Jeff Wendt

The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona United has had success this year against Sacramento with a win and a tie in two matches.

Defender Daniel Antunez returning to form after being out with an injury.

Defender Scott Morrison was named to the USL Pro Team of the Week.

Arizona United SC hits the halfway point of the season Thursday when it travels to fellow expansion side Sacramento Republic for a USL Pro league matchup.

Sacramento Republic moved into its new 8,000 seat stadium last week near the Cal Expo, and despite moving to a smaller stadium, Arizona United coach Michael Dellorusso knows it's still going to be tough to play Sacramento.

"The field is huge, which is great," Dellorusso said. "I watched their game against Colorado (Rapids reserves) and it's still a great atmosphere, they get 8,000 people there that are going crazy.

"We'll have to get used to the playing surface because the field hasn't quite settled all the way, so i'll be a little bumpy to play. But I think our guys are really excited and anytime you go and you know it's a sold out crowd, they're pretty juiced up."

Arizona United (4-6-3) has had some success this season against Sacramento, winning its first-ever match 2-1 on April 19 behind goals from Brandon Swartzendruber and Jonathan Top, and drawing at Sacramento 1-1 on June 7 in front of over 20,000 fans. London Woodberry scored Arizona United's goal to give them a 1-0 lead in that game, but Sacramento tied the game in stoppage time to keep Arizona United from all three points in that game.

"For some reason our team goes in more mentally engaged for some reason," Dellorusso said. "The first game, we made some good chances, got them a red card in the first half, so it's a completely different game.

"Up there it was probably the most disciplined defensive effort of the year. We were very bought in. So its just kind of hitting that switch and we've done it so far against Sacramento and hopefully we can do it on Thursday."

Defender Daniel Antunez feels that the two teams are similar in their play.

"I think they are very similar to us," Antunez said. "They have a few European players that like to play more technically and they are a very possessive team.

"So I think it creates a good challenge for us, especially since we want to imitate the same thing, punt the ball around. Just like us, they're hungry to get results and I think that's a pretty good atmosphere whenever we face them."

Antunez is working back into form. He was injured in the U.S. Open Cup match against Oklahoma City Energy FC on May 28, and then re-aggravated the injury against Orange County Blues FC May 31. He sat out the next three matches before returning for the Open Cup match against the LA Galaxy on June 18 and then played the full 90 minutes against LA Galaxy II on June 21.

"It's hard being out for a few weeks and then working your way back into the game," Antunez said, "especially when we don't have that many days to train and prepare for the games.

"it's been a little bit difficult in the sense of getting my fitness back, but I think we're getting there."

Note:

Defender Scott Morrison earned USL Pro Team of the Week honors with his goal in the 1-1 draw with LA Galaxy II Saturday. Morrison became the sixth Arizona United player to earn Team of the Week honors.