Jeff Wendt

The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona United sits five points out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

Arizona United is 0-1-2 in three matches against LA Galaxy II this season.

Arizona United lost 4-2 to Galaxy II in its last match against the teams on July 4.

With just six matches remaining and five points out of the final playoff spot, Arizona United coach Michael Dellorusso realizes the importance of every point.

"Its important," Dellorusso said. "(The players) know it. It's been addressed. We're going to make a push. We're going to see what we can do.

"We have guys bought in. They really want to win. They're all winners, and that's why they're here. It kills them that they're not winning, and it kills me that we're not winning. But we have to understand we're going to have to do a lot of work on the details for us to get the wins. But they're bought. We're going to give it our all until it's mathematically out of range."

Saturday's match with LA Galaxy II is the fourth and final meeting between the clubs. The two teams drew both matches at Peoria earlier this season 1-1 on Apr. 25 and June 21, and in it's most recent meeting on July 4, Galaxy II dominated play and handed Arizona United one of its worst defeats of the season 4-2.

In that July 4 game, it was first-half goals in the 16th, 18th, 41st and 45th minutes that did Arizona United in. It forced goalkeeper Evan newton to be subbed out, the only time this season that Newton has seen the bench, as he leads all goalkeepers in minutes played (1,935) and shots faced (134), and is second in the league in saves (80).

LA is led in scoring by Chandler Hoffman, whose 10 goals has him tied for fourth in the league in goal scoring. Raul Mendiola is tied for the league lead with seven assists, and teammate Jack McBean is only one behind him at six.

"We've only had one bad half against them, really," Dellorusso said. "It was more of about four minutes of one half where we struggled. Where LA does good is they capitalize on team's mistakes, especially team's mental mistakes. They do it across the board. That's how they got a lot of results this year.

"If you look at a lot of their goals, they come back-to-back or when a team's down at those mental moments. And they do a good job of that. I don't have to say much to them, because they felt pretty embarrassed after the last game out there. They're a good team for sure and we look forward to it, so hopefully we'll get a good result."

Arizona United is led by Jonathan Okafor, Kadeem Dacres and Jonathan Top with three goals each. The team had a good week of training according to Dellorusso, which was focused partly on defense.

"We might do a couple little things differently," Dellorusso said. "We focused a lot this week on defensive shape, make sure we're all under the same understanding. But at the same time, there's only so much you can do at this time of the year.\

"We're changing up a few things in the attack, which I think will benefit us and play to our strengths, especially against a team like LA. So I'm forward to seeing how we come out. We had two very good days of training. They're in a good mind frame right now. It's encouraging as a coach. We go weeks where we have great training and then don't show up on the weekend. We go weeks when we're terrible during training and then we're great on the weekend. That's where its a little tough to be a coach."

The players understand the importance of a win Saturday night.

"They understand the importance and that it's kind of do-or-die at this point," Dellorusso said. "I don't like to use that terminology. But kind of it's all-or-nothing as I said the other night and they understand that.

"But they still have to concentrate on details. They can't just worry about what the end picture is and what the result is after 90 minutes. Because if they don't do everything leading up to that, they're not going to be happy."

USL Pro League meetings a success in Portland

Dellorusso attended the USL Pro League meetings earlier this week in Portland, in conjunction with both the MLS League meetings and the MLS All-Star Game.

Dellorusso came away from the meetings very impressed with the vision of the league.

"It was encouraging," Dellorusso said. "The movement of the league is very encouraging. Where they want to be, everything that's going on with MLS is encouraging. But everything that's getting discussed, everybody's on the same page. I was very impressed with the league, the organization of it all and keeping everybody informed. It was the first time getting in a room with all those guys, it was good.

"Meeting with MLS guys, personally, I think was very good, very good for our league. They're looking for a lot of things out of our league. So everything's going in the right direction. It's just important to see what happens with the CBA."

Dellorusso said the club held talks with numerous MLS clubs at the meetings as it looks for an affiliation next year.

"We've had a lot of good conversations," Dellorusso said. "A lot of teams are interested in us and the whole organization. We've brought a few team in here to meet with Kevin (general manager Kevin Stevenson) and myself, and they've been impressed. We know we're going about things the right way here, and I think right when our season is over, we're going to go and sit down and talk numbers, and go on a couple trips.

"We're going to do what's best for our organization, what's best for these players, and kind of what's best for the USL/MLS relationship."