USL Game Report

Saturday, April 25, 2015

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The Portland Timbers 2 claimed a 2-0 victory against Arizona United SC  at Scottsdale Stadium on Saturday night in front of a record-breaking crowd of 6,108. The attendance record breaks United's previous record of 4,018, which was set on June 18, 2014, during a U.S. Open Cup fourth round match against Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy.

"This is a tough one to swallow," said head coach Michael Dellorusso. "Those are ones that I’ll lose sleep over for sure. We went out and did everything that we wanted to, and they executed and we didn’t. "

Arizona came out of the opening kickoff strongly as it controlled possession and got the match's first scoring chance in the sixth minute with a cross into the box that was deflected by the T2 defense. United continued creating most of the match's early scoring chances before two defensive miscues led to goals in the 19th and 40th minute by T2 forward Kharlton Belmar. 

United played stronger in the second half, sending a barrage of attacks into the T2 box, forcing Portland's defenders to constantly scramble to defend the net. Forward Brad Stisser fired a loose ball just over the crossbar in the 52nd minute. One minute later, Carl Woszczynski came up with a huge point-blank save to keep the game 2-0. Arizona continued attacking with success, especially along the right channel where Stisser kept getting behind the defense to send crosses into the box or cutting back inside and slotting passes into dangerous areas. In the 62nd minute, forward Long Tan had his own chance with a header that went just wide of the frame.

"We wanted to play our style," Delorruso said. "We went four games at the beginning of the year without playing our style. Like I told them before the game, we got nine out of 12 points, but it’s the beginning of the season. Unfortunately we didn’t get the result tonight, but everything else we did well. Obviously we need to get a little sharper on the defensive side and in the attacking third.”

Arizona United SC falls to 3-2-0 on the season while T2 improves to 3-2-1. Arizona United gets another shot to earn three points in front of their home crowd (and another opportunity to break an attendance record) next Saturday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Scottsdale Stadium.