FC Tucson will play its USL League One home opener on Saturday night, when it hosts Toronto FC II at Kino North Stadium.
The Men in Black aren’t the only ones starting over this year.
Luis Martinez is back to continue his professional soccer career — and he’s doing it with a club he previously played with. Martinez first played for FC Tucson in 2015, when the club was part of the USL PDL. The midfielder appeared in 13 matches and scored four goals.
The 28-year-old Martinez didn’t have to look far when looking for a 2019 team. He had a good experience with Rick Schantz and Jon Pearlman, two of FC Tucson’s founders, during his last stint in Tucson. Both men are still nearby: Schantz coaches Phoenix Rising FC, Tucson’s parent club. And Pearlman, the former FC Tucson general manager and coach, is Tucson’s new director of soccer operations.
“For me, it was an easy decision to make, to come back to Tucson and play for this organization,” Martinez said. “It means a lot to me — I like the town, I like the club and the organization. I feel like they’ve given me a lot, so I felt like it was a good time to come back and try to help them out and try to get them their first USL League One Cup as a professional organization.”
Although he was born in Narra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico, Martinez grew up in Marysville, California. He played collegiately at Chico State, then joined the San Jose Earthquakes’ PDL team. A few months into his professional career, Martinez moved to Costa Rica to play in the country’s second division.
He returned stateside to play for FC Tucson, then moved on to the Oklahoma City Energy, where he spent two years.
Martinez is used to the constant movement; after all, it’s what he’s been doing since he was 18.
There’s more stability now. Martinez and his wife, Monica Delgado, moved to Tucson in February. The college sweethearts spent the last five years in a long-distance relationship.
“Hopefully we can find a place where we can stay a couple of years and see where that goes,” he said.
Martinez said he’s noticed a difference in FC Tucson this time around — players on the now-professional club have a sense of urgency.
“They’ve always been like a professional organization to me,” Martinez said. “They’ve always worked that way, as a professional team. In that sense, I think it hasn’t changed a lot. But obviously there’s more pressure, more urgency to win games for points and stuff like that, as opposed to PDL, which is more of a development league.”
Martinez remembered the community support he received in 2015, and hopes even more fans will support the newest version of the club. The Men in Black (1-1) split their first two road games.
“I think this city is really special because soccer, they live and breathe it here, but they haven’t really had a team to support,” Martinez said. “I think FC Tucson has done a good job through the PDL years of doing that, but now as a professional team, I think it would be very cool if we had that support from the community.
“This is ultimately their team.”
