At the midway point of the season, Phoenix Rising FC is still trying to come to terms with a season of change that has left the club with a 5-6-7 record and in ninth place in the USL Championship's Western Conference.

The Rising's 21 points have the club three behind Orange County for the last playoff spot in the West, with 16 matches remaining. The club is coming off a bye week and will resume play this Saturday at home vs. the last-place El Paso Locomotive at 8 p.m.

Last season's USL Championship title seems a distant memory. This year's club has been defined by stellar defense and a struggling offense, but has had to adjust to some big changes.

Eleven days before preseason play began in 2024, former head coach Juan Guerra left for Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamo FC. Assistant coach Danny Stone was promoted to his first-ever head coaching role.

The club struggled to mesh and produce goals early in the year, scoring only one in its first four league matches, and has struggled to create chances all season. The club currently is on a four-game winless streak, that includes losses in its last two games and two draws prior to that, totaling three goals in those four games.

One of those was a 5-1 blowout loss to Memphis on June 28. The next day, Stone was fired and assistant Diego Gomez, who joined the team in February, was named interim head coach .

So can the Rising turn things around starting Saturday?

Gomez takes the reins of a struggling offensive group that has scored 19 goals this season while giving up 23. Only five teams in the 24-team USL Championship league have scored fewer goals.

Residing near the middle of the pack in USL shots on goal, Phoenix has shown it can create chances. In their last game against San Antonio, the Rising controlled 55 percent of the match and created more shots on goal. They also have four players near the league's top in distribution.

Rising forward Remi Cabral leads the team in goals with six, and forward Dariusz Formella is in second place with four. In their championship campaign last season, midfielder Danny Trejo, who left for Poland in the offseason, finished in a second-place, two-way tie in the league with 19 goals. That scoring punch hasn't been replaced, but the club clearly needs to keep finding ways to generate changes.

Novo, defense shining for the Rising

Rising goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo — who excelled throughout that 2023 title run— has been one of the most significant reasons the season hasn't been worse.

Currently third in Western Conference goalkeeping with 58 saves, Novo, 22, is putting together another high-caliber season for the Rising. Gomez, a former goalkeeper, said working with Novo has been "an absolute joy" since he joined the coaching staff in the spring.

"Rocco has been really good this season. Has been very consistent, saving us from a lot of moments and clear goals opportunities," Gomez said.  "But also, he has been really good with his feet.

"Obviously, as a keeper, we share a lot, and we talk a lot," said Gomez. "I think he's a guy with tremendous, tremendous potential. He has had an amazing season."

While Novo has been stellar in making game-altering saves — boasting five clean sheets — he has not been perfect, as the scoreboard reflected against Memphis FC. Still, as a team, this year's squad is one of the stronger defensive clubs the program has put onto the field since it was established in 2016, keeping Phoenix in most games.

In the Rising's 2023 championship run, Novo finished with a -6.7 goals-prevented mark. Fifteen games into this year, he sat as top-four in the league, posting a -2.46 rate among regular starters, an indication of an improved defense in front of him. According to USL Tactics, Novo is a midseason candidate for USL Young Player of The Year and an honorable mention as a Goalkeeper of the Year candidate.

This year, the Rising's defense averages one of the franchises' lowest goals against numbers at 1.3. While conceding only 23 goals thus far, the stingy Rising defense holds a 69.2 success rate on tackles, which is when a player successfully takes the ball away from an opponent who is controlling the ball.

If the defense can maintain its level of play, and the offense can find a way to up the pressure on opponents, Phoenix still will have a chance to crack the top eight in the West for a playoff spot.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Rising defined by stellar defense, struggling offense at midseason point