Well in case you missed it the announcement yesterday. The 4 teams for the Desert Diamond Cup 2013 are: New England Revolution, Real Salt Lake, New York Red Bulls, and Seattle Sounders. Here are is the schedule: Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 New England Revolution vs. Seattle Sounders New York Red Bulls vs. Real Salt Lake Saturday, February 16th, 2013 Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 Real Salt Lake vs. New England Revolution Seattle Sounders vs. New York Red Bulls Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 MLS 3rd Place vs. MLS 4th Place MLS 1st Place vs. MLS 2nd Place *Game times are TBA; schedule subject to change http://fctucson.com/team/the-field-is-set/
Also announced was the expansion of the Kino Sports complex. Thanks to the White Sox going down to Phoenix, the county will be pumping $2 million into Kino Sports Complex North side. This includes putting in 1,000 seats into field 1 and 3,000 seats into field 5 for the FC Tucson PDL season. http://fctucson.com/team/the-field-is-set/
Too bad that the Earthquakes aren't going to be participating in this event. Definitely looking forward to being able to attend some matches at Kino!
I did see Wondo training here this year with the rest of the team. They may not be in the DDC, but I bet they will be training here and possibly having some practice games like this year. I know they are putting in 1000 seat bleachers on the practice fields this time, so they might have some open to the public scrimmages.
For what it's worth, the Quakes have said that they like using Kino for pre-season practice and that they plan to return. That's not cast in stone or anything, it's just from remarks made last year. They went to Tottenham a couple of years, but apparently, Yallop and Doyle think it's too far to go, and they lose too much time to travel. So, it's a good bet that the Quakes will return to Kino for a week or two this coming winter. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Yeah, the Quakes coaching staff and GM said that they really liked the Kino Sports Complex facilities and working out there. I've never been there, so it sounded a little strange to me at the time, but what the heck. If it's nice, it's certainly closer than the UK or Central America. The weather is probably pretty reliably good in February, so more power to you. Also, I could actually get down there to watch the team practice, at least, in my dreams. Good for FC Tucson. - Mark