Ava Wallace

azcentral sports

A.J. DeLaGarza and Michael Dellorusso played at Maryland on the 2005 national-championship team.

Most of the LA Galaxy first-team players will be playing in Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup match.

LA comes into the match seventh in the MLS' Western Conference standings.

Arizona United SC faces its most exciting opponent to date Wednesday in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

The young squad takes on the LA Galaxy, which, despite an unusually low-scoring season and a seventh-place ranking in the Western Conference standings, boasts some of the better players in the league.

"They (Arizona United) should be highly motivated (and) highly confident as well," Arizona United coach Michael Dellorusso said. "It's really about them playing with confidence and not not respecting our opponent, but not giving them too much respect so we don't show up scared. They'll give them the utmost respect and respect the game and just play."

Adding to the Galaxy's star factor is the fact that its reserve team also competed in the Open Cup, so it's likely Arizona United will be up against a majority of LA's first-team players.

For Dellorusso, that includes one very familiar face.

Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza played with Dellorusso for one year at Maryland, when both were defenders for the national-championship-winning Terrapins in 2005. DeLaGarza has started all but one of LA's matches this year, helping to anchor his team's back line.

"A.J.'s an amazing story. He's probably one of the hardest-working kids I've ever seen," Dellorusso said. "He's a great kid, he's a loyal kid (and) he's probably one of the most bought-in defenders I've ever seen, too. To see him have success has been awesome. He was essentially like a little brother to me when he was playing at Maryland."

The fourth-year Galaxy veteran is one of four Maryland alumni among the two teams: Arizona United's Matt Kassel, London Woodberry and Schillo Tshuma also spent their college careers playing for the Terps.

So DeLaGarza said he knows better than to underestimate Arizona United, especially considering the Galaxy's recent penchant for botching opportunities on goal.

"We're definitely not going to take them for granted," DeLaGarza said. "I think I've played with three or four of those guys. I was a partner with Mike Dellorusso when we won the national championship in 2005. We were both playing center back. So I don't think we're going to take them lightly at all. We can't walk the ball into the goal; we've got to take shots, and I'm sure they're going to be a compacted team, so we have to take chances from distance if we have to. If we can break them down, we'll do that."

DeLaGarza said his team is focusing on itself, mentally and physically preparing for a high-stakes game in the heat.

"We haven't really gone into much detail, but we're mainly focused on ourselves — they don't know how we're going to come out, we don't know how they're going to come out. All you can do is kind of focus on yourself," DeLaGarza said. "If we come out and play like we know how and are mentally and physically ready for a tough game in Arizona with the heat and all that, I think we should come out on top."