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Yvette Sanchez

2018 Meet the Underdogs: Arizona Sahuaros are reborn as Sporting AZ FC

May 8, 2018 by Yvette Sanchez

Sporting AZ FC poses for a team photo before a recent UPSL game. Photo: Sporting AZ FC
Sporting AZ FC poses for a team photo before a recent UPSL game. Photo: Sporting AZ FC
Sporting AZ FC poses for a team photo before a recent UPSL game. Photo: Sporting AZ FC

Gilbert, Arizona is getting noticed for much more than the heat and scenery. The town is home to Sporting Arizona Football Club, or better known to the local fans as Sporting AZ FC.

The team that traces its roots back to 1989 when they were founded as the Phoenix Hearts in the Southwest Independent Soccer League. The team played under a few different names in the 1990s (Arizona Cotton, Arizona Phoenix) before joining the USL’s D3 Pro League in 1997 as the Arizona Sahuaros. The Sahuaros made six US Open Cup appearances (1998, 1999, 2006, 2008-10), advancing four times in 10 games. After six years in the D3 Pro League, the Sahuaros transitioned into an amateur team where they were a founding member of the NPSL in 2003 (originally called the Men’s Premier Soccer League). The team was an on-again, off-again member of the NPSL until the club when on hiatus in 2011.

The Sahuaros were revived in 2014 when Barry Rybicki and former Sahuaros assistant coach Tim Marchisotto bought the team and the club played an exhibition game schedule from 2014-16 before re-brandeding as Sporting AZ FC and joining the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) at the end of 2016.

Sporting_Arizona_FCSporting began play in the UPSL in the spring of 2017 and have built some momentum both on and off the field. The team splits their home games between Highland High School and Campo Verde High School, both of them located in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert.

The caliber of this team is not to be taken lightly, with head coach Aidan Davison, who has a strong resume from his playing days. Davison was a goalkeeper who represented Northern Ireland at the international level and played for a number of English clubs such as Bolton Wanderers, Millwall, and Bradford City. With his professional experience, he makes sure that his men are at their best to perform on the field.

On this particular day, practice at Chandler-Gilbert Community College starts promptly at 6:45 a.m. and goes on till 9 a.m. With the scorching Arizona heat, these men are playing at full effort. Sweat dripping from their faces, dives and kicks, not one beat is skipped.

When it comes to Sporting AZ FC and their mission, Davison is clear when he says, “Simply to improve soccer in this area, offer a quality product for the community, spring ball players at the professional level, and provide a really solid professional club so everyone can be proud of it.”

The team has returning players under coach Davison, but they’re new to the Sporting AZ family. With his dynamic coaching style, the team fuses well as if they’ve been a solid unit for years.

Arizona Sahuaros logoPlayers come from all around the globe to be apart of this team. 27 year-old Costa Rican native, Alejandro Aguilar has been in the United States since 2010 and playing for Sporting AZ for the last two years.

“This team has a good organization and a great mission, that’s what called my attention to them,” said Aguilar, who like other Spanish-speaking players, hasn’t let a language barrier hold him back in blending in with the team.

One player they will be missing from last season is goalkeeper Jake Rybicki, the son of Sporting AZ majority owner Barry Rybicki. Rybicki recently signed with Malta First Division club Hibernians FC, who just advanced to the second round of the UEFA Champions League qualifying.

The opening round match between Sporting and FC Arizona has an extra layer of drama, aside from the fact that the two teams are separated by less than 20 miles. Coach Davison used to coach the team and many of the players on the Sporting roster were on the FC Arizona team that finished the regular season with an undefeated record (12-0-4) in their inaugural season in the NPSL. Mo Salama, Jon Guse, Alejandro Aguilar, David Paul, Kenny McAvoy, Paul LaMarca, and Andrew Weber, who was part of the 2015 MLS Cup champion Portland Timbers.

This team has the potential to be a well-oiled machine by the time they make their US Open Cup debut against FC Arizona (NPSL) in the First Round on May 9. With all the right pieces working in unison, coach Davison expects to make a run in the tournament to put Arizona soccer on the map.

Filed Under: 2018 US Open Cup, Feature - Main, Feature - Qualifying, Meet the Underdogs, US Open Cup, US Open Cup Qualifying Tagged With: 2018 US Open Cup, Meet the Underdogs, Sporting AZ FC, UPSL

2018 US Open Cup qualifying: Sporting AZ wins one-sided battle of Arizona to qualify

November 19, 2017 by Yvette Sanchez

Sporting AZ FC logo

Sporting Arizona logoSporting AZ FC earned its spot in the first round of the 2018 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup with their 6-1 win over Galati FC.

Alejandro Aguilar scored a pair of goals to lead Sporting, the club formerly known as the Arizona Sahuaros, to their first US Open Cup berth since the new club was launched last January.

At the 4:30 mark Sporting AZ’s Alejandro Aguilar put the ball in the middle with a deflection from Galati, and it went in for the early lead, setting the tone for the entire night.

It was 15 minutes later that teammate Jose Ramos would kick it in with an assist from Robert Paul. Galati would remain scoreless through out the rest of the first half.

Sporting head coach Aiden Davison said, “We were effective, that’s about it, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” when it came to his teams performance throughout the night.

Andrew Weber Sporting AZ goalkeeper, said, “First half was a little sloppy on our part,” but they would quickly change the tempo, “I think we cleaned it up and got one right away in the second half.”

Sporting AZ, with a goal kicked in by Alejandro Aguilar, made the score 3-0 46 minutes into the game.

The goals would keep on coming, the 78-minute mark of the game would finally prove effective for Galati, making the score 4-1.

The deficit would quickly go to 5-1 at the 79-minute mark with a goal by Aguilar once again, with an assist from Jaime Olabarria.

In the closing minutes Galati’s Pablo Ramirez was red carded for throwing the ball at a member of Sporting AZ, in not the best of areas.

Weber said, “I just think defensively we were really solid.” The team is now going to regroup and focus on the 2018 tournament.

Davison said about their performance, “We’ve just got to do a lot of work on the training ground, which we will be doing because there some huge improvements to be made.”

Weber agreed with his coach saying, “Just regroup and get things tighter you know, as the rounds go on it get tougher and tougher and I think this group can definitely make a run at it if we get things tighter.”

Sporting AZ would finish the game with a score of 6-1 and will see their next opponents in 2018 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

Filed Under: 2018 US Open Cup, Feature - Qualifying, US Open Cup, US Open Cup Qualifying Tagged With: 2018 US Open Cup qualifying, Galati FC, Sporting AZ FC

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