Proven winner Jon Pearlman hopes to aid slumping FC Tucson as interim coach

Jon Pearlman is no stranger to understanding what it takes to turn FC Tucson into a proven winner.

The question facing Pearlman now is, can he do it again?

With FC Tucson’s decision earlier this week to part ways with head coach John Galas, the club named Pearlman, FC Tucson’s Vice President of Soccer Operations, its interim coach as it searches for answers while in the midst of a disappointing 2-4-3 start to the season.

“We’re the worst team in terms of goals conceded. We’ve been shut out our last two matches,” Pearlman pointed out. “We haven’t realized our full attacking or our team identity.”

The team went 0-2-2 in the month of June, sputtering all the way down to 11th place in the 12-team USL League One standings. FC Tucson hosts Fort Lauderdale CF at 7 p.m. Saturday desperate to find that identity.

Pearlman will be a stop gap during an uneven time for FC Tucson. He will continue his current role in the front office while simultaneously coaching a club he’s worked to construct.

“It’s really my job to take the positives we’ve had, adjust the negatives and see ourselves moving forward,” he said “But specifically, it starts with a solid game plan on Saturday.”

FC Tucson team president Amanda Powers will oversee the coaching search as the season progresses, offering no timeline for when a hire could be made. She will lean on Pearlman in an advisory role for potential coaching candidates and believes Tucson has a lot to offer prospective hires.

“This is about really carving a path for the future,” Powers said. “I think Tucson has a pretty attractive soccer market. I think a lot of head coaches will want to come here.”

Once a hire is made, Pearlman will still function as FC Tucson’s VP of soccer ops — a position he’s held since 2019 — where he’s heavily involved in player personnel on a daily basis. His input on roster moves and player signings carries considerable weight from top to bottom within the organization.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Pearlman is, after all, one of the original co-owners of the team and served as both FC Tucson’s general manager and coach in the 2017 season where he led FC Tucson to a 9-2-3 record during the team’s days in the Premier Development League.

He left Tucson briefly in 2018, where he was the head coach of OKC Energy II in USL League Two. The winning didn’t stop as Pearlman managed the club to a 9-5 record and second place in the Mid South Division.

Now back in Tucson, Pearlman will re-enter the coaching ranks after being a careful observer the last few seasons. His face is already familiar one to FC Tucson players though, as his front office role as allowed him to get to know them on a more personal level.

“I get to know them as human beings, not just soccer players,” Pearlman said. “I certainly didn’t intervene in the operations of the team but I was always supportive.”

The interim coach doesn’t anticipate the dual role to be a difficult adjustment and his main focus is trying to get the most out of a roster that he and Powers both feel can still be one of the best in the league by the time the season ends.

“If it’s two games, if it’s four games, I’m just going to go down and do the best job I can. Really just represent this team and all the fight and passion that always been seen from FC design teams,” Pearlman said. “I think we can be more than the sum of our parts.”

Whether or not Pearlman can right the ship — or at least partially course correct the club’s direction — remains to be seen. Fort Lauderdale blasted FC Tucson 5-1 in the previous meeting. The silver lining is that three of FC Tucson’s four matches in July are at Kino North Stadium in Tucson.

As daunting as the task of a turnaround sounds, Pearlman’s permeating confidence should at the very least spill over from the front office and into the locker room.

“I’ve been to the bottom, I’ve been the top,” he said. “I feel comfortable in this role. I love this team, I love the staff and I love everything about being a soccer person in Tucson and that’s what I’ll bring to the table.”