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Arizona United SC

2016 US Open Cup Round 3: Switchbacks’ recent dominance of Arizona United carries over into Open Cup play

June 3, 2016 by Alex Didion

Colorado Springs SwitchbacksThe Colorado Springs Switchbacks defeated USL foe Arizona United 3-0 in the Third Round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Wednesday night.

Arizona United SC’s most successful run in the US Open Cup ended with a lopsided elimination at the hands of a familiar enemy. The Switchbacks and United had already played two matches this season prior to this game that were within USL play, with the Switchbacks coming out on top both times, 2-0 in Colorado and 3-1 in Arizona. The Switchbacks own the all-time series between the clubs, winning all four matches in league play. Colorado also holds the Arizona United team record for largest margin of defeat in franchise history, a 5-0 loss United suffered during the 2015 season.

“We’ve kind of got a rivalry going, I wouldn’t say we don’t like each other, we both get up for the games,” said Switchback goalkeeper Billy Thompson.

The Switchbacks had control throughout much of the game, and they were able to capitalize on an opportunity in the 39th minute to get the scoring started. A free kick saved by United keeper Jordan Stagmiller was rebounded in by Switchbacks midfielder and captain Luke Vercollone to put the Switchbacks on the board first.

In the 59th minute, forward Aaron King struck again for Colorado off of a deflected shot from forward Saeed Robinson. Vercollone kept his hot streak going late in the game, scoring his second goal in the 83rd minute to seal victory for the visitors. For Vercollone, it was his fourth and fifth US Open Cup goals of his career.

The Switchbacks normally play much more of an up-tempo, pressing style defense, which would obviously wear players out quickly in the heat. Players praised the coaching staff after the game for putting together a game plan that focused on countering attacks instead of trying to just create them, and as Thompson said “hats off to the coaching staff, they got us prepared and we came out and executed.”

“We had a gameplan and we stuck to it,” Vercollone said after the game. When asked about preparing for a match in the Arizona heat, Vercollone said “We actually wore rain jackets at practice leading up to it.”

The night for Arizona United was marked by frustration. Head coach Frank Yallop, a three-time US Soccer Major champion (2 MLS Cups, 1 MLS Supporters’ Shield), was sent off in the 45th minute for dissent towards the officials, as he was loudly berating them from early on in the game.

The temperature was creeping around 100 degrees throughout the duration of the match, leading to several mandatory water breaks called by the officials. Three United players also received yellow cards: midfielders Luke Rooney and Blair Gavin, along with forward Tyler Blackwood.

“I can understand his frustration, I don’t want to badmouth the ref too much, him, the fourth official, and the linesmen have made terrible calls,” said Rooney when asked about his head coach being sent off.

United did not lack in opportunities, however, as the team had numerous corner attempts and chances to score but could not get it done. Their best opportunity may have come in the first half. In the 38th minute, forward Long Tan got the ball inside the box and spun a shot around that was deflected away by Thompson. Blackwood came sprinting in from the top and got his head on the ball, but a diving kick save by Switchbacks defender Josh Suggs kept United off the board.

The Switchbacks now advance to the Fourth Round of the Open Cup tournament, where they will play at their in-state MLS rival, the Colorado Rapids, on June 15. It is a rematch from last season where the Rapids won handily, 4-1.

Filed Under: US Open Cup Tagged With: 2016 Third Round, 2016 US Open Cup, Arizona United SC, Colorado Springs Switchbacks, USL

2016 US Open Cup Round 2: Arizona United too much for in-state amateurs from FC Tucson

May 21, 2016 by Ted Prezelski

Long Tan's second goal for Arizona United against FC Tucson in the 2016 US Open Cup. Photo: Sidney Cervantes
Long Tan’s second goal for Arizona United against FC Tucson in the 2016 US Open Cup. Photo: Sidney Cervantes

The history of the US Open Cup is full of scrappy, amateur teams beating experienced, professional sides. We’ve seen it happen more than once this year already.

It did not, however, happen at Kino Stadium on Wednesday night, as FC Tucson fell to their northern neighbors Arizona United SC by a score of 5–0 at Tucson’s Kino Stadium.

It started off well for the hosts, said long time FC Tucson player Dom Papa.

“I thought when we came out we played well,” he said. “For the first twenty or twenty five minutes we controlled the game; we looked good in the midfield. But you know, they are big, they are fast, they play direct. I just think we weren’t ready to handle that kind of play.”

“We gave up one, and the wheels fell apart,” he added.

That “one” came in the 28th minute after a foul just outside the box set up English midfielder Luke Rooney for a free kick. He easily got it past Tucson keeper Borja Angiota.

