Arizona United SC defeats Orange County Blues FC

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (July 5, 2015) — Arizona United Soccer Club continued it’s great form in front of a home crowd with a 2-0 win over OC Blues FC at Scottsdale Stadium thanks in large part to 13 saves from goalkeeper Carl Woszczynski.

The win is Arizona United SC’s fourth in their last five home league matches. Arizona United SC now moves into sixth place in the USL Western Conference, which is the final playoff spot.

“It was a great team effort today, we did well to recover from the other day,” said Arizona United SC head coach Michael Dellorusso. “Obviously, they wanted to play, so it wasn’t hard to get (our) energy up.”

Midfielder Scott Morrison opened the match’s scoring in the 39th minute with a curling, left-to-right free kick that beat a diving OC Blues FC goalkeeper Pepe Miranda. Arizona United SC held on to the one-goal for a nervy hour before midfielder Jose “Chiva” Cuevas iced the match with a goal in the 94th minute, just before the final whistle blew.

“Either way, coming off the bench or in a starting role, I just want to be the best that I can for this team,” Cuevas said.

But the star of the match was goalkeeper Carl Woszczynski, who made 13 saves over the course of the night.

His first big save on the evening came in the 34th minute. OC Blues FC midfielder Didier Crettenand got behind the defense and found himself in a 1v1 on the United goalkeeper. But Woszczynski went down quickly and stonewalled the would be scorer.

The big saves just continued. In the 49th minute, Crettenand was denied again after collecting a turnover deep in the defensive zone. Christopher Cortez was denied a goal one minute later. Then Christofer Ramirez, OC’s leading scorer, felt a pang of disappointment when he was denied in the 63rd minute. Five minutes later, Ramirez was denied again.

But, Woszczynski’s most impressive came in the 85th minute.

OB Blues FC was again on the attack and, among the mass of bodies, a shot was launched on target. Arizona United SC defender Rob Valentino tried to deflect the ball away but it went straight toward the net, instead. Woszczynski made a sprawling save to his left and stuck his hand out in time to knock the ball away.

OC’s Amani Walker was there to capitalize on the rebound, but Woszcznyski, already spread out and on the ground, managed to stick his legs out in front of the ball and held it between his legs to end the threat.

Arizona United SC play their next match on the road on Sunday, July 12 at the Seattle Sounders FC 2.