A scoreless first half quickly became a tight, contested game when FC Tucson — which is playing in its first professional season in USL League One — and Toronto FC II scored within six minutes of each other in the second half.
In its home opener, FC Tucson fought down to the final seconds, with defender Austin Ledbetter attempting a play by the right-side post, but was unsuccessful, resulting in a 1-1 draw Saturday night at Kino North Stadium.
“It’s disappointing,” midfielder FC Tucson Jamael Cox said. “It’s our first game and we hoped to come out with a win for the fans and it’s honestly not what we wanted, but we’ve got to work on stuff, like closing games out and not giving up a goal in the first five minutes of scoring.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of closing games out.”
The home opener came 10 days after a 3-1 loss at South Georgia Tormenta FC. The Men in Black will go another 13 days before continuing their schedule.
Because of the large breaks in its schedule, FC Tucson coach Darren Sawatzky organized a friendly match with the Arizona men’s soccer team next Saturday to try and give his players some more minutes to play.
“We want to play games and get going, but we’ve got some things to work on,” Sawatzky said.
The first-year coach said he liked the way the team worked as a whole in their season opener in Orlando, but saw some issues with the back line the following week.
Against Toronto FC II, he didn’t see any of those big lapses, but there was still a moment the team dropped its guard.
“I think we defended more than we wanted to tonight,” Sawatzky said. “They had a spell in the second half where they kept the ball pretty well. We turned off for a second and gave one up.”
FC Tucson had a few opportunities to score in the first half, especially in the last couple of minutes leading to halftime. Just after the second half started, FC Tucson had three consecutive opportunities to score — on a saved shot and two corner kicks — but fell short.
“We definitely created enough chances to win the game tonight,” Sawatzky said.
Midway through the second half, Sawatzky brought in a couple players — Roy Abergil and Eti Tavares – off the bench to try to re-energize the team.
And it worked.
In the 73rd minute, Tavares stole the ball from midfield and passed to Abergil, who went on to pass to Cox for the assist. Cox struck from the left side and scored into the right corner.
“It was a mistake on their part and we picked it up on a dangerous part of the field,” Cox said about the scoring play. “We countered fastly, which is our strength.”
Toronto’s Jordan Hamilton countered with the equalizer in the 79th minute.
The home opener drew 1,606 fans out to Saturday’s game. In attendance were the Cactus Pricks — an MLS spring training and FC Tucson support group.
Ledbetter, who previously played for FC Tucson in 2014 and 2015, when the club was in the PSL, said it was an honor to play in front of the support group and the rest of the fans.
“I love it here — the facility is amazing and the fans are great,” Ledbetter said. “You can’t beat this perfect pitch and perfect weather, perfect venue. I’m happy.”