Long Tan extended the lead for the visitors minutes later, finding the back of the net after slaloming through FC Tucson’s back line. Gibson Bardsley closed out the half with another goal for Arizona moments before the close of the half.

A fourth goal came from United’s Tyler Blackwood just minutes into the second half, but then came a spot of hope for the home team: a red card for Arizona’s Gibson Bardsley for poorly timed tackle on Tucson’s Sean Keith.

It was still hard for FC Tucson to take a shot when they got into the final third, thanks to the work of Arizona center full back Uchenna Uzo.

“There are not many players that are as big as I am on the field, and I think he’s twice my size,” said Tucson’s Papa, who the team has counted on for physical play in past years. “When you have a center back there that can destroy every attack we try to start, well, he’s a different level.”

Whatever spark that gave FC Tucson was extinguished in the 67th minute with Long Tan’s second goal. A flurry of shots from the home team in the closing moments of the match excited the crowd, but still left a zero on the board when the whistle blew.

Interestingly, FC Tucson’s defense only allowed a handful of shots. They went in and that’s what counts says United coach Frank Yallop.

“Our finishing was excellent. We were clinical when we had the chances. That’s the game,” he said after the match. “Long, Tyler Blackwood and Rooney showed their qualities today. I was proud of the whole team but I think they were pretty sharp in front of the goal.”

“We didn’t take the game for granted. We were 4-0 and got a red card and still scored another goal,” he added. “That’s a good sign for our league play.”

Arizona United is scheduled to play Colorado Springs Switchbacks in the next round, which is scheduled for June 1. The winner will play the Colorado Rapids in Round 4.

FC Tucson v Arizona United
Kino North Stadium

Scoring summary
AZU – Luke Rooney (27’)
AZU – Long Tan (33’)
AZU – Gibson Bardsley (45’+)
AZU – Tyler Blackwood (47’)
AZU – Tan (68’)

Misconduct summary
FCT – Dom Papa (27’, caution)
AZU – Gibson Bardsley (41’, caution)
FCT – Sean Keith (43’, caution)
AZU –Bardsley (54’, second caution, ejection)

FC Tucson: Borja Angoitia –Aaron Herrera (Edgar Reyna 77’), Gonnie Ben-Tal, Kyle Adams- Sean Keith, Evan Waldrep, Dom Papa, Musa Morris (Tate Schmitt 45’) – Jon Bakero, Minh Vu, Damian German (Alfonso Pinhiero 45’)

Arizona United SC: Carl Wosczcynski – Daniel Antúnez, Uchenna Uzo, Julian Ringhof, Brandon Poltronieri – Gibson Bardsley (ejected 54’), Miguel Timm (Blair Gavin 37’), Sam Garza – Luke Rooney (Duncan McCormick 58’), Long Tan, Tyler Blackwood (Tony Cascio 77’)

Filed Under: US Open Cup Tagged With: 2016 Second Round, 2016 US Open Cup, Arizona United SC, FC Tucson, PDL, USL

2015 US Open Cup Round 2: Chula Vista FC’s amateur youth movement stuns USL’s Arizona United, 3-0

May 21, 2015 by Jose M. Romero

Chula Vista FC fans made the trip to Scottsdale, Ariz. to cheer on their team. Photo: Jose M. Romero
Chula Vista FC fans made the trip to Scottsdale, Ariz. to cheer on their team. Photo: Jose M. Romero

Chula Vista FC is 2-for-Arizona and 2-0 in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, to the surprise of almost everyone but those close to the team. And now the players can dream big.

Without a single player in the starting 11 older than 22, the USASA side from south of San Diego advanced to the Third Round of the annual American soccer club championship with a convincing 3-0 win over Arizona United SC of the USL Wednesday night at Scottsdale Stadium.

Baby-faced midfielder Alberto Diaz’s goal in the 37th minute and teammate Angel Pinal’s goal off a free kick from Diaz were plenty for the upstart squad of young players. Diaz added the team’s third goal in the 72nd minute, taking two touches before unleashing a shot that beat Carl Wosczynski with ease.

Woszcynski appeared to not see the shot, as he didn’t move. His Chula Vista counterpart in goal for the first 59 minutes, Sebastian Ortiz, did plenty of moving and stopping.

Ortiz came up huge for his team with several tremendous saves to preserve the clean sheet, though he left late in the first half with a groin injury and was replaced by Miguel David in the second half.

“It’s working as a team,” Alberto Diaz said. “We got a chance and I put it away.”

Alberto Diaz of Chula Vista FC. Photo: Jose M. Romero
Alberto Diaz of Chula Vista FC. Photo: Jose M. Romero

Chula Vista FC earned a trip to Northern California to take on another USL side, Sacramento Republic FC, in the US Open Cup Third Round on May 27. It should go there riding a wave of confidence after Wednesday’s win.

