• Slug: Sports-United offense, 700 words

 

By Joseph Steen
Cronkite News

Peoria — The final whistle had blown, the players and coaches were frustrated at the missed opportunities. Once again, Arizona United had created more chances than the opposition but could not manage to convert them against the OKC Energy FC, the fourth time in seven games they failed to score.

In response to that May 7 game, Arizona United head coach Frank Yallop changed up the training the next few weeks to focus more on getting shots on net and converting chances.

“We did a lot of crossing and shooting drills during those weeks to try to get us back on track,” Yallop said. “We can create a lot of chances, it’s just a matter of converting the into goals.”

United’s offense started to come into form as they would score six goals in their next four games. And last weekend the United delivered their best performance of the season in a 3-0 victory over Real Monarchs SLC – a game they needed to win as they had lost two out three.

“I definitely think we have improved,” said United midfielder Luke Rooney. “Saturday was our best performance going forward. It (the score) was 3-0 but I think it could have been more.”

“It was literally a full 90 minutes of soccer, if we weren’t doing well attacking, we were doing well defending. And if we weren’t doing that we were organized,” forward Tyler Blackwood said. “It felt like we were playing against an under-15 team, because we knew what to do, we won the ball back and went at them. It was a perfect game.”

The front three of Blackwood, Long Tan, and Chris Cortez have been a big part of United’s goal scoring this season. The forwards have scored in 10 of the past 11 games in which United have scored a goal.

Blackwood has an on-going friendly bet with teammate Nick Costa.

“He (Costa) has bet me that I can’t score a goal and every time he’s said that I’ve scored,” Blackwood said. “He’s always wrong anyways.”

Tan in particular has been United’s best player for the majority of the season. He has scored five goals in his past four games and recently made his third USL team of the week this season.

“Long has been excellent,” Rooney said. “He gets so many opportunities in games, I think that’s the sign of a good striker. If anything he probably takes the harder ones better than he takes the easy ones, but as long as he keeps scoring it doesn’t matter.”

The midfield has done a good job creating chances for the front three, despite the different line-ups every week because of injuries and suspensions.

“Everyone, not just the starting 11, but the whole squad knows what they have to do when they come into the team,” Blackwood said. “The midfield have been brilliant defensively, and when we’ve won the ball they’ve been great at linking it up to me, Chris and Long. You can’t ask for much more.”

Miguel Timm, one of the team’s top midfielders, is expected to return from a hernia and groin strain in a couple weeks.

“We have Miguel coming back so there is strength in numbers,” Rooney said. “But I think Mattias (Silva) and Blair (Gavin) have done very well. I told Mattias that last game was probably his best, the others work really hard.”

United will look to continue their push for a playoff spot as they are currently only four points off eighth place, the final playoff spot. United have a tough stretch of games in the coming weeks as they play the Vancouver Whitecaps 2 and Sacramento Republic FC twice – two of the best teams in the league.

“I think we need to focus on Saturday first because if you don’t get a win there, we’ll be a bit more nervous because we know we need three against Vancouver on Wednesday,” Blackwood said. “You just have to focus on this game Saturday, get the three points and we’ll be even more confident against Vancouver. We know we can beat anyone in the league so if we go in with confidence then we’ll win the game.”