90′+: Another shot from Velasco

89′: Tucson takes a shot from distance. Confidence is back.

86′: GOAL! Ricardo Velasco (FCT), FC Tucson 3 – Southern California Seahorses 1

85′: Bowman cited for a rough tackle on Velasco outside the box. Velasco okay. Tucson can’t convert free kick.

84′: Red Card: Geoff Bowman (SCS)

83′: Corner kick for Tucson. Momentary panic for SoCal

81′: Substitution for FC Tucson: Stephen Posa for Saeed Robinson; Substitution for Southern California Seahorses: Abraham Santos for Marc Hope

80′: Yellow card: Joao Cuoto (SCS)

79′: Attendance: 747

78′: Substitution for Southern California Seahorses: Josh Kimball for Seth Arriaga

75′: Velasco with a cross. Dangerous, but no one ready for it.

74′: Substitution for FC Tucson: Conner Bevans for Conor Spence; Substitution for Southern California Seahorses: Tony Montalvo in for Zach Bautista

72′: Corner kick for Tucson. Doesn’t result in much.

69′: Substitution for Southern California Seahorses: Josh Ault for Joshua Ayers, Substitution for FC Tucson: Kevin Gould for Mitch Garcia

68′: Ayers getting treatment on sidelines. Seems to have cramped up. Ref restarts game while trainer attends to him.

66′: SoCal is in a better spot mentally right now. They can feel a win here.

62′: Anderson gets alone, single Tucson defender catches up. D’Arrigo slaps ball away. Way too many good chances for SoCal.

59′: Marc Hope alone with D’Arrigo. Collides with D’Arrigo, but D’Arrigo recovers the ball. Anderson gets a shot, shoots wide.

55′: Interesting sub. Armstrong is listed as a midfielder, Croft a defender.

54′: Substitution for Southern California Seahorses: Doug Armstrong in for Brett Croft

51′: Back line a bit out of sorts, could be the loss of Conor Spence.

49′: GOAL! Zach Bautista (SCS), FC Tucson 2 – Southern California Seahorses 1

49′: Dylan Martinez delivers ball to Bautista. Bautista fights his way into box.

46′: Robinson opens the half with a shot, saved.

Stats:
Shots: FCT 11, SCS 8
Shots on goal: FCT 6, SCS 2
Saves: FCT 3, SCS 3
Corner Kicks: FCT 2, SCS 0
Fouls: FCT 7, SCS 7
Offside: FCT 0, SCS 1
Cautions: FCT 1, SCS 1
Ejections: FCT 0, SCS 0

HT: FC Tucson 2 (Velasco 21′, Clemens 44′) – Southern California Seahorses 0

44′: GOAL! David Clemens (FCT), FC Tucson 2 – Southern California Seahorses 0

44′: Brandt dishes ball to Clemens who was got behind defense for the shot.

43′: Ayers with a shot that goes straight to D’Arrigo.

41′: David Clemens with a shot that hits cross bar. Tucson allows another SoCal counter.

40′: Substitution for FC Tucson: Mitch Garcia for Conor Spence

39′: SoCal with another shot.

37′: SoCal’s Josh Ayers with shot, goes wide.

34′: Yellow card: Travis Campbell (FCT), SoCal’s Arriaga fires shot straight at wall on FK.

32′: Robinson with another shot. Suppe forced to dive on it.

28′: Velasco take a shot at goal from 30 yards out. Suppe catches it with no problem.

27′: Velasco brought down again, another Tucson free kick.

23′: Another SoCal foul, this time by Bautista. Tucson awarded free kick. Velasco delivers it into box. Good defending by SoCal.

21′: GOAL! PK – Ricardo Velasco (FCT), FC Tucson 1 – Southern California Seahorses 0

20′: Eli Galbraith-Knapp brought down in box by Seth Arriaga after tenaciously holding ball. Tucson awarded PK.

19′: SoCal shot from wide left, saved by D’Arrigo.

18′: Robinson with a shot from an oblique angle. Suppe smothers it.

17′: Connor Brandt with a shot. Suppe waves off his team as it goes wide of goal.

