 USL Championship title, the 2019 regular-season Players’ Shield won with an all-time USL record 78 points and 24 wins, a 20-game winning streak that remains the longest in North American professional soccer history, and Western Conference titles in 2018, 2020 and 2023.
Head coach Pa-Modou Kah is in his second year in charge, and the former Norway international defender was named USL Championship Coach of the Week after the October 10 win over Las Vegas. His 2026 side is built around one of the great individual seasons in club history: striker Ihsan Sacko, the league’s Midseason Player of the Year.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#7 Sacko — Phoenix Rising FC Style Jersey
$59.99
The Golden Boot contender in classic Rising red. A fan-inspired Phoenix-style shirt with the No. 7 on the back — made for the desert faithful.
Last Season (2025): Two Minutes From Another Final
Rising finished fifth in the Western Conference in 2025 with a 9–8–13 record and 40 points — the league’s most stubborn, draw-heavy team — scoring and conceding 48 goals. The individual numbers told the story of a balanced side: Hope Avayevu contributed 18 goal involvements and was named Second Team All-League, Sacko added 15 involvements and Charlie Dennis 14 across all competitions, while in league play Sacko and Dennis led the team with seven goals each and goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky made 59 saves.
The playoffs were classic Rising in November. In the quarterfinal at El Paso Locomotive FC on November 1, 2025, Dennis scored the only goal from the penalty spot in a 1–0 win — the team’s fourth straight clean sheet. In the semifinal at No. 1 seed FC Tulsa on November 8, Rising held out for 120 minutes before Stefan Lukic scored at 120+2′ to win it 1–0 for Tulsa. Two minutes from a shootout, two minutes from a third Western Conference Final in eight years. It was the club’s eighth playoff campaign, and it ended in the cruellest way the sport offers.
Best Players Right Now
Ihsan Sacko — #7, striker. The star of the season. Sacko has 16 league goals, tied at the top of the USL Championship Golden Boot race with El Paso’s Rubio Rubín entering the final weekend, and was named the league’s Midseason Player of the Year in June 2026 with seven Team of the Week selections. The 29-year-old Frenchman, signed from FC Thun in January 2025, scored braces in back-to-back weekends against Las Vegas and Orange County when the season was on the line. He is the first name on every Phoenix Rising FC schedule preview for a reason.
Diego Gómez — #8, midfielder. The team’s assist leader with five assists, and per FotMob the squad’s highest-rated player. Gómez signed from Club Necaxa in January 2026 and has been an instant hit in his first USL Championship season, running games from midfield and delivering the set pieces that decide tight ones — his corner produced the opening goal in the six-pointer at Orange County.
JP Scearce — #17, central midfielder. The ironman. Scearce has played 2,610 minutes — every single minute of the season through 29 appearances — and goes into the finale bidding to complete the full campaign without missing a minute. Kah has built his midfield around Scearce’s engine, positioning and discipline.
Jean-Éric Moursou — #13, defensive midfielder. The midfield anchor. The Cameroonian, formerly of Valenciennes, screens the back line and starts Rising’s moves, and his cross for Sacko’s second goal at Irvine was his fourth assist of the season.
Gunnar Studenhofft — #11, forward. Five goals as Sacko’s strike partner, including one alongside Sacko’s brace in the 3–2 win over Las Vegas on October 10 — the same move that won the penalty for Sacko’s second goal that night. Studenhofft’s work off the ball pulls defenders away from the No. 7, and his own finishing gives Rising a second threat defences cannot ignore.
Papé Mar Boye — #4, centre-back. The defensive leader who also scores the big ones. Boye’s 10th-minute header from a Gómez corner opened the scoring in the October 17 win at Orange County — his first goal since 2024 — and earned him a USL Team of the Week place.
Star Spotlight
The Sacko show beats Las Vegas. October 10, 2026, Phoenix. With the playoff race tightening, Rising won a desert thriller 3–2 at home: Sacko scored twice, in the 24th minute and from a 54th-minute penalty won when Studenhofft was fouled in the box, and Studenhofft added the other goal. Sacko made the USL Team of the Week and Kah was named Coach of the Week. It was the night the run-in turned from drift to belief.
The six-pointer in Irvine. October 17, 2026, at Orange County. Winner takes the last playoff spot, for now: Phoenix went to Irvine and won 3–1 — Boye’s header on 10 minutes, then Sacko’s brace on 19 and 57 minutes for his 15th and 16th goals of the season — while Orange County’s Ousmane Sylla missed a penalty that could have changed the night. Rising leapfrogged their oldest rivals into eighth place with a week to play. Few regular-season wins in club history have felt bigger.
Penalty ice in El Paso. November 1, 2025. The playoff quarterfinal that launched the 2025 run: Charlie Dennis’s penalty was the only goal in a 1–0 win at El Paso, backed by a fourth consecutive clean sheet. When November football gets tight, this club knows how to win 1–0 on the road.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More Rising stars, same desert red.
