FC Tucson will face a new-look USL League One next season. Fortunately, the Men in Black will do so with plenty of familiar faces.
The 2022 USL League One schedule was released on Wednesday. The league’s 11 teams and will play 30-match schedules, the longest in its history. Each team plays the 10 others three times; in 2021 12 teams played 28 matches in the regular season.
“I couldn’t be happier,” said FC Tucson coach Jon Pearlman. “Obviously there’s some challenges in terms of the number of games, but it provides opportunities for more players to play.”
FC Tucson will host league champion Union Omaha twice, on June 11 and Sept. 11.
FC Tucson also announced a slew of Old Pueblo orientated promotions, like 520 Day (May 20), Tucson’s 247th birthday (Aug. 20) and Southern Arizona Heritage Night (Oct. 5).
FC Tucson was USL League One’s westernmost outpost for years. No longer: Central Valley Fuego FC, from Fresno, California, and Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC have joined the league as expansion franchise. Meanwhile, the Charlotte Independence self-relegated to USL League One from USL Championship.
League One lost its eight Major League Soccer-affiliated clubs to the new MLS Next Pro, a 21-team MLS reserve team league that’’s scheduled to debut next season.
“I think the league is going to be tougher with experienced players and there’s gonna be less games against less-experienced players; however, there was a lot of talent out those teams and they brought a lot to the league,” Pearlman said. “I enjoyed a lot of those matches; we have very good success except against North Texas.”
The season will start about a month earlier and end 15 days sooner to accommodate the World Cup, which will take place in November and December in Qatar.
The Men in Black’s first match is scheduled for April 2 at the Richmond Kickers; the club’s home opener will take place April 16 against Forward Madison.
FC Tucson is also scheduled to return to the U.S. Open Cup for the second round, which will be held April 5-7. The Men in Black were a regular in the cup until 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
The Men in Black resigned or signed again a number of familiar faces.
FC Tucson opened the month by announcing it had re-signed six players: defenders Kaelon Fox and Luca Mastrantonio, midfielder João Delgado and forwards Gio Calixtro, Deri Corfe and Kevin Rodriguez. Fox won the club’s 2021 Player of the Year and Mastrantonio was FC Tucson’s Defender of the Year.
Cocah Jon Pearlman leads an FC Tucson club that advanced to the USL League One semifinals last season.
“I’m really happy with the base that we had to start with; those are all players that I think are proving they’re impactful, worked really hard and produced really well in League One,” Pearlman said. “They’re really poising us to again have another run at the postseason and hopefully go deeper into the playoffs.”
FC Tucson also signed former Hartford Athletic goalkeeper Carlos Merancio from the Hartford Athletic of USL Championship. The Tucson resident played for FC Tucson in 2019 and 2020.
“I’m so excited to be back in Tucson because it’s the best club I’ve ever been part of,” Merancio said in a news release. “I feel like it’s my home.”
The club has also added former Union Omaha defender Jake Crull, a starter on the club’s USL League One title team.
“I think our performance does help recruiting, I think all the pieces of the puzzle are based on how good your players are (laughs) so I’m hoping that I can get players that fit as well as possible but really are exciting for the fans to come watch,” Pearlman said.
