When a team has advanced to the USL Cup for the first time, winning its first silverware in the form of the Western Conference Championship on the way, you would expect there to be plenty of positives to take from the season. That’s certainly the case for Phoenix Rising FC, which produced a lot to be encouraged about as it goes into its offseason, but as it looks to go one better in 2019’s USL Championship campaign there are some areas that could make a difference in those efforts.

First, the good news: In the 2018 USL Championship regular season there wasn’t a Western Conference team that recorded more shutouts than Phoenix Rising FC with 16. In fact, that mark was second only to Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, which tied the single-season record with 17 shutouts in a stellar defensive campaign.

But despite those numbers, Rising FC didn’t have the best defensive record in terms of goals-against average in the Western Conference, which instead went to Sacramento Republic FC as it conceded only 32 goals in 34 games, six fewer goals than Phoenix allowed. This speaks to the somewhat boom or bust nature of Rising FC’s defense in 2018, which when it was good produced more shutouts than all-but-one team in the league, and when it wasn’t allowed an average of 2.11 goals per game.

That number comes thanks to the seven games over the 2018 regular season in which Phoenix conceded three goals or more. In only one of those games – the infamous “Didier Drogba Magic Water” game that the side rallied to win 4-3 against the LA Galaxy II – did Rising FC claim any points as it went 1-6-0 when conceding three times. It may seem obvious but cutting out those games defensively in 2019 would clearly put the side in serious contention for a regular season title.

It certainly seems puzzling that a player like Kevon Lambert – who appeared in five of six games for Jamaica during its run to the final of the 2017 Concacaf Gold Cup – should have only made one appearance for the Reggae Boyz in 2018 despite rising to a higher level of competition and being a lynchpin for one of the USL’s best sides, but that’s the situation the 21-year-old finds himself in as the calendar is set to turn.

There’s of course the argument that other players might have surpassed him, with Louisville’s Speedy Williams finding his way more consistently into Jamaica’s squads during its Concacaf Nations League games this fall, but after the performances Lambert put in while finishing third in Phoenix’s squad with more than 2,700 minutes of action and positive two-way numbers that saw him lead the side in tackles and duels won there certainly seems like there should be a place for a player just entering his prime as a player.

Lambert should get the chance to burnish his reputation with Rising FC next season, and as he turns 22 shortly after the season is scheduled to kick off in March there’s still time to catch the eye of Jamaica Head Coach Theodore Whitmore. Push out to a strong start to 2019 and there’ll be a case for Lambert making a Gold Cup return next June.

There was no team that created more chances in the Western Conference (404) or what Opta terms as Big Chances (83) across the entire USL Championship in the 2018 regular season than Phoenix Rising FC, but that didn’t translate entirely on the scoresheet as Phoenix finished well behind the Western Conference’s eventual top seed Orange County with 63 goals in the regular season.

That was in major part due to the club’s finishing (14.69 shot conversion rate), which was barely above league average (14.55 shot conversion rate) on unblocked shots in the regular season and showed up even more glaringly in the lack of Big Chances that the side converted. The league average for Big Chance conversion percentage was 38.06, while Phoenix’s sat at just 33.96 percent.

The good news here is that the law of averages says that Jason Johnson won’t miss 16 of 18 Big Chances again in 2019, a remarkably high percentage for a forward of his quality. The same can be said for Billy Forbes, who converted only once out of 10 Big Chances in 2018. If that’s the case, then Rising FC could be an even scarier proposition in attack than it was this past season, but some extra finishing drills might not go amiss next preseason all the same.