FC Tucson to play Arizona Western Matadors

FC Tucson is scheduled to play a preseason friendly soccer match against Arizona Western College on Saturday.

This will be the second warm-up match that FC Tucson has had since the close of the Desert Diamond Cup. FC Tucson traveled to Casa Grande last week to face the Canadian second division team FC Edmonton. That match ended in a 1-1 draw.

The match is at 3 p.m. at Field 1 at the Kino North Complex. Admission is free and fans are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

Arizona Western College was the NJCAA regional champion in 2010. In 2011, they were bested in the regional semi-finals by Pima Community College, a team they had beaten twice in regular season play.

Los Tucsonenses begin their season on May 5 in Fresno against the Fresno Fuego, with their first home game on May 19. In a statement on Facebook, the team announced they will start selling season tickets next week. The team hasn't announced a venue, although the Premiere Development League website lists that game, against the Southern California Seahorses, at Kino.

No CCL for U.S.

Fans hoping for a U.S. team to make the finals of the CONCACAF Champions League were disappointed this week when both the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC were bounced out of the tournament Wednesday night.

Los Angeles turned in a sub-par performance in both of their matches against Toronto FC, drawing last week's match and the losing Wednesday's. Seattle won their first against Mexico's Club Santos Laguna, but were defeated in their second match Wednesday by a stunning 6 - 1 margin.

This leaves no U.S.-based teams in the tournament, but Americans who mix a little patriotism with their soccer fandom still have a reason to watch at least two of the teams left in the tournament.

Toronto FC is a Major League Soccer team and features several U.S. players, including Aaron Maund and Eric Avila, both of whom have played for the U.S. under-20 team.

U.S. national team player Herculez Gomez scored Santos's only goal in the first leg of the quarterfinal against Seattle, his third goal of the tournament.

Santos plays the first leg of their semi-final against Toronto on March 28. Mexican teams CF Monterrey and Pumas de UNAM play in the other semi-final. Current champion Monterrey made it through after their 8-0 demolition of El Salvadoran team AD Isidro Metapán onThursday night. Both second legs will be on April 4.

Fans of Los Angeles and Seattle have one consolation: Both will play in the 2012-2013 version of the tournament because of their performance during the last MLS season.

Clarkie Souza

John "Clarkie" Souza-Benavides, who played on team that defeated England in the 1950 World Cup, passed away this week. He was 91.

Souza came out of the Portugese-American soccer scene centered around Massachusetts and Rhode Island that produced many U.S. players in the early decades of the squad. He played on the Fall River Ponta Delgada team that won the National Challenge Cup (now the U.S. Open Cup) in 1947. He later played for the New York German-Hungarians, and won the National Challenge Cup for them in 1951. He also represented the United States at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.

Even though he didn't score a goal in the three U.S. matches in the 1950 World Cup, he was named to that World Cup's all-star team. No American player would again be so honored until Claudio Reyna in 2002.

With the recent death of Harry Keough, the only living players from that 1950 team are goalkeeper Frank Borghi and midfielder Walter Bahr.