“Sebastian did a good job, I can’t say it enough,” Chula Vista head coach Hector Diaz said.
“Awesome little player,” he said of Alberto Diaz, his younger brother. “Our team is small, it’s more skilled. He was on the U-15 national team, and he’s the reason why I’m here. He was the Cal-South player of the year in 2010 and he was overlooked because of his height. But obviously he’s a dynamic player and I love him.”

Diaz got past Arizona defender Daniel Antunez and into the clear, remaining onside as he got the ball around goalkeeper Carl Woszcynski and flushed the ball into the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.

That was after Ortiz made crucial saves on shots by forward Brad Stisser in the 12th and 19th minutes. Another stop, on a Cameron Vickers shot in the 28th minute, kept the match scoreless.
Ortiz had five saves in the first half.

“Nothing to lose, everything to win,” Hector Diaz said. “Live today and we’ll worry about tomorrow.”

Chula Vista could have hunkered down to start the second half and tried to protect the lead, but it went on the attack. In the 48th minute, Diaz took a free kick that landed on the head of Pinal, the hero of his team’s stoppage time win over PDL side FC Tucson on May 13.

Pinal scored as Arizona United’s defense appeared lost, and by the 69th minute, Arizona United had used all three of its substitutes as it tried to push for extra time.

AZ United coach Michael Dellorusso credited Chula Vista, saying his team didn’t overlook it.

“They deserved to win today,” Dellorusso said. “Our guys didn’t show up tonight. They didn’t play with pride, they didn’t play for the organization. It’s extremely embarrassing, our performance tonight.”

Arizona United, which was playing its second of three matches in eight days, lost forward Dennis Chin to injury in the second half after Chin came on as a sub.

A group of a couple dozen Chula Vista FC fans who made the trip were boisterous for much of the night, chanting “Portero! Portero!” when Ortiz and David made saves and “Beto! Beto!” when Diaz was subbed out in the 84th minute. They saved the traditional Mexican tune “Cielito Lindo” for the final minutes of the match, knowing their team had the match in hand.

For Arizona United, at least the lackluster performance didn’t cost the crowd of 1,408 full price. Tickets were half-price for the match.

Now the question is whether starry-eyed Chula Vista can afford a trip to Sacramento next week. The club has a GoFundMe page set up, hoping to collect donations to get players to the California capital.

“We have this dream to go all the way and play an MLS team,” Alberto Diaz said, “and see where we can go from there. “

Filed Under: US Open Cup Tagged With: 2015 US Open Cup, Arizona United SC, Chula Vista FC, Second Round, USASA, USL

2014 US Open Cup Round 4: LA Galaxy flips second half switch, eliminates Arizona United 2-1 (video)

June 19, 2014 by Dan Hagan

Photo: Arizona United
Photo: Arizona United

In its first meeting against the LA Galaxy, Arizona United SC almost came away with the surprise win to move on to the Fifth Round of the US Open Cup but fell short 2-1 as LA was able to capitalize on Arizona’s slow start in the second half.

Both goals came from Gyasi Zardes in about two minutes.

The first half the game went back and forth with a lot of play in the midfield as both teams tried to establish their respective game plans. LA had a total of six shots to Arizona’s three.

The action picked up in the 10th minute as a set piece from Arizona defenseman Scott Morrison from 30 yards out was easily saved by the Galaxy’s Jaime Peñedo. That strike from Arizona seemed to give L.A. the shot in the arm they needed as they went on to pepper Arizona goalkeeper Evan Newton, starting with a shot from inside the box from forward Stefan Ishizaki in the 17th minute.

The Galaxy’s Ishizaki sent a cross to forward Rob Friend seven minutes later that Friend put in the back of the net, but it was called back for offside. Shortly after that close call, Arizona was awarded a corner kick that Morrison crossed to forward Bradlee Baladez that went over the bar and just out of reach of Peñedo.

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Arizona came close but so was L.A., which started pushing and got an opportunity with Zardes fading into the box and getting a shot off that went wide in the 32nd minute.

Both teams seemed to be on the brink of breaking through and just four minutes later, Arizona scored on a beautiful cross from forward Kadeem Dacres that went to forward Matt Kassel for the goal and the lead going into the half.

Kassel said he was pleased with the effort the team put forth against a tough team like the Galaxy.

“It’s exciting, it’s not what we wanted, we wanted to win the game but it’s something that we can hold our heads high about,” he said.

With the momentum clearly on Arizona’s side, L.A. needed to come out in attack mode and that’s exactly what Zardes did from the first whistle of the second half, attacking the box and nearly getting one past Newton in the first minute of the second half.

