Posted Sep 22, 2012, 9:02 am
Could a Scottish Premier League player be on his way to Phoenix FC?
There has been no announcement from Phoenix FC, but newspapers in Britain have reported that former Aberdeen FC striker Darren Mackie is on his way to the Valley of the Sun.
Mackie is a rarity in modern sports: he spend his youth career at Aberdeen FC and from the age of 16 spent his entire professional career—except for a six-game loan spell—with the team, also known as the Dons.
During Mackie's 14 seasons with the Dons, he made 312 appearances and scored 58 times. His scored a goal against Ukrainian club FC Dnipro in the UEFA Cup when Aberdeen qualified for that tournament in 2007.
Aberdeen has a storied past. They are the last Scottish team to win a European trophy and among their former coaches is current Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, but the team has not won a trophy since the mid-1990's. It was time to change things, and in May, Mackie was told that his contract would not be renewed.
If Mackie makes his way to Phoenix FC, he will be coached by another former Don, David Roberton.
Chokes
Both Pima Community College teams will be making their way to Scottsdale on Saturday to face Scottsdale Community College.
The Aztec men will be looking to put their short slide further behind them by getting their second win in a row. Scottsdale's men's team has a conference record of 2-3-1, and have allowed sixteen goals to be scored against them. They won their last game, but they allowed the woeful South Mountain to score the only two goals they have scored so far this season.
TucsonSentinel.com relies on contributions from our readers to support our reporting on Tucson's civic affairs. Donate to TucsonSentinel.com today!
If you're already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors, colleagues and customers to help support quality local independent journalism.
The women's squad trying to break a losing spell after an impressive five-game winning streak in which only two goals have been scored against them. Unfortunately, they have lost the last three games, but they are looking at this as a chance to get the wheels back on. It may be a good game to do it: despite compiling two wins and two draws in their first five games, Scottsdale only managed to score two goals. They managed just a smidge of attack in their last game; they scored thirteen. That was, of course, against the aforementioned woeful South Mountain.
By the way, Scottsdale's moniker is the Fighting Artichokes. I point that out because it's as much fun for you to read as it is for me to write. Fighting Artichokes.
Personal note
In my account of the Pima College men's team's game against Yavapai, I used a particular group of fans as an illustration of the back and forth between the fans and the players on the field. It turned out it was Pima forward Declan Fulton's family and they took exception to my characterization of what happened. I didn't mean to single out the family for criticism, and I actually enjoyed seeing fans be that passionate. Still, I could have been more clear about what I was trying to show, and I apologize to the family.
I posted the e-mail I received from the family over on my soccer blog.
Comments
There are no comments on this report. Sorry, comments are closed.