8′: I went to grab a free hot dog (ah, media perks!) and missed Saeed Robinson passing it to a rushing Clemons in the box. Clemons was brought down before the ball got to him. No call on the play. Fans were not best pleased.

6′: Tucson with a free kick close to the goal. Clemons with a shot that goes wide.

5′: Seahorses with more possession than Tucson.

3′: Seahorses’ Alex Anderson with a shot.

1′: We are underway. Had a talk with a deputy about the fun with the Shock Troops last game.

Line-ups:

Southern California Seahorses: Cody Suppe – Seth Arriaga, Brett Croft, Joao Couto, Kelvin Fares – Josh Ayers, Marc Hope, Geoff Bowman, Zach Bautista – Alex Anderson, Dylan Martinez

FC Tucson: Michael D’Arrigo – Tim Harbinson, Greg Carter, Connor Spence, Travis Campbell – Ricardo Velasco, Connor Brandt, Edgar Reyna, Eli Galbraith, Saeed Robinson – David Clemons

Yeah, I had to…because I love Cowboy Jack Clement, that’s why.

Judging from the Scorpions website, their scouting of FC Tucson consisted of reading a capsule of Tuesday’s match:

18-year-old Connor Bevans could be the danger man for Tucson. The young forward scored both goals in the 2-1 win over Phoenix FC, including the last gasp winner. His attacking ability could prove difficult for the Scorpions.

Bevans, it must be noted, played about ten minutes in the match and wasn’t on the field when the team stymied Phoenix for over an hour.

I have much the same problem judging San Antonio. I don’t see NASL as appreciably better than USL-Pro, so instinct says that a team that can beat a mid-table USL-Pro side should make short work of a winless NASL team.

The Scorpions boast of a couple of ex-MLSers like Kevin Harmse, Jeremy Vuolo and most dangerously, Pat Phelan. They also have a crew of South Slavs who I’m not sure what to make of (one went through a long break with no team).

Coach Rick Schantz noted that they are well supported and will have a great home field advantage. It could be, but a midweek game by a team on a losing streak? It might not be like walking into La Bombonera.

I dropped a line to the folks at the Scorpions and I’ll find out if they think they will be able to rock FC Tucson like a hurricane (second musical reference). My feeling is that they are probably more tactically sophisticated than Phoenix, and that given Tucson’s win, they’ll respect the team a bit more. That gives them a bit of an edge.

Still, it’s the Open Cup. A bounce here and there…weird things happen.

Was this an upset? Well, yes and no.

First off, as a guy that used to stand (yes, stand) in the hot sun at Pima College watching the Tucson Amigos play (featuring Rick Schantz and some guy named Pablo Mastroeni), I’m proud to see Tucson beat Phoenix. Even more so when Phoenix is the more highly touted team. And yes, they were touted as such. Here is Inland NW Soccer News earlier this week:

Phoenix FC (USL Pro) at FC Tucson (PDL) – Tucson having home field will help keep it close, but I suspect the new pro side will pull away 3-1.

Phoenix walked in with a few advantages, no doubt. Enough advantages that they should have been assumed winners because they are pros? Not sure.

I took a friend to last night’s match and she remarked about how much better the passing from Phoenix was and how much more sure on the ball they seemed. Yes, you’d expect that from pros, but I also wonder how much of that is because they are a team that has been playing since late March, versus a team that just met each other last week?

A USL-Pro side (or a NASL side for that matter, and the differences between those “levels” are practically indetectable) has the ability to bring in someone of minor star status. Darren Mackie, who it must be noted didn’t play last night, will play for Phoenix to earn a pay check, something that simply can’t be offered by a PDL team. They can also stock up on seasoned veterans that wouldn’t be eligible to play for a PDL side.

(Although, PDL can attract a big name once in a while. Anyone remember a guy named Jay Goppingen who played for Orange County Blue Star?)

Still, the reality of payrolls in the lower divisions of American soccer means that your USL-Pro team is stocked with younger players who either missed out on the draft or got cut during preseason.

Compare that to a PDL team stocked with players who are sure draft targets or who missed out and want a second look. The differences between the quality of players starts to look smaller, don’t they?

