- Slug: Phoenix Rising Update. 2,000 words.
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By Devon Henderson
Cronkite News
TEMPE – As the crimson sea of rising red jerseys walked off the baseball field turn soccer pitch in New Mexico, stricken in disappointment after a 2-1 first-round playoff loss to their most hated rivals, in late November of 2024, it was the end of one of the most tumultuous chapters in the teams’ history.
The season-ending loss concluded a title-defense year that featured two different managers and nine midseason roster changes in an underwhelming fashion considering the club hoisted the USL Championship trophy to end the 2023 season.
Now, Phoenix has reared its head toward new beginnings in 2025. The offseason mentality has taken on a different shade, following last season’s loss, from the one following that 2023 championship.
Simply put, entering last season Phoenix was the hunted. That comes with pressure. Now they are back to being the hunters. That comes with motivation.
“Last year was a way harder season for us,” Goalie Patrick Rakovsky said. “Just having that championship in our back. Everybody comes (to Phoenix) and it’s like, ‘We’re gonna beat you.’ It’s just a whole different target coming into this year. Not having the pressure from the other sides, it’s gonna make it a lot easier.”
Arguably the most key departure from the club was Argentinian goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo. Novo’s three consecutive penalty kick saves against Charleston Battery secured the 2023 title.
In 2024 he again turned in multiple sparkling performances ranking fifth in the league with 12 clean sheets. He’s moved to Inter Miami CF in the MLS to join fellow countryman Lionel Messi. In his place – at one of the sport’s most principal positions as the team’s last line of defense – remains a question mark.
A competition akin to a starting quarterback battle in football has commenced, and now, midway through the preseason and still a few weeks from the March 8, 2025 season opener at home against FC Tusla, has yet to be decided.
The two vying for the starting spot between the pipes are newcomer Triston Henry and Novo’s two-year backup Rakosvky. Henry is a 10-year Canadian league veteran, four-time CPL championship winner, and two-time CPL golden glove winner in 2020 and 2023. While his Canadian resume is relatively sparkling, he joined fellow USL side Memphis 901 FC in 2024 and failed to earn a consistent spot in the starting lineup, only appearing in seven matches.
Henry’s most recent dip in form has opened the door for Rakosvky, under new manager Pa-Modou Kah, to stake his claim to that starting role through the preseason. Rakosvky, 31, has a sparkling resume of his own. He has 39 appearances in Germany’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga, for 1. FC Nurnberg. He also is a two-time USL champion, winning one in 2021 with Orange County SC as well as being the backup for the 2023 Rising side that ascended the mountaintop. He started the final in 2021 but since joining rising ahead of 2023, has been relegated to a backup role for the past two seasons only playing in three games since coming to the Desert.
Both keepers, with previously strong pedigrees, have struggled to nail down regular minutes as of late. They are now locked into a battle to reassert themselves at the head of the defense for Rising. Through two preseason games against MLS competition in San Diego FC and LAFC, the two have split time so far.
“I don’t think that there’s any advantage right now for me or him,” Rakosvky said. “We were both not the starting keepers last year. Maybe a little bit different strengths. We’ll battle it out in training and (in preseason) games, and at the end the better one will play.”
Kah is the new man who will be making that decision. The club appointed the 44-year-old former Norwegian national team player and, most recently, MLS assistant coach for Charlotte FC, as its new manager last November. Phoenix has offered refuge for not only Kah but his family, and individual aspirations as well.
“It’s a club that breeds family. It’s a club that breeds togetherness,” Kah said. “It’s a new adventure, but an ambitious adventure that we take on, in a club that is very ambitious and wants to win. So that suited me well.
Kah was a 20-year professional player who was born in the Gambia but moved to Norway when he was just 8 years old. His 19-season playing career featured stops for nine different clubs spanning seven countries on three continents. The career-long center defender retired from playing in 2017 with 414 club appearances and 29 goals. He also appeared in 10 matches for the Norwegian national team and became the first black player to compete for the country’s team.
Kah played the last three games of his career for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC second team and walked directly from the pitch to the sidelines beginning his coaching as an assistant coach at the same club immediately after retiring from playing. Multiple stops followed, most notably in 2021 when he led Pacific FC to the Canadian Premer League championship and was named the CPL’s coach of the year for that season.
Now he’s faced with a new challenge of essentially rebuilding a once premier USL club that has fallen on tougher times as of late. However, those hardships weren’t of his design. All he can control is his future.
“I can’t change what happened last year, but I can change the present.,” Kah said. “The present is focusing on us coming together, getting goals, putting in hard work, and creating a relationship.”
He’s inheriting a squad that saw a considerable overhaul from the group that ended the 2024 season. The strength of last year’s team lay in the defensive fortitude of the unit in the back. Its 41 goals conceded were tied for the sixth-best mark in the league.
The anchor point for the group was Senegalese central defender Pape Mar Boye. The 21-year-old defender joined Rising at the start of 2024 after leading Clemson to an NCAA men’s soccer championship the year prior while collecting a College Cup Defensive MVP award for his performance. He was an immediate spark in his first season in the Valley, named to the All-League Second Team, and was a finalist for USL Young Player of the Year.
