Jeff Wendt

The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona United sits at 4-9-3 on the season, five points out of a playoff spot.

The team has only scored 14 goals in 16 league matches, and six in its three U.S. Open Cup matches.

The team is already looking ahead to plans in 2015.

Four months ago, Arizona United SC came into existence under the ownership of Kyle Eng, a Peoria advertising executive with no soccer history.

Success has been tough to come by on the field for the start-up pro club, and Eng knows he's still got work ahead of him to reach soccer fans in the community.

"It's been 112 days since March 17, but this is, like every other team, we shouldn't have played a game yet," Eng said last Saturday at Arizona United's most recent home match. "So this is still our brand-building, our community outreach, our grass roots, our corporate outreach.

"My impressions are we're still looking for our fan base to continue to grow. We love our relationship with LFR (La Furia Roja — The Red Fury — the team's independent supporter group). We're looking to reach out to the community and especially the corporate partners, because most teams had nine months, 12 months, 18 months in some cases before they played their first game. We didn't have that, so we're going to use this to our advantage this year for next year."

On the field, the last month of the season has not been kind to Arizona United. It sits at 4-9-3 and five points out of the USL Pro playoffs with 12 games to play. That includes being docked two points for use of an ineligible player two weeks ago.

"What I'm encouraged about is when we had to tell the guys about the mistake that we made about playing a player in the wrong game, guys were really mad about that," Eng said. "They still want to make the playoffs and they got fired up. That's the kind of attitude I wanted to see, because if they would have just laid down, I would have said, 'Did we lose these guys?' "

Arizona United has struggled putting the ball in the net, scoring just 14 goals in their 16 league games, but it scored six goals in the three games played during the U.S. Open Cup, and took a 1-0 lead against the LA Galaxy 50 minutes into its fourth-round Cup match.

But considering this team is still in the early stages of being put together, unlike other teams in USL Pro, it is still encouraging, even to coach Michael Dellorusso.

"I think this team has come very far," Dellorusso said. "Our philosophy hasn't changed, but they understand it. They're doing better in those mental moments; they're doing better in those important areas of the field, which we struggled with at the beginning of the year, but I'm not going to look at us based on wins and losses right now. But that's just how it goes and you can't let that kill you.

"We've grown quite a bit, so that's very encouraging for me."

Forwards Kadeem Dacres, Brandon Swartzendruber and Jonathan Top lead the team with two goals each, and goalkeeper Evan Newton has played every minute in net, one of only two goalkeepers in the league to have played every minute this season.

"I'm very happy with our forwards, our movement and our ability," Dellorusso said. "It's just about finding that final piece. So hopefully the second half of the year, that's what it will be about."

Last year at this time the franchise, then known as Phoenix FC, experienced turmoil. Nothing like that seems apparent as Eng pushes ahead.

"I think our hard work is going to be starting in August when everyone comes back," Eng said. "It's a marathon for us, not a sprint, and our hardest work is going to be in the offseason.

"We're not anywhere close to what those guys were feeling a year ago."

Plans for 2015 are already in place, with the team continuing to play at the Peoria Sports Complex. The team has already begun initial conversations with some MLS clubs, looking to partner with them, including the Portland Timbers, FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake.

"Right now we're kind of a blended mix; we're kind of like the United Nations of soccer," Eng said. "We have a couple players from Portland, we have a player from FC Dallas, a player from DC United; we have players from three, four, five teams. Next year we're probably going to have to narrow that down, so who do we align with and how do we get a more competitive team on the field? Don't get me wrong, we're trying to make the playoffs in 2014, but 2015 is going to be 2.0," Eng said. "And everything we're doing is geared towards helping make it a better fan experience."