Here’s one: two of Phoenix’s players were guys who were playing for FC Tucson only a few months ago. They didn’t suddenly become better just by putting on that red jersey.

I say all this not to diminish what FC Tucson accomplished last night. I was cheering too…as loudly as my reporter neutrality would allow. My question is not about how hard FC Tucson worked to beat a professional side; I’m wondering if Phoenix FC understood how good an opponent they were going to have.

Took me way too many words to get there, but I don’t pay by the byte.

I won’t pick players of the match, but here are some people I noticed:

Brandon Zimmerman: Schantz talked up this guy to me earlier in the week and he didn’t disappoint. He anchored the midfield and helped clog it up such that Phoenix was unable to hold sustained possession in the first half.

Saeed Robinson: I think that his assist on the game winner will make everyone forget about the penalty kick. His finishing was not…um…great, but this was a problem for both teams (cf. Bowen, Travis)

Donny Toia: Tell me again why Dave Robertson keeps him bottled up in the back? He is tenacious enough to be a good defender, but keep in mind that the one time they played him up front, he scored. I wonder what damage he could have caused as a forward amped up to play against his old squad.

Ricardo Velasco: He created constant trouble on the wings. His lack of goals was more a matter of bad luck than poor finishing. His combo with Robinson wasn’t the Dom Papa/Kareem Smith demolition crew of last season, but still nice to see.

Connor Brandt, Conner Bevans, Connor Spence: What’s with guys named Connor/Conner on this team?

I’ll try to live blog the game here, but I will also be doing it from my Twitter account for Josh Hakala of TheCup.us. He’s got a stable of people narrating the action tonight at the hashtag #USOC100. Jon Arnold will handle the post game write up, unless you prefer my prose at the Tucson Sentinel (plus Josh Pearson’s photos, of course).

If you are in town tonight, you have no excuse to be following the game on my blog. Head over to Kino. Now.

It’s all on Ian.

One game features NPSL team Georgia Revolution taking on the Colorado Rovers. The Colorado club is the sole representative of the US Specialty Sports Association, which until 1998 was a governing body for men’s slow pitch softball.

The other one features Fresno Fuego vs. FC Hasental. FC Hasental is representing the NPSL and the Fuego is representing US Club Soccer.

You read that right, and this is where I, quoting my friend and former roller derby queen Ruby, call shenanigans.

Let’s back up a bit to last year. Most of us watched Cal FC’s run in the Cup with great interest. This team of MLS cast offs taking down the big boys. The only trouble was, they basically were a team of professionals. They didn’t win their league in 2011-12 before they recruited for their cup run, and this year, without the pros, they were a respectable but not quite world beating fourth place in their league.

I thought about this a lot while talking to Bryan Byrne, head coach of Doxa Italia. Byrne’s team was the one that was taken down by Cal FC in Open Cup qualifying last year. Doxa lost 7-0 in a match against a team that was unrecognizable from the one they had beaten during the season twice.

Doxa is not a rec league team by any means, nor are they inexperienced. Byrne is also an ex pro, playing one year for the New England Revolution back in 2007, and his team includes Derk Droze, a trialist for MLS teams who plied his trade in Scandinavia. Byrne’s years as a professional are behind him, and the 41 year old Droze is unlikely to don a pro jersey again. Guy with pro experience is a far cry from pro who is slumming. By the way, the “ex pros” on Cal FC’s Open Cup squad now form the core of the professional Atlanta Silverbacks.

A hard working amateur team just looking for a tiny sliver of glory got knocked aside by a team of pros looking to get scouted. This wasn’t during the tournament, but while playing for a spot reserved for an amateur squad. It doesn’t smack me as particularly sporting.

Which takes me to Fresno. They are a PDL squad, so the players are unpaid and thus amateurs. As a PDL team, they qualify for the Open Cup by coming in first or second in their division. Thanks, in part, to an upstart team from Tucson, Fresno came in third. Well, no Open Cup this year boys.

Nope. They called themselves “Fresno Fuego Future” and played as a US Club Soccer team to qualify.

Yes, an amateur team by US Soccer’s definitions. But guys, really?

