Jeff Wendt

The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona United finished 10-13-5 in league play and finished 12-14-5 overall in all competitions.

Plans for an MLS affiliation and where to play in 2015 will be decided in the next 2-3 weeks.

Arizona United will be playin gin the COS Pro Soccer Kickoff on Oct. 18 against LA Galaxy II.

The team was assembled a mere 10 days before it played its first match.

And after 28 USL Pro League matches and three Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup matches, Arizona United SC came up four points short of completing the most improbable of accomplishments — a USL Pro playoff spot in its first year.

The team finished 12-14-5 and 10-13-5.

While most outsiders lauded owner Kyle Eng and coach Michael Dellorusso's efforts for the team's accomplishments, the two said they know they could have accomplished more in 2014.

"None of us are happy we didn't make the final eight," Eng said. "We talk about we're not in the trying business, we're in the results business, and we didn't get the result that we wanted."

Said Dellorusso: "I won't make an excuse at anytime, but we started three weeks after everybody and in the league and we were the first in the league to get to 27 games, I really don't know how that happens. We played 30 games in 128 days. That's rough, one game every four days, with travel. That's grueling. That's big-time grueling.

"I give a lot of credit to our guys. I'll tell you this, they deserved more this year than they got on many levels. There's easily four points that got taken away from us this year. Anybody knows that if they watched us. It's disappointing in that aspect, but at the same time, we want to look at the positives in everything."

Dellorusso pinpointed a couple of high points in the season, including the club's first win over Sacramento Republic FC on April 19, and hosting one of MLS's top clubs in LA Galaxy in the fourth round of the Open Cup on June 18.

"Obviously our first win, selfishly, too, because its my first win as a professional head coach," Dellorusso said. "I think bringing LA Galaxy here, getting on in the Open Cup. It's a tough tournament to get through. (We) got to host LA Galaxy after being in existence for just months. I think that was phenomenal, and being in the game, playing the way we wanted to play the whole time.

"I think from a coaching standpoint I was quite satisfied. We lost to one of the best MLS teams 2-1, and we didn't bunker in. We tried to play."

Planning for the 2015 season is already underway. Eng hopes that an affiliation with an MLS franchise will be finalized within the next two to three weeks.

"Our most important work started September 7," Eng said. "Met with the team, continued to meet with our internal team and we're looking at all the obvious factors: Starting with where do we play, who do we affiliate with, who do we re-sign, who can we partner with, all those things are on the table. That's how we look at how do we improve our product and improve our exposure in the market.

"It would be a mistake to affiliate just to affiliate," said Eng, who added that clubs have asked him not to disclose their names. "We want to affiliate with an organization that plays the same style soccer we do, has the same beliefs we do, that we can trust, that they can trust. We've narrowed it down from 6-7 down to 2-3. They've asked us not not to mention their names because they're talking to other teams too. We're going to have to earn that opportunity. We've made presentations to a few of the teams, but we'll have it nailed down in the next couple of weeks.

Also needed to be looked at is where the team will play in 2015. The team only had a one-year agreement with the City of Peoria for use of the Peoria Sports Complex. Eng praised Peoria but said he hopes to have a decision on where they play in the next two to three weeks as well.

"I think we have to evaluate a few things. I will start by saying the Peoria Sports Complex has been really good partners. They took on the same effort we did in six weeks go get the get the field ready. (I) was pretty proud of how the field held up the entire year. We didn't charge for parking, had reasonable seats, reasonable concessions.

"But now the question is, is Peoria the right place for us to play for the next couple of years before we enter into some agreement to find a soccer-only facility? And that really comes down to, do we have an opportunity here in the Northwest to expose the game to as many people as possible? That's what we're looking at. And you have to balance that with is there a better place to play that exposes us, meaning Arizona's only professional soccer team, to more fans, but can we also do it in a cost-effective way for our fans?

"We're really proud of our pricing. We don't charge parking, proud that its an affordable family event. Now we are on the Northwest side of town, I'm a Northwest side guy. But if we move the team east, and not like just like east of 67th Avenue, I'm talking like east of I-17 or east of the (State Route) 51, and opened up our brand and our product and our players and our experience to more fans, could we keep it as affordable as it is here and expose the game to more people. That's our responsibility as the professional soccer team in the state. That's our responsibility to look at, and that's what we're looking at."

Dellorusso and General Manager Kevin Stevenson already are looking at players for next year's roster.

"I have a good core group of guys I want to try to bring back," Dellorusso said. "People want me to bring everybody back, that's the fans, they're always going to want that. But this is part of the business, and we'll see." The challenge we may have is guys came in and did well for us. They made a little bit of a name for themselves. That's part of professional sports.

"Obviously there are a core group of guys that I want to keep for sure. There are moves that we'll make. I think the organization did themselves very well, and we did ourselves very well about the style we play and how we conduct ourselves on and off the field. We've already had interest from other big-time guys, some other teams' best players. So we'll see what the budget holds and see how we go from here."

Two of the players Dellorusso would hope to bring back are captain and midfielder Matt Kassel and goalkeeper Evan Newton. However, Kassel is in Philadelphia, hoping to get signed with MLS's Philadelphia Union, and Newton is hoping to get a tryout with an MLS squad.

"Kassel's up in Philly, hopefully he signs with the Union," Dellorusso said. "That's what we wanted, was to get guys back in the league," Dellorusso said. "We'll see." I'm not sure what's going to happen with Kassel.

"Evan's obviously a guy we'd like to bring back. But if he has an opportunity we're going to help him along. He may potentially be training with an MLS team in the next week or so, probably a very good chance at that, cause I made a call and got him in, hopefully he can go for a couple of weeks. He might have an opportunity here or there."

Arizona United has been invited to play in the COS Pro Soccer Kickoff in Colorado Springs on Oct. 18 against USL Pro rival LA Galaxy II. Colorado Springs is one of four new franchises to be joining USL Pro in 2015.

The friendly match is the first professional soccer event to be held in Colorado Springs' new stadium, and Dellorusso is putting together a roster for that match now.

"I think that whole event is a huge tribute to our organization," Dellorusso said. "We don't even make the playoffs, and they want us to come in and play LA Galaxy II. I think it goes without saying that we got noticed as a team that does it right, that plays good soccer and conducts ourselves in a great way. So that's phenomenal that we got invited up there."