FC Tucson’s late-night heroics continued on Tuesday, with the club winning its third straight match at Kino North Stadium.
FC Tucson (7-12-6) edged North Carolina FC 1-0 after a 2-hour, 40-minute weather delay that postponed the start of the match. Tuesday’s match was FC Tucson’s fourth home contest to be delayed by lightning.
Tuesday’s match was played in part of a spartan crowd, in part because it didn’t start until 9:40 p.m. on a weeknight. The match was originally scheduled for July 30, but weather postponed it until Tuesday night.
“Obviously it’s so disappointing not to have the fans but again, to turn the home field back into a fortress, three straight wins, three straight shutouts, I mean that’s what people expect from an FC Tucson team at home,” FC Tucson coach Jon Pearlman said.
The Men in Black have won three straight at home, and are also unbeaten in their last four matches.
“That’s awesome,” FC Tucson midfielder Louis Perez said about the win streak. “We wish we had fans for some of them, but again it feels awesome. I’m not gonna lie, we were very eager to win for the fans, for the staff, for the people, for us. It feels amazing.”
Perez scored the game’s lone goal on a penalty kick in the 66th minute after drawing a foul.
FC Tucson moved out of last place with the win and within nine points of sixth-place Charlotte, holders of the final playoff spot. The Independence have played one more match than Tucson. Tucson will host the Chattanooga Red Wolves on Saturday at 7 p.m. The teams have played twice this season, with FC Tucson winning 3-2 on April 23 and 2-1 at June 25.
“I know Saturday people will be excited to be here because we’re nine back with a game in hand, we could be within six and suddenly everything to play for with four games left,” Pearlman said.
Perez and his teammates were not happy with their performance in Tuesday’s first half, admitting that the the weather delays have taken their toll.
“The first half is the kinda half you’re going to get when you have a rain delay and have teams on four and three days rest respectively coming off road games,” Pearlman said. “It’s late in the season, fixtures stack up and we weren’t sharp at all.”
Still, FC Tucson was able to emerge with its third straight clean sheet at home. Before that, their last shutout was a 0-0 draw at Central Valley Fuego FC.
Goalkeeper Carlos Merancio has had “a great month,” Pearlman said. “I think he’s done everything he’s needed to do.”
North Carolina FC (7-13-5) was coming off a 2-1 road win over Forward Madison.
NCFC outshot FC Tucson 12-10, 4-2 in shots on target.
“As ugly as it looked, it’s a dream result because we picked up no injuries … we don’t lose any players to eligibility,” Pearlman said.
Corner kick
North Carolina picked up five yellow cards, including one for coach John Bradford. FC Tucson had one, given to defender Luca Mastrantonio.
“It’s a fight, we know we have to stick together when it becomes a little bit gritty, a little bit chippy,” Perez said about the yellow cards. “We just have to fight, we just have to fight, to fight, to fight and to get a win.”
