Officially, FC Tucson was listed as the visitor in Wednesday night’s game against Toronto FC II. But, playing just 78 miles up the road from their usual home, the Men in Black must have found comfort in playing in a familiar, friendly desert environment.
FC Tucson scored two first-half goals en route to defeating Toronto FC II 2-1 at Grande Sports World in Casa Grande, the Canadian team’s temporary home due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Toronto FC II had much of the possession in the first 20 minutes, but it was FC Tucson that severed the scoreless deadlock with the perfectly placed incision coming from Joao Delgado in the 24th minute. After a deflected ball bounced to him just inside the 18-yard box, the Portuguese midfielder used the outside of his right boot to perfectly loft a curling shot across the goalmouth and into the upper left corner for his second goal of the season and his second in his last two matches.
Just four minutes later, the lead was doubled when an FC Tucson corner pinballed around a host of legs before Deri Corfe ricocheted it in for his second goal of the season.
Toronto FC II responded in the 37th minute when midfielder Themi Antonoglou was the beneficiary of a FC Tucson giveaway and charged 15 yards at the goal before left-footing the ball into the lower right corner.
Both teams had chances in the second half with Toronto FC II squandering quite a few good chances that went high, wide or high and wide.
FC Tucson (1-2-1, 4 points) will be taking a much longer trip for its next away game when it travels to WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, to take on North Carolina FC on Saturday, May 29, at 4 p.m. After that, the Men in Black will return home to take on Toronto FC II on June 5 at Kino North Stadium. That kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
