FC Tucson photo.
Sporting Kansas City and Colorado Rapids were greeted by a crowd of 1,018 at the North Theater on Saturday for the second preseason game of the Desert Showcase MLS.
Western Conference opponents put on a show for the Tucson fans, battling to a 0-0 draw until the last second of added time.
Although it was just a training game, both teams showed their best.
Two yellow cards were awarded after two players ran into each other and a minor skirmish broke out. Two more were distributed in the second half.
“They’re grown men and it’s a competition,” SKC coach peter guts said. “They want to win. you want to play It’s a tough game but (you have to keep in mind that the players might be a bit off at the moment.
“Sometimes they overdo it and end up meeting a guy. Most of the time, I don’t think that’s malicious.”
Colorado looked at a few different squads rotating the two units.
“I didn’t think we were that good with the ball, but defensively we did everything we wanted,” said Rapids coach Robin Fraser. “It doesn’t matter whether we were defending in our set or pushing up later in the half and really putting pressure on them.”
Sporting Kansas City played in the starting XI for the first 45 minutes but also switched to a different lineup early in the second half.
“I thought from a gameplay point of view and also from a conditional point of view we’re in a pretty good place,” Vermes said. “We probably would have liked to have created a few more chances with that first group, but overall our organization was really good and we had good possession.
“We recognized situations very well. So I think from that perspective it was really, really good.”
SKC regularly travels to Tucson to play preseason games. They’re training in Scottsdale this year.
“It’s a great setup for us there,” said Vermes. “We have been here many, many times. The great thing is that we always have good competition in these games. Colorado is a really good team. It was good for us to play against an MLS team. … The competition has been great and we hope we can use that to build up for the season.”
Colorado plays the Houston Dynamo at 4:00 p.m. Saturday at the North Theater for the final game of the Desert Showcase.
The Rapids then travel to Guatemala to play Comunicaciones FC in the CONCACAF Champions League on February 17.
Nathaniel Martinez is an aspiring sportswriter, graduate of Sahuaro High School and a student of Pima Community College. He has written for the Aztec Press at Pima. While at Sahuaro, he played football for longtime coach Scott McKee and wrestled for the Cougars.
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