Sunday night’s game at Kino North Stadium between FC Tucson and Ventura County was a tightly contested 1-0 victory for the Southwest Division runner-ups.
The win propels FC Tucson to the USL League 2 Western Conference Finals, the furthest they have progressed in the tournament since 2018.
FC Tucson (9-2-5) will face Project 51O (9-4-1) in Peoria, Ill,, on Friday at 1:30 p.m. Project 51O is based in Oakland, Calif.
Ventura County, who finished with an 11-1-2 record in the regular season, won the division comfortably, but FC Tucson were the only team to take points off of them twice. Those two previous meetings ended with a 0-0 draw at Kino North Stadium, and a 2-1 FC Tucson win at Ventura’s home ground.
With both teams lining up in a 4-3-3 formation, FC Tucson and Ventura County are essentially mirror matchups. Statistically, Ventura County does everything better. They score more goals in attack (41 compared to 33), while still conceding fewer goals in defense (11 compared to 18).
And yet, in three total matchups between these two sides, FC Tucson has won twice and drawn once, only conceding one goal to a potent Ventura offense.
In Sunday’s game, Ventura only managed to get one of their 13 shots on target.
When asked how FC Tucson has managed to hold Ventura’s offense in check, coach Sebastian Pineda said, “Tonight we kept losing the ball up top, which put a lot of stress on our defenders. But it comes down to individual battles. D’Andre (Pickett) and Lars (Walczyk) had a particularly good game. We kept forcing the ball wide so that any attacker has to hit a perfect shot.”
The match winning goal was provided by Walczyk in the 36th minute, after his initial shot at the edge of the box was blocked, but the ricochet fell right back to his feet, allowing him a second opportunity to strike. Walczyk, a senior at The University at Colorado-Colorado Springs, was a near constant presence near the ball for FC Tucson and made plays all night.
Ventura County had the bulk of possession, but could never find a way through Tucson’s ironclad defense, despite taking double the amount of shots on goal. In the 87th minute, Ventura defender Nicholas Releford was sent off after a tackle earned him his second yellow card of the game. Playing with 10 men did little to aid Ventura’s cause, and FC Tucson held on to secure the victory.
FC Tucson has not lost in its last 10 matches. They have a 7-0-3 record in that span. Their last loss was June 11, a 3-1 setback to Capo FC.
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