Although it rained during last week’s match, FC Tucson goalkeeper Carlos Merancio continued to shine.
Merancio earned a spot on the USL League One Team of the Week as he made six saves to preserve 10-man FC Tucson’s 1-1 draw against the Northern Colorado Hailstorm at Kino North Stadium last Saturday night.
“Obviously the only thing I want right now is for the team to start to win, get good results,” Merancio said. “The result of the last weekend wasn’t bad but wasn’t the result we wanted, so I’m happy to help the team to get a point and then obviously it was a big effort from the whole team because we were a man down, so it was a team effort and obviously I just did my job.”
“El Gato” and the rest of FC Tucson (3-7-4) will be on the road Saturday when it travels to defending league champions Union Omaha. The Owls (4-2-6) beat two MLS clubs en route to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals earlier this season.
Since FC Tucson opened the season with a 4-0 loss at Richmond, Merancio is fourth in the league in saves and tied for sixth in clean sheets.
Merancio played for FC Tucson in 2019 and 2020 before moving on to Hartford Athletic in the USL Championship.
FC Tucson Director of Goalkeeping Vito Higgins said Merancio has been doing really well this year.
“He came off of a pretty disappointing year in Hartford,” Higgins said. “He’s really excelled, it’s taken him a little bit to kind of brush off the rust that he picked up just not playing for an entire year but each day he’s showing up and improving.”
Merancio said it’s harder to play goalkeeper in the wind and rain but the conditions last week were tough for all the Men in Black players.
FC Tucson goalkeeper Carlos Merancio, second from right, reaches up to rob the Richmond Kickers of a goal in a June 29 game.
Merancio has routinely made saves that were in the running for League One Fans’ Choice Save of the Week on uslleagueone.com.
“Please vote,” Merancio said with a laugh before the Week 15 voting ended. “I’ve been nominated like eight times or nine and I only won once.”
Higgins said like the kicker hitting a long field goal or a slam dunk, exciting saves like that get the crowd and other players excited.
“I always say that those are ‘statement moments,’ like he makes a statement anytime he makes a save like that and he’s done that quite a few times,” Higgins said.
Though Merancio has been the only goalkeeper to play for FC Tucson’s first team so far this season, Higgins has been impressed with the two backups.
Sean Murray played at in college at Monmouth and Higgins said his talent is on par with Merancio’s.
Higgins said Emiliano Andraux, who played for RSL-AZ Southern Arizona and Tucson High, has been a “blessing to have.”
“The whole crew has been outstanding,” Higgins said.
Corner kicks
Higgins, who coached the club’s academy team last year, said former FC Tucson academy player Rafa Guerrero has been doing well. Guerrero, who went to Catalina Foothills and Primavera, suffered a serious head injury in the fall while playing for GCU. Guerrero has since retired and has traveled to Europe.
FC Tucson will host a watch party for the Omaha match at 5 p.m. at Brother John’s, 1801 North Stone Avenue.
On Tuesday, FC Tucson alumnus and New York Red Bulls defender Aaron Long was selected to his second MLS All-Star Game. The national team center back missed most of 2021 with an Achilles injury.
