Desert Diamond Cup

Papa, Velazco see time on the field as RSL defeats SKC

FC Tucson loses hard-fought match with Colorado; Own goal, penalty prove undoing of Seattle

Posted Feb 26, 2015

Ted Prezelski
TucsonSentinel.com

Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comRapids forward Deshorn Brown squares to shoot.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comFC Tucson's Andreas Acoste controls the ball at the edge of the Colorado box.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comRevs forward Juan Agudelo performs a rather exaggerated stepover as he approaches the Sounders box.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comTucson's Anthony Grant fires a shot at the Colorado goal.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comFC Tucson's Anthony Grant heads the ball.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comNew England attacker Teal Bunbury slips past the Seattle defense.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comNew England's Kelyn Rowe loses the ball as the Seattle defense closes down around him.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comFC Tucson and the Colorado Rapids take the field on Wednesday night to open the action on day three of the Desert Diamond Cup.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comSeattle's Oniel Fisher heads the ball back for his goalkeeper.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comRevs and Sounders players both look on as the ball just skips over the New England crossbar.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comNew England forward Teal Bunbury closes in on the Seattle goal.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comFC Tucson striker Odaine Sinclair is held by Colorado defender Axel Sjöberg.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comFC Tucson's Michael Kafari tackles the ball away from Colorado midfielder Dillon Serna.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comNew England's Tyler Rudy is sent off in the 60th minute against the Seattle Sounders.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comSeattle Sounders midfielder Aaron Kovar crosses the ball into the New England box.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comNew England goalkeeper Brad Knighton makes a timely tackle.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comKansas City and Salt Lake players line up for the national anthem before the kickoff of the night's third match.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comSalt Lake's Luke Mulholland lies on the pitch in pain after a hard foul from Kansas City's Jalil Anibaba.
Joshua Pearson/TucsonSentinel.comKino North Stadium hosted a large crowd for Wednesday night's final match between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City.

Wednesday night's Desert Diamond Cup matches confirmed the places for Saturday night's games. They also featured a few familiar but surprising faces in the line-ups.

Colorado Rapids 1 - FC Tucson 0

The Rapids left many familiar players on the bench, including Vicente Sánchez and Marcelo Sarvas. Although they were still able to pressure FC Tucson, they went 80 minutes before a header from 2015 draft pick Axel Sjöberg found its way past Tucson's Keegan Rogers.

FC Tucson's best chance for a goal came in the second half when a ball found the head of Odaine Sinclair. Zac McMath grabbed the ball away as he slid under the tall forward.

Colorado will play in the championship match on Saturday against Rocky Mountain rivals Real Salt Lake at 7 p.m. at Kino North Stadium.

Seattle Sounders 1 - New England Revolution 2

Seattle fielded a line-up of mostly bench players against New England's starters, but that bench included MLS journeyman Kenny Cooper. Cooper's fourth minute goal was enough to give Seattle a lead until the second half.

New England came back, however, and their constant pressure forced Seattle's Damion Lowe to land a ball in the back of his own net. A late penalty kick, well taken by Charlie Davies, gave the Revolution the win.

Seattle will play against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday for third place.

Sporting Kansas City 1 - Real Salt Lake 2

Real Salt Lake kept up their winning streak in Desert Diamond Cup play with a win against SKC. They did this despite having a line-up that was mostly bench players and trialists. Among the few recognizable names were Devon Sandoval and Luke Mullholland. Many of the players had no names on their jerseys at all.

RSL dominated a similarly constructed line-up from Sporting Kansas City, going ahead on goals fro Emery Welshman and Sandoval. Kansas City finally got on the board when their regular starters were put in at the hour mark. The very familiar scoring tandem of Benny Feilhaber and Dom Dwyer combined for the team's only goal.

Former FC Tucson player Ricardo Velazco came in after the hour mark for RSL. The bench may have looked familiar to him: four FC Tucson players were invited to sit in with the team. Long time FC Tucson player Dom Papa played the last 10 minutes of the match.