FC Tucson fans watched four of their players Saturday night in Phoenix Rising’s friendly against MLS side Real Salt Lake. Kody Wakasa, Gilbert Oord, and Kyle Bjornethun started the second half, while Austin Ledbetter subbed on in the 83rd minute.  Rising came out in the second half in a 3-4-3, which Coach Shantz has stated as one of the possible formations for this season.  Overall, the FC Tucson players looked respectable and held their own against the Real Salt Lake starters, which didn’t sub off until the 78th minute.

Gilbert Oord was the standout of the FC Tucson players, he was one of the better players in the second half, period. Oord played aggressively on defense, he was constantly stepping up to oncoming attackers. I counted three times that he won challenges cleanly and played the ball forward. My favorite play of the night was in the 80th minute. Oord made an acrobatic interception of a flicked pass, he then had a beautiful first touch to flick the ball forward to start a counter attack. Halfway through the second half, Oord and Wakasa seemed to have trouble communicating. This led to two back to back defensive breakdowns, one of which resulted in Real Salt Lake’s fourth goal. Offensively, Oord had his moments. In the 67th minute, he cut through the defense with a superb downfield pass to a streaking Junior Flemmings. He also had a few impressive passing sequences to move the ball forward against a stubborn Real Salt Lake defense.

Kyle Bjornethun was solid at left wing-back. He kept good positioning and was continually pushing forward. He kept calm while under pressure and made smart passes. In the 69th minute, Bjornethun made a great cut back which sent an attacker the wrong way.  This created enough space to pass the ball off and sidestep the pressure. The only knock against his play was in the 81st minute. There was either a miscommunication with Joey Calistri or he mistimed a run, this led to a wasted opportunity in the final third.  Tonight was a good first impression for Bjornethun, if he keeps performing like this, then he looks poised to be the starting left back for FC Tucson.

Kody Wakasa played the left side in a back three defensive line. I don’t think I have ever seen him play in a back three before, or on the left side for that matter. Despite this, he played well for most of the 45 minutes he was on the field. He looked good on the ball and played accurate passes out of the back. There were times where he was caught out of position, but he recovered well on most of those occasions. In the 69th minute he mistimed a jump and botched an aerial challenge, luckily the opposing attacked botched it even worse. Wakasa kept his head and recovered quickly to clear the danger. His positioning problems seemed to stem from the position change. The coaching staff is asking a lot of him right now and he is handling it very well. I am confident that by the time that FC Tucson’s season starts, he will have settled nicely into his new role.

Austin Ledbetter came on in the 83rd minute at right wing-back and immediately made an impact. Moments after coming on, he had a great one-two passing sequence with Oord to start a counter attack. Ledbetter provided a spark to the offense when they moved forward. He was constantly looking to overlap and he played a few nicely weighted through balls to free up Flemmings down the right side. Defensively, Ledbetter was also impressive. In the 88th minute, he had a great block on a shot in front of goal. He was perfectly in position to force the shot from a tight angle. Ledbetter did have one moment he wishes he could take back. In the 91st minute, he received a pass and took one to many touches. It resulted in a turnover that almost made it 5-1. Overall, tonight was a positive appearance for him. Over the course of the past four preseason games, Ledbetter has all but locked down the right back spot.

FC Tucson play their first preseason match this Wednesday, February 20th 3:00pm at North Kino Stadium.  The match is non-gated (which mean free admission).  It will give us our first look at how FC Tucson will line up with a full squad.  Seeings as how the FC Tucson squad stands at only fifteen, I’m expecting some Rising players to add depth for this friendly.  Phoenix Rising will play Portland Timbers right after the FC Tucson game at 6:00 pm.  It should be a fun afternoon.

41 days until the start of FC Tucson’s first professional season.