On the Saturday before the tournament, Keeney and his partners led youth soccer players and their parents on a mission to the neighborhood soccer fields. They parked the FC Tucson van (donated by a sponsor) beside an ice cream truck and went to work canvassing the crowd. Then it was on to the nearby Food City to slip fliers under windshield wipers and make a pit stop at the Sonoran-style hotdog vendor in the parking lot.

"FC Tucson will go as far as the community takes it," Keeney says. "We want to create an atmosphere that's like a 2,000 person block-party where a soccer game happens to break out."

Yet even community soccer has at times been a source of tension for Tucson. The population here is more than 40 percent Latino, with thousands concentrated in low-income neighborhoods where teams have lacked access to the same training and equipment as their white counterparts in wealthier areas of the city. While Tucson has a strong link with Hermosillo, Sonora across the border, recent state legislation requiring immigrants to carry identification at all times has offended many Latinos here and in Mexico. A 2010 bill that banned all public school curricula of which "race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes," led to the dismantling of Tucson USD's celebrated Mexican-American Studies program despite months of fervent protest, and a state-funded audit that concluded the program should be expanded.

"Right now there's a lot of distrust in the Latino community in regards to the laws that have been created here in recent years," says Jose Gonzalez, a curriculum specialist in the Mexican-American Studies program at TUSD. "The message being sent is: 'You're not appreciated here. The language you speak is in question. You being here is in question.'"

It's a message that's causing headaches for those who rely on Tucson's idyllic winter climate to generate tourism dollars. Businessmen here speak in terms of putting "butts in seats" and "heads in beds," filling local stadiums, restaurants, and hotels. A 2007 study found that more than 22 million visitors from Mexico pass through the community each year (legally, officials are quick to add), pumping nearly $1 billion into the economy. Arizona's Republican-sponsored legislation has caused "a perception problem," according to a representative from the Convention and Visitors Bureau's "Vamos a Tucson!" program, which aims to foster positive relationships with Sonorans. "Mexicans think they are unwelcome in the U.S., just like U.S. tourists see Mexico as being unsafe."

Last month, Tucson sent a soccer delegation across the border to Hermosillo, where fans agonize over the lack of a Division I soccer team. MLS Executive Vice President Nelson Rodriguez joined the coalition in an ongoing effort to "export the league," visiting Mexican media and school sports directors to whet the region's appetite for MLS soccer. "They welcomed us with open arms and invited us back," Rodriguez says. "It's a symbol of the success of the work that FC Tucson has done locally, and that MLS is doing globally."