When he saw an away match against the defending USL League One champions sandwiched in a stretch of five matches in 14 days, one thought immediately stood out to FC Tucson coach John Galas.
“Let’s get a point on the road regardless of the circumstances,” he said.
Mission accomplished.
FC Tucson (3-5-2) forged a 1-1 draw with North Texas SC Saturday. The Men in Black are now back home; they’ll play two matches this week, starting with a showdown against Forward Madison FC (3-3-2) on Wednesday.
Galas called Saturday’s tie a “desirable result” even though FC Tucson was unable to hold on to a 1-0 lead in the second half. FC Tucson earned one point, and remains in the playoff mix with six games to play in the regular season. Four of their matches will be played at Kino North Stadium.
A win against sixth-place Forward Madison FC could catapult FC Tucson as high as into a tie for fourth place, provided they get help from other teams around the league.
“It’ll be a good matchup,” Galas said. “Slightly favorable to us in certain categories.”
FC Tucson believes it has better ball control and passing than their Wisconsin visitors, and could take advantage. The club had possession for 60% of the match against North Texas and are tied for first in the league with 83% accuracy on passes.
Where the Men in Black could run into some trouble is with converting open looks into goals. Forward Madison leads the league with a 20% conversion rate, while FC Tucson is tied for seventh (13%).
“That’s been a bit of our Achilles’ heel,” Galas admitted. “We’ve created good chances and haven’t been able to quite put some of those chances away.”
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+. Fans can also attend a drive-in watch party at El Toro Flicks downtown.
“I think we match up well, but we have to play a good game to break this team down for sure,” Galas said.
