Despite using a limited roster and coming off a rough start to league play, FC Tucson continued its Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup magic on Wednesday night.
FC Tucson outgunned the visiting Las Vegas Lights 3-2 in the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Kino North Stadium, advancing to the next round in the take-all-comers tournament. FC Tucson will play sometime between April 19-21; the draw for the third round will be held on Friday.
Wednesday's win over Las Vegas, a USL Championship club, was even more impressive given where Tucson was just a few days ago — and which players were at the club's disposal. The Men in Black were defeated by the Richmond Kickers 4-0 in Saturday's USL League One opener. The Men in Black had just 16 players available on Wednesday; among the missing were forward Deri Corfe and center back Kaelon Fox, two keys behind last year's team. Both were injured.
"It’s a great feeling, a great way to start out at home,” said FC Tucson defender Jacob Crull. “I think playing on this home field is important to us and important to make it a place hard to play for the other teams."
FC Tucson has won a match in five of the six seasons they’ve competed in the U.S. Open Cup. The third round is furthest the Men in Black have advanced in tournament; they also did in 2013 as an amateur club.
Crull scored off a corner kick in the 45th minute, giving Tucson a 1-0 lead.
“I think that was really encouraging for us,” Crull said. “I know the guys were really excited and after that goal everyone had the mindset to close out the half, get into the locker room, close out the half, be on top, come out in the second half strong and that’s what we did.”
FC Tucson's Louis PŽrez (13), left, and Las Vegas' Christopher Jaime (17) skid into one another while trying to win a ball in the first half of their U.S. Open Cup game.
In the 65th minute the referee decided not to give FC Tucson a penalty kick; a few seconds later, Las Vegas defender Mohamed Traore scored the equalizer.
FC Tucson Daniel Bedoya scored in the 71st minute straight off a corner kick to get the home side the lead back. The ball slipped through Las Vegas goalkeeper Abraham Romero’s hands. Tyler Allen scored a highlight-reel-caliber goal into the roof of the goal in the 77th minute, making it 3-1. Las Vegas cut FC Tucson’s lead to one with an 80th minute goal by midfielder Daniel Crisostomo, but the home side held on.
“I think the Lights came in here probably thinking it was going to be easy days, there was some squad rotation for them,” Pearlman said.
Pearlman said Wednesday's win "ranks up there in (terms of) what it means about this group."
"It tells you they can come back from adversity, they’re solid with each other, they never lost confidence and they came out and produced a result against a (USL) Championship team in a big tournament," he said. "So for me it bodes well; it’s gonna give them confidence.”
