June madness comes to Tucson this weekend as FC Tucson hosts U.S. Soccer’s Amateur National Championship.
The Hank Steinbrecher Cup kicks off with the semifinals on Saturday, starting at 2 p.m. with West Chester United against Atletico Olanchano West Palm Beach. Then at 4:30 p.m., the Ventura County Fusion face Olympians FC.
The final is Sunday at 1 p.m. The games are at Kino North Stadium, and tickets can be purchased at fctucson.com.
“Hank Steinbrecher is a resident of Tucson, Arizona, he’s an incredible supporter of both our preseason event and our the season for the men and the women,” said FC Tucson president Jon Pearlman. “He’s somebody who brought the World Cup for us to the United States in 1994 through his work with the U.S. Soccer Federation and he’s an icon, over a dozen hall of fames because of his work in soccer across the country.”
Steinbrecher was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005. He helped organize U.S. national teams for two men’s World Cups, three Women’s World Cups, two Copa Americas, five CONCACAF Gold Cups and three Olympic Games.
“For us to bring the tournament here where he’s able to see it, be there and appreciate it means a lot to us to be able to do that for him,” Pearlman said. “So when we had the opportunity to do that for Hank, we really wanted to do it and it’s a privilege to be able to honor him in that way.”
West Chester United is from West Chester, Pennsylvania. The Predators reached the first round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup after winning the qualifiers. They’ll face Atletico Olanchano from Florida.
Ventura County Fusion is from Ventura, California, and is the USL League Two National Champions. Olympians FC is from El Mirage, Arizona, and won United Premier Soccer League in February.
FC Tucson beat Olympians FC 5-1 on May 20 at home in a friendly. However, last week, the Fusion beat FC Tucson 4-0 at home
“I think it’s gonna be very good,” said FC Tucson head coach Mark Biagi. “There’s always a different sense of excitement when there’s a tournament or a cup on the line within a little two-day tournament so I think there’s gonna be some quality for sure we’ve seen some of that in half the teams that are in the event so I expect there to be some quality players, quality play, quality teams and we’ll see who comes out the victor.”
Home sweet home
After starting USL League Two play with three straight road games, FC Tucson will play its first official match at home since last October on Saturday.
FC Tucson (0-1-2) will host Capo FC (0-3-1) at 7:30 p.m.
“It was very tough to start three away games on the road; we’re very excited,” Biagi said.
FC Tucson will close out the season with six home dates out of their last nine games. They sit in fifth place in the six-team division.
Star Wars Night strikes back
After the semifinals of the Hank Steinbrecher Cup on Saturday, The Force will be with FC Tucson.
The club will host Star Wars Night on Saturday when it plays Capo FC.
Other upcoming promotions for the FC Tucson men are Pride Night, Military and Appreciation and First Responders Night, fireworks on July 3 and Super Hero Night. For the FC Tucson Women, they have Youth Soccer and Astrology Night and Domestic Violence Awareness Night coming up.
“We wanted our team to be a facet of support for all aspects of the community, male and female, LGBTQ+, I mean we want to make sure that everyone feels included in the things we’re doing,” Pearlman said. “Doing something like Star Wars Night with some partners in the community and doing Women in Leadership is always something we’re always going to keep dong, we really think it’s important that we highlight people who are doing cool things and highlight cool things that are just happening in the world that are fun to do so for us it’s going to be a lot of fun to have everybody out for such great purposes.”
Star Wars Night was one of the most popular promotions for the Tucson Roadrunners as the hockey team got 5,717 fans for Star Wars Night back in January, the second highest attendance mark behind only 5,923 for the season finale.
Arizona reliever Chris Barraza on the team's the approach to the NCAA Tournament now that the Wildcats have made it (video by Michael Lev / Arizona Daily Star)