Not to get all weepy eyed about the integrity of the tournament, but these opening rounds are an opportunity for hard working, quality club teams to prove themselves. It’s ridiculous to let a team that is professional in all but the most technical sense (they are owned by a pro baseball team and share facilities and personnel) pretend they are some bar ball team to get into the tournament in one of the places reserved for US Club Soccer teams.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but Up Hasental!

To say the Riverhounds are on a skid would be assuming that they did better at some point this season. The only game they didn’t lose was their nil-nil opener against the not-doing-much-better-but-at-least-they-won-a-game Wilmington Hammerheads early last month.

A couple for the where-are-they-now file: former Red Bull Jhonny Arteaga and former Rev Ryan Kinne are with the Riverhounds.

Phoenix FC gets to play the Riverhounds twice in a row, so this may very well be a chance for them to capture an easy six points and get some momentum put together.

The tilt with Pittsburgh may be the debut of Isiah Schafer, the defender whose signing was announced earlier this week. Garrett Cleverly has some more information on the former Sounders prospect.

I talked to someone with the team and Darren Mackie is possible for Friday’s match. By possible, he clarified, the team won’t know until Friday morning. I can’t imagine that he’d play a full match after being out for so long, but given the opponent it wouldn’t be the worst decision to start the guy and see how it goes.

I chatted with FC Tucson cast-off Reid Schmitt. Okay, he wasn’t really cast-off as moved up to greener pastures up in the Valley of the Sun (Do they have pastures up there anymore?).

Since the interview was mostly about the Open Cup, we talked about Schmitt’s time with FC Tucson.

“I loved every minute of it last year,” he told me. He was genuinely grateful for the experience and he referred to FC Tucson as “my semi pro team” on his Facebook page.

I also talked to him a little bit about the scant minutes he’s had on the field. He had a chance to play in the match against RSL, but miffed a chance to score. His teammates razzed him a little and created a fake Nike ad to memorialize the incident.

He is clearly frustrated, though, by the lack of playing time.

“Playing time definitely sucks,” he said. “I feel like I’m contributing to the team, but the players up there right now are up to the job.”

The “players up there right now” include the solid midfield tandem of Netinho and Diego Faria.

I didn’t end up using his comments in my article for the Sentinel, which is good because some of the nuance can get lost in print. He was frustrated, but in hearing his comments they were without the combination of whining and bravado that one often hears from athletes in similar situations.

He talked about wanting to “prove the coaching staff wrong” with no bitterness, just the knowledge that he has to redouble his efforts. He’s still the hard working guy we saw in Tucson last year. He just isn’t getting as many chances to show it.

Yep…we find out who FC Tucson will face in the US Open Cup today, although it probably won’t be the biggest surprise. Or a surprise at all.

The draw isn’t random, but is usually set up regionally for the opening rounds. Not fair to expect an amateur team from Albuquerque to fly to Bennington for a match, after all.

Or, as we found out last week, to expect a team from Kansas City to fly to Dearborn.

There are five teams in FC Tucson’s region, defined by me as anything in a neighboring state. They are FC Tucson, Phoenix FC, Denver Rovers and two Orange County clubs, Doxa Italia and PSA Elite.

Amateur team Denver Rovers is the only United States Specialty Sports Association entry in the field. They have a play in match against the NPSL’s Georgia Revolution in Colorado on the seventh. I’d put the chances of Tucson being matched up with the play-in winner as slim.

There’s a bit of a process of elimination here. Doxa Italia (whose player-manager I have a call into for an interview) announced yesterday that they will take a trip to Tacoma to face Sounders U23. TheCup.us reports that PSA Elite will play the PDL’s Laredo Heat. Rhyming is important, I guess.

Before you say “look at the travel they have,” remember that the US Soccer Federation typically won’t put USASA teams against each other in the first round, especially not two teams that already played each other during qualifying.

That leaves Phoenix FC, which is the assumption that I think we all have made for months. The question is where the game will take place. USL likely wants to give some promotional love to Phoenix FC and their improvements to Sun Devil Soccer Stadium, but the Wolves are also a secondary tenant there. Is the place even available on the 14th? I can’t think of why not, but Phoenix still has an extra hoop to jump through when scheduling things.