This Season (2026): Destiny in Their Own Hands
Phoenix enter the final day eighth in the Western Conference on 39 points from 29 matches — 10 wins, 10 defeats, 9 draws, 42 goals scored and 43 conceded — sitting above the playoff line on goal difference. The run-in has been a rollercoaster: three straight defeats to El Paso, Oakland and New Mexico to start the stretch, then back-to-back wins over Las Vegas and Orange County, including the six-pointer in Irvine, when the season was on the line. The wider campaign has had texture too, from a youthful USL Cup side — the youngest XI of the Kah era, with five academy starters — losing at New Mexico in June, to the club extending its broadcast partnership with Arizona’s Family through 2028.
The key line is the one Kah himself used in the club’s match preview: Rising have everything within their hands. Phoenix and Orange County are level on 39 points, but Phoenix hold eighth on goal difference, −1 against −9, after winning the October 17 head-to-head. A win at home to Lexington SC in the finale guarantees a postseason place — no scoreboard-watching, no tiebreaker maths required. For a club that has missed the playoffs only once since 2017, the Phoenix Rising FC schedule now offers the simplest assignment in football: win at home, and November is yours.
🔥 Love Rising? Wear it. Shop Fan Sportswear at Toxlay Sports →
Mark Your Calendar
Saturday, October 24, 2026 — vs Lexington SC, Phoenix Rising Soccer Stadium (7:00 p.m. local). The regular-season finale, and the club’s Fan Appreciation / “Rising As One” Fanfest night. Lexington arrive fourth on 47 points, in strong late-season form, with Phillip Goodrum on 12 goals — and Phoenix have never taken a result off Lexington. A win guarantees Rising a playoff place. This is the biggest home date on the Phoenix Rising FC schedule all year.
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — USL Championship Playoffs, Conference Quarterfinals. The top eight in each conference qualify for the single-elimination, fixed-bracket postseason. Win on Saturday and Rising open their playoff campaign this weekend.
November 6–8, 2026 — Conference Semifinals. The round that ended Rising’s 2025 run — unfinished business.
November 13–15, 2026 — Conference Finals. One win from the national final.
Saturday, November 21, 2026 — USL Championship Final (12:00 p.m. ET, CBS). The season ends on the CBS Television Network — the stage Rising conquered in 2023 by winning every playoff game on the road.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Orange County SC — the most-played fixture in the USL. The clubs’ October 17, 2026 meeting was their 39th across all competitions — the most frequent matchup between any two teams in the USL — and Phoenix lead the regular-season series. The wars have real playoff history: Rising won in extra time at Orange County in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinal on the road to the title. The 2026 trilogy had everything: a 1–1 draw in Phoenix in March settled by a 90+3′ equaliser, a 2–1 Rising win in the USL Cup in May, and the 3–1 win in Irvine on October 17 that took the last playoff spot off County with one round left.
2. New Mexico United — the Southwestern Derby. The club sells this fixture as “Rival New Mexico”; New Mexico call it the Southwestern Derby, and the rivalry is in its eighth season dating to 2019. Phoenix’s own October preview put the club’s all-time series edge at 7–4–2 before the latest meeting, but 2026 has swung both ways: Rising won 3–0 at home on April 11 with Sacko scoring twice, New Mexico won the USL Cup meeting 4–0 in Albuquerque in June, and New Mexico won the league meeting 2–1 in Albuquerque on October 4.
3. Las Vegas Lights FC — the desert neighbours. Phoenix against Vegas is the I-93 desert derby, and the head-to-head favours Rising: before the October 10, 2026 meeting it stood at 11 Phoenix wins, five Las Vegas wins and six draws. The latest chapter was a five-goal thriller in Phoenix — Rising won 3–2 behind Sacko’s brace and a Studenhofft goal, a result that reignited the playoff push.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do Phoenix Rising play their home games?
Phoenix Rising play at Phoenix Rising Soccer Stadium at 38th Street and Washington Street in Phoenix (3801 E Washington St) — a 10,000-capacity soccer-specific stadium that opened on April 1, 2023 with a club-record crowd of 10,437.
Have Phoenix Rising ever won the USL Championship?
Yes — in 2023. Rising won all four playoff games on the road, beating Charleston Battery in the Final on November 12, 2023: John Stenberg’s 90th-minute equalizer made it 1–1, Rising won the shootout 3–2, and goalkeeper Rocco Ríos Novo was named Final MVP.
Who is Phoenix Rising’s star player in 2026?
Striker Ihsan Sacko, the No. 7 — 16 league goals, tied at the top of the USL Championship Golden Boot race with El Paso’s Rubio Rubín entering the final weekend, and named the league’s Midseason Player of the Year in June 2026.
Are Phoenix Rising in the 2026 playoffs?
They hold the final spot going into the last day: eighth place on 39 points, ahead of Orange County SC on goal difference. A win at home to Lexington SC on Saturday, October 24, 2026 (7:00 p.m. local) guarantees a postseason place; the playoffs run October 30 – November 22, 2026.
🔥 Phoenix Rising FC Fan Shop
The full Rising trio — Sacko, Gómez and Scearce in fan-inspired red. Fan-inspired apparel, made for supporters.
Sources & official links: Phoenix Rising FC official site · USL Championship official site · Phoenix Rising tickets
Red shirts, full voice, rising as one — a decade in the desert, Phoenix.
