Phoenix Rising Seize Three Points Against Indiana Eleven
Phoenix Rising edged past Indiana Eleven 2:1 in the USL Group Stage at their own stadium on Saturday evening. The hosts took an early lead through D. Badji in the fifth minute, then added another when P. Mar Boye turned the ball into his own net just two minutes later. D. Flores secured the victory with a goal in the twenty-eighth minute before the break.
By then the visitors had already shown they would not make things easy. C. Smith picked up a yellow card in the forty-sixth minute, and A. Herbert followed five minutes into the second half. Indiana created one big chance compared to the hosts' zero, though their shots went mostly wide — seven off target against four on target from Phoenix.
The match turned into a substitution game in the final third. Phoenix brought on R. Czichos in the sixty-third minute, then made a triple change at sixty-four with D. Flores, E. Kizza and later A. Mitrano, B. Rendon and J. O'Brien. Indiana responded with P. Craig in the eighty-eighth minute and D. Gomez in stoppage time.
Phoenix controlled 56 percent of possession and completed 474 passes, while Indiana managed 348. The visitors were more active in the air, winning fourteen aerial duels to five, and attempted twenty-three crosses against ten. But possession meant little when the final ball was missing.
The result leaves Phoenix in tenth place with 29 points from 22 games — seven wins, eight draws and seven losses. Indiana sit sixth with 28 points from 20 matches, eight victories, four draws and eight defeats. The hosts came into the game after a 2:2 draw with Sacramento Republic, while the visitors had beaten Louisville City 2:1 the previous weekend.