In the end, USL isn’t really the decider here and this may have more to do with who can argue that they have the structure in place to put the game together on short notice. Phoenix FC impressed me with their game day preparation for the two games I saw up there, but FC Tucson showed they can throw quite a party with their Seattle Sounders – Vera Cruz match up they staged on rather short notice back in February.

US Open Cup at Field 5? Know hope, but save your money for gas for the ride up I-10.

UPDATE: TheCup.us reports that the draw has been announced, and Tucson will play Phoenix at Kino Field 5. Announcements from FC Tucson and Phoenix FC will follow soon.

Soccer is known for the colorful call and response chants that sometimes echo around a stadium’s walls. So it was only fitting that during the groundbreaking for the new Kino Sports Complex North Stadium, someone would rise up to lead the crowd in a chant of its own.

“Let’s try and do something together: I’m going to say something and I want you to repeat it,” said Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias.

“Our field!” Our field.

“Our place!” Our place.

“Our home!” Our home.

Mr. Elias repeated the calls one more time before adding, “For all of you young people, this is your field. For FC Tucson, this is your field. For all of us who live here and make this our home, this is our place.”

The crowd of soccer fans gathered to watch the groundbreaking ceremony were sitting on the site of the future home of FC Tucson; an 1,800-2,000-seat stadium that will include an overhang to provide shade for fans and trap in the crowd noise to create an intimidating atmosphere for visiting clubs.

But lost in the excitement of the stadium groundbreaking are the other improvements being made to the North side of Kino Sports Complex: a sixth field is being added, a new entrance is being constructed and new bathrooms and concessions stands are being built. The improvements will not only enhance the FC Tucson match day experience but it will also benefit youth soccer clubs according to FC Tucson Managing Member Greg Foster.

“It’s just the beginning,” Foster said. “We finally have a proper home for youth soccer in Southern Arizona. And it’s youth soccer, adult/amateur soccer and professional soccer. We have a great place to play and a great place to showcase soccer as a spectator event.”

Large construction equipment sat idle in the background while moms, dads and children took part in the ceremony themselves. They grabbed shovels, dug up dirt and took pictures of it all.

But beginning on Friday, April 26, the rest of the construction equipment arrives and what was the site of soccer fans, players and coaches milling around will be torn up to place the foundation of a new field. A new place. A new home.

“Opening day 2014 I see a stadium that is packed to the gills,” said FC Tucson Chief Business Officer Chris Keeney. “Everybody is wearing black and wearing FC Tucson shirts. Singing songs, chanting (and) everybody with the same rhythm and the same music. I see flags. I see people beating drums and (they) are just all in.

“And then I see our team taking the field against our … opponent and seeing the vibration of the stands and seeing that feeling of everybody pulling for them. And then I see four goals. I see a 4-0 win and I see the next phase of a gorgeous relationship.”

More photos of the groundbreaking can be found at FC Tucson’s Facebook page.

The chart follows, generally, where the teams are in the standings with one glaring exception.

New England is mired in 8th place. They are there right now thanks to a win against Chicago, who are whipping boys for everyone. That game is also the one New England goal this season.

Jay Heaps set out to strengthen the defense this season, and he has. These results are despite Kevin Alston being out and Matt Reis not always being in goal (note that he won’t figure today, with good reason).

A big part of the defensive prowess is that they have clogged up the midfield. Now they have to use that width to get the ball up field. The folks at the Bent Musket have a solution: play Sainey Nyassi.

Heck, I don’t know why Nyassi isn’t playing either. The folks at Bent Musket have a point: the trouble isn’t finishing. The team is getting few serious looks at goal. In the snooze fest against Seattle, the Revs had zero shots on goal. Yep.

This, by the way, is despite a bit of an offensive fury towards the end of the match. I suppose that this is a sign that Heaps’s goal of a team that doesn’t lose games in the last fifteen minutes has been reached.

Count me dubious that a healthy Saër Sène is the solution. I have no idea if he is ready for a start tonight despite the wishes of fans. Even if he plays more than the 16 minutes he played against Seattle, will anyone be able to get him the ball?