Just like it serves as FC Tucson’s friendly confines, Kino North Stadium is familiar ground for the USL playoffs.
FC Tucson (7-2-5) hosts the USL League Two Western Conference Quarterfinals and Semifinals on Friday and Sunday. It’s the sixth time in a decade that the USL League One or Two postseason has been at Kino North.
Two conference quarterfinal matchups are Friday night, with the lone semifinal Sunday.
“It’s amazing, amazing facilities. Hopefully all the teams think so and hopefully get some good fans out here,” said FC Tucson defender D’Andre Pickett.
FC Tucson hosted the Premier Development League (now USL League Two) playoffs every year from 2014 to 2017. Then, in 2021, the Men in Black had a home match in the USL League One tournament.
In all but one of those PDL tourneys — 2017 the lone exception — FC Tucson advanced to the Sunday match. At that time the second round of the weekend was the conference finals, now it is the Round of 16.
AMSG’s midfielder Kenneth Livernois (8) flies in too late and gets nothing but foot trying to stop FC Tucson defender D’andre Pickett (16) in the first half of their USL League Two game on July 9 in Tucson.
FC Tucson won that USL League One playoff tilt, 1-0 over the Richmond Kickers, which they beat 4-2 the week before to earn the right to host.
FC Tucson has also hosted seven Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup matches at Kino North, going 4-3.
The USL League Two playoffs this weekend are down to 32 sides, broken up into pods of four teams each. Joining FCT in Tucson are the Ventura County Fusion (11-1-2), champions of FC Tucson’s Southwest Division. Flatirons FC (Golden, Colo.) (8-1-3) and Albion SC Colorado (Boulder, Colo.) (6-2-4) are also both in Tucson, hailing from the Mountain Division, which Flatirons won.
“It’s tremendous. With the fans we have, with the facility we have, I think it’s a big advantage that the Colorado teams are coming down here,” FC Tucson goalkeeper Nils Roth said. “If you go out with the right energy we definitely should come up top.”
In addition to hosting Major League Soccer, National Women’s Soccer League, USL Championship and League One preseason, Kino North has also had the NJCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Championship and Hank Steinbrecher Cup (U.S. Soccer’s amateur national championship) last season.
Kino North Stadium opened in November 2013, christened with a 1-0 FC Tucson friendly win over then the MLS club Chivas USA.
On Friday at 5 p.m. the Fusion face Albion and FC Tucson plays Flatirons at 7:30 p.m.; the winners of those games play Sunday.
“Oh that’s the best part — that we don’t have to travel,” FC Tucson head coach Sebastian Pineda said of hosting. “We’ll be what, four times to California this year? But I think even as a player I loved playing at Kino, under the lights, the nice grass, the fans. So I know they’re very excited about that.”
FC Tucson goalkeeper Nils Roth (right, in yellow) battles for a loose ball alongside teammate Kodai Tanaka (15) and Arizona Arsenal’s Bryce Backlund (21) Sunday at Kino North Stadium. The ball ended up in the net, with Backlund getting credit, but it was the only blemish on an otherwise superb outing for Roth, who was named man of the match in a 1-1 draw.
New No. 1 in net
Roth stepped in to play goalkeeper for FC Tucson in the team’s 1-1 draw against Coachella FC on Sunday, earning the man of the match award.
“I’m just glad that I could help the team. I put in the work like everybody else and in the end they needed me luckily (Sunday) and I was there to help. I did my job as best as I could,” Roth said.
Alex Svetanoff started the first 13 matches for FC Tucson in goal but went back to the University of Louisville.
Roth is from Thun, Switzerland, served in the Swiss Army, played at Pima College, Incarnate Word and Colorado State Pueblo. At 28, he’s the oldest FC Tucson player.
“He’s been with us for the whole summer, so he knows what to expect. He knows what the standard is and he’s an experienced guy — second year with the club — so I gave him the confidence and he responded (Sunday),” Pineda said. “I thought he was the best player. He was key in big moments and the game could have gone sideways so I’m proud of him. Great job.”
FC Tucson head coach Sebastian Pineda, pictured during a June 21 match against the Southern California Eagles at Kino North Stadium in Tucson, says he lost “every single one in the same stage,” when speaking of his experience as an FCT player in either the PDL or USL League Two playoffs. Pineda’s goal, starting Friday night: lead FCT past the opening weekend and into the conference finals.
Sunday (not) fun day
Although FC Tucson has reached the postseason seven of the team’s nine seasons in the PDL/League Two, FCT hasn’t made if past the opening weekend yet.
The Men in Black lost in the Sunday match, then the conference final, four out of five seasons from 2014 to 2018 and three straight seasons from 2014 to 2016 at home.
As a player, Pineda played for five PDL sides but never made it past the opening weekend. With FC Tucson in 2015 he lost in the conference final and in 2017 fell in the conference semifinal.
“I lost with every single one in the same stage,” Pineda said. “Hopefully I can make it as a coach. It’s that game on Sunday; I lost with amazing teams with amazing talent.”
Even with future long time MLS player and Tucson native Donny Toia and future U.S. national team player and 2018 MLS Defender of the Year Aaron Long, FC Tucson lost in the conference semifinals in 2012 in the club’s first playoff appearance to the Seattle Sounders U-23s.
Still, at least one little FC Tucson fan had fun in the mid 2010s.
“I remember being in the stands watching in like 2015, 2014, hoping one day I could be there,” said Pickett, who is from Southern Arizona, is an alum of Tucson High School, and plays for Pima. “(It’s) a dream come true.”