It wouldn’t take long for L.A. to get the equalizer as Zardes once again set himself up in the box and received a beautiful cross from defenseman Robbie Rogers that he easily headed past Newton for the 1-1 score in the 51st minute as the 4,000 fans at Peoria Sports Complex fell silent.

Two minutes later, Zardes put another header past Newton, this time the cross came from Ishizaki in the 53rd.

Zardes said Arena told the team at halftime that the goals would come and to be patient and that’s the mentality they took heading into the second half.

“The main goal in the second half was to put the shots on target, and that’s what I did.” Zardes said. “I had opportunities in the first half that were close and I wanted to make sure these were on target.”

Zardes — who was named man of the match — was virtually left alone on the back-to-back goals, as he was able to drift away from the defense.

The slow start by Arizona United in the second half was too much to overcome, as L.A. was able to stop the few opportunities that Arizona had in the second half. The closest Arizona got to getting their own equalizer came in the 79th and 87th as forward Jon Okafor had two point-blank shots that were saved by Peñedo, dashing the hopes of the new USL franchise and knocking them out of the US Open Cup.

With the win the Galaxy move on to face the Carolina RailHawks in North Carolina in the Fifth Round of the US Open Cup Round.

MATCH REPLAY: LA GALAXY AT ARIZONA UNITED

Filed Under: US Open Cup Tagged With: 2014 Fourth Round, 2014 US Open Cup, Arizona United SC, Los Angeles Galaxy

2014 US Open Cup Round 3: Arizona United wins battle of USL PRO expansion teams, 2-1 over Oklahoma City Energy

May 29, 2014 by Jose M. Romero

arizona-united-2013Arizona United SC has only been a USL PRO franchise for about two months. But it secured the most important win in club history to date on Wednesday night in the U.S. Open Cup third round, and earned the right to go after an even bigger victory in a few weeks.

Midfielder Bradlee Baladez gave the home side a 2-1 lead in the 112th minute, the second 15-minute overtime period, and goalkeeper Evan Newton saved a penalty in the 119th minute to preserve the win for Arizona United over Oklahoma City Energy FC.
The win sent AZ United into the fourth round of the annual American club championship tournament, where it will host the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer on June 18.
“It’s a big opportunity for a lot of us guys,” Baladez said. “We’re excited and we’re going to be ready.”

AZ United seemed to have the match in hand after the 47th minute, when the Energy’s Michael Thomas was shown a straight red card for a hard challenge. But it took Arizona until the 84th minute to capitalize on the man advantage, when Jon Okafor scored to give his team a 1-0 lead.

All Arizona United had to do was hang on for six-plus minutes, but it could not. Kyle Greigh delivered a low header into the net in the second minute of stoppage time, stunning the crowd of 1,538 on a hot night and sending the match into two overtime periods.
Arizona United looked stagnant through the first overtime, but got a break in the second when Baladez slotted home a pass from Kadeem Dacres to make the score 2-1.

Again, Arizona United hurt itself with a key mistake. Joey Dillon drew a red card in the 114th minute, making the teams even strength again. Then a handball in the box with about two minutes left in the second overtime gave OKC a penalty kick, and Christian Duke stepped up to take it.
Newton guessed correctly and sprawled out for the save, and Arizona United walked off the pitch with a second straight Open Cup win.
“We didn’t close it well,” Newton said of regulation time. “The biggest thing was the mentality after that. It’s an important tournament and we want to do well. That’s something that we as a group decided we wanted to focus on, as well as the league.”
Oklahoma City had defeated Arizona United in Peoria in the club’s home USL PRO opener last month. Tickets for the Galaxy match went on sale directly after the game. OKC ‘s first Open Cup ended with a win and loss.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Arizona United GK Evan Newton. Made four saves including two in overtime, and one of those on a PK that wuld surely have sent the game into a PK shootout had he not stopped it. His coach said Newton was the man of the match not only for that save but for keeping the team in a scoreless draw with a pair of first-half stops. AZU’s win was the second one dramatic fashion in the US Open Cup after a comeback win over Portland Timbers U-23s earlier this month, and they will play the LA Galaxy at home on June 18 thanks to Wednesday’s win.

Filed Under: US Open Cup Tagged With: 2014 Third Round, 2014 US Open Cup, Arizona United SC, Oklahoma City Energy

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1995 US Open Cup Rewind series: The Modern Era begins

The 30th anniversary of the 1995 Open Cup is upon us this year, and as we did with the inaugural tournament in 1913-1914, we’re going to take you back in time and relive the 1995 US Open Cup in chronological order, as it happened.

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