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    Rising Travel to Tacoma with Eyes on First Place

    Mark Murray

    MATCH DETAILS

    Phoenix Rising FC (16-7-5, 53 pts., 3rd in West) vs. Seattle Sounders 2 (5-17-5, 20 pts., 16th in West)

    7:00 PM (MST), Saturday, Cheney Stadium, Tacoma, WA

    TV: Cox 4 (SD) and 1004 (HD) in Phoenix, Cox 7 (SD) and 1007 (HD) in Tucson

    Live Stream: ESPN+ (subscription required)

    Radio: El Patron 97.3 FM (Spanish)

    MatchCenter: SEAvPHX

     

    PHOENIX RISING LAST MATCH: With an opportunity to rise to first place, Phoenix faltered on the road 3-2 to San Antonio FC despite a brace from Chris Cortez. Cortez opened the scoring early off a deep cross from Solomon Asante, redirecting it into the far post. San Antonio tied the match shortly after and then scored another 2 unanswered goals thanks to the play of loanee Lance Laing. Cortez got his second late in the match on a cheeky free-kick but Phoenix was unable to find an equalizer.

     

    Tan Long currently plays in the Chinese Super League and had his first international cap for China in March of 2018.

    Team News: As mentioned above, Chris Cortez broke the team record for goals in a season, besting the 14 goals scored by Long Tan (nee Tan Long) in 2015 with Arizona United. He also moved within 3 goals of the all-time club record, also held by Tan.

    Solomon Asante was named to the USL Team of the Week for his play during week 26. Asante scored the game-winning goal on the September 5th against Rio Grande Valley and had the opening assist in Rising’s 3-2 loss to San Antonio a few days later.

    Shaft Brewer Jr. returned from National Team duties and appears to have made the trip to Seattle. LAFC Loanee Josh Perez, on the other hand, has returned to Los Angeles in preparation for their Saturday match against New England.

    With a win, Phoenix Rising FC has the opportunity to take over the first position in the standings, as Real Monarchs are off and Orange County does not play until Sunday.  Rising FC also can clinch a playoff spot with a win and a St Louis FC loss.  St. Louis matches up against Swope Park Rangers at 2pm today.

     

    Seattle Sounders 2 Report: 2018 has not been S2’s year results-wise, having already been eliminated from playoff contention, but the ability to call up and use Sounder Academy players should help lay the foundation for the future. Fringe players from the first team have led the statistics. A third of the team’s season total goals from David Estrada (10). Amazingly S2 have has 49 different players make an appearance in USL this year and at one point in their last match against Sacramento Republic had 4 U-17 players on the field. Some of the kids to look out for include Jesse Daley, Danny Robles, and Antonee Burke-Gilroy.

     

    LAST MEETING: These two teams last met on July 20th with Phoenix taking the 1-0 result at the Phoenix Rising Soccer Complex thanks to a second-half goal from Chris Cortez. A first half so uneventful there are no recorded highlights from it gave way to multiple Rising chances from Jason Johnson, Cortez, and Kevaughn Frater. Phoenix holds a 5-2-0 record all-time in this matchup, including a 1-0 win at Seattle last September thanks to an Alessandro Riggi goal.

     

    PREVIOUS FORM (Last five league matches played):

    Phoenix Rising FC: W-W-W-W-L

    Seattle Sounders 2: L-D-D-D-L

     

    POSSIBLE STARTING XI

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