Joining him in the returning contingent is Senegalese center-back Mohamed Traore, a 6-foot-3-inch tall center-back who was originally loaned to Phoenix in 2023 from the MLS side LAFC before the deal became permanent. He is one of only three remaining members of the squad to have appeared in the 2023 championship win.
American defender Ryan Flood was a member of the side before the championship-winning season and left for a short stint in Ireland before returning at the start of 2024 and shortly after getting loaned out to Orange County. He returns to the squad at the start of the Kah era.
Several new faces pepper the backline, including former Manchester United academy graduate and Portland Timbers outside back Harvey Neville. Neville’s father, Phil Neville, alongside his brother – and Harvey’s uncle – Gary Neville, are lauded as key contributors during the golden era of Manchester United. Between the two Neville brothers, they have 14 Premier League titles and 144 combined English national team appearances – all at the same right-back position Harvey may now occupy for Phoenix.
Collin Smith joins the side after a short stint with fellow USL club Rhode Island FC. He previously played under Kah at North Texas SC, the reserve side for the MLS side FC Dallas.
“We have a lot of young players,” Rakovsky said. “A lot of them also have some experience already, even though it’s maybe the MLS next pro (MLS Development league), or maybe in the MLS or the second teams. So far, we’re doing a really good job.”
The struggles of last year’s team began with its lack of midfield creativity. The squad didn’t have a single player ranked in the top 20 in the league for chances created. The most creative of the bunch was Venezuelan midfielder Renzo Zambrano, whose 47 chances created ranked 24th in the league. He had been with the team for two seasons and captained Phoenix.
Zambrano was the only Pheonix player to appear in every single match last season. After 65 total career appearances, Zambrano won’t return to the desert, as his contract wasn’t picked up.
His long-time running mate in the heart of midfield, Jose Andres Hernandez who appeared 57 times for Rising, also wasn’t retained in 2025. Argentinian Swiss army knife Emil Cuello will return for his third season in Arizona.
He’s become a club favorite for game-winning goals in two consecutive games during Rising’s 2023 playoff push. In 2024, he played everywhere from an attacking midfield role to an outside defensive role.
Giulio Doratiotto, a 19-year-old Italian midfielder, and Juventus academy graduate, also returns to the side. Doratiotto was a highly anticipated addition ahead of last season because he was built in the academy of one of Italy and Europe’s most famous soccer cubs. He registered only the 18th-most minutes played on the team last season and looks to have greater involvement in the new year.
Among the returners is Charlie Dennis, an attacking midfielder who was a midseason addition in 2024 from the Tampa Bay Rowdies and finished third in total shots on the team. JP Scearce, a limited contributor last season, also returns.
Newcomers Hope Avayevu and Carl Siante join after having plied their trade with North Texas under Kah. The most decorated addition to the midfield of Phoenix’s new-look side is former MLS midfielder Noble Okello. The 6-foot-5 Canadian powerhouse has 23 appearances for Toronto FC and 2 caps for the Canadian national team.
“We have sets of new players in the midfield,” Kah said. “You’re trying to create a bond with the players. I think we have great midfield players, we have one of the best.”
While the defense was a stalwart unit, the attack was a sputtering group that caused little danger to opponents. Rising’s 34 total goals were the fifth-worst mark in the league and the worst among playoff teams.
The two leading scorers from that relatively disappointing attacking campaign will return to the desert in 2025. Polish forward Dariusz Formella, who started every playoff game in Rising’s championship run in 2023 and scored six goals last season, is joined by former MLS Next Pro striker Remi Cabral, who joined Phoenix ahead of 2024 and led last year’s side in goals with seven.
The dynamism of the front group comes from yet another midseason acquisition last season, Curacao international winger Jearl Margaritha, who spent considerable time at the start of his professional career in the first and second leagues of the Netherlands. The springy 24-year-old winger added a spark to an otherwise dormant offense in the back half of 2024. Over the international break after the season, Margaritha scored four goals in a single game for Curacao, offering a glimpse of the progression and magic he may produce in 2025 for Rising fans.
Like Okello in the midfield, new forward Damian Rivera brings MLS experience to the group. Rivera appeared 21 times for the New England Revolution, scoring once in those games before having a more fruitful career for the Revolution’s second team, scoring 17 goals in 54 games.
Ihsan Sacko, the other newcomer at forward, has playing experience in Ligue 1, France’s top professional league. Most recently, the 27-year-old had a solid campaign in 2024, posting seven goals and nine assists for second-division FC Thun.
The lack of a potent strike force was a sizable cause of challenge for Rising last season. Now creating a unit that plays off of each other to form free-flowing attacking play has danced across the mind of Rising’s new manager. Ushering in the new era of soccer in Phoenix will come with time, but Kah is set and ready for the task.
“Goals and everything will come,” Kah said. “Everything comes through the hard work when you create the cohesion and the relationship. So I’m not worried about it. I think we’ll score goals.”
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