When Frank Yallop was appointed Head Coach and President of Soccer Operations at Arizona United SC in December last year, the two-time Major League Soccer Coach of the Year saw a fresh opportunity and new set of challenges in the USL.

With 13 years of head coaching experience in MLS, and two MLS Cups under his belt, the appointment of Yallop was a clear indication of the ambitions of the Phoenix-based side, as they prepared to undertake their third season in the USL.

"It was a good opportunity to come here and join the USL and come to this league," Yallop told USLSoccer.com. "I’ve always enjoyed those kind of challenges. I’ve coached at MLS, a high level, national teams and I wanted to test myself down here in Arizona and the USL. 

"I’ve been very happy. There’s a very even playing field with the teams in the USL. I’ve been pretty pleased so far. It’s challenging."

The game on the pitch, and the coaching aspects off it, might be pretty much the same between the two leagues but Yallop admits that there have been some differences and challenges to face already between running a USL team and one in MLS.

"Coaching at the MLS level is the same as it is here, but there’s other things that are on your plate as well,” Yallop said. “I’ve enjoyed the simpleness of it all. It frees you up as a coach to hopefully get the best out of the players with what you can do."

Six months into the role, and Yallop is clearly enjoying life in Arizona. But has it lived up to his hopes and expectations when he was first tempted by the job?

"You don’t know what to expect to start with," Yallop said. "Basically I started from scratch in January, where we had three or four players on the books. I feel really good and I've been pretty proud of the way we’ve handled things early in the season. Now we’ve picked up some speed and come together a little as a group. Hopefully we can go on a real nice run. 

"Our main aim is to try and get to the playoffs. I’ve enjoyed it. The guys are a good group of kids that try hard and I think we’ve got their attention of what we want now, and how we’re going to play. They’re starting to look dangerous and defending a little better."

A tough schedule to start the season saw Arizona hitting the road for seven of its first 10 matches. Understandably, it's taken a few games for the players to find their feet this season, but the team now seems to be hitting its stride and is unbeaten in its past four matches, all against teams above in the standings.

As Arizona starts to climb the table, Yallop's been pleased by the turnaround as things finally start to click into place. 

"We’re a brand new team," Yallop said. "We’ve played eight away games out of 14. We started with five away in a row. To get any kind of rhythm when you’re a brand new team is very difficult. Out of that, we got a couple of wins. Results were up and down, I thought, to start with, and we were a little fragile. 

"I’ve seen a real change in our attitude late in games. We conceded a goal late against Sacramento [last week], which I didn’t like, but I’ve noticed a big difference in the team in the way they go about things. They’ve got to keep it going and make sure they can see it through and have a good rest of the season."

A key player for Arizona in its upturn in fortunes has been leading goal scorer Tyler Blackwood. The Englishman has four goals in the USL this season so far and has found the back of the net for Arizona in each of its past three games.

Yallop has been keeping tabs on Blackwood for a while, but it was his assistant Marc Bircham's connection with English side Queens Park Rangers, where he was both a player and then a coach, that helped the deal along.

"With Tyler, we were looking at getting a striker," Yallop said. "Because of Mark Bircham’s connection with QPR he became available and we could get him in May, but they let him come early. So that was a good thing. 

"I knew Tyler from when he played in college here. I looked at him a couple of years ago when he was playing for the University of South Florida. For me, he’d kind of been on the radar a little bit, but him being free really helped us."

Arizona will look to extend its unbeaten run this weekend when it heads east to take on the bottom club in the Western Conference, Tulsa Roughnecks FC on Friday night in the USL Game of the Week on ESPN3.

It's a very winnable game for Arizona, against a struggling Tulsa side that hasn’t won in six consecutive league matches. Yallop knows these are the games his team needs to win to get into the playoff picture, but he's not taking anything for granted.

"Every team is pretty even in this league," Yallop said. "If you look at the table it doesn't mean anything, I don't think. The table doesn't lie points-wise but it only matters at the end of the season as to who's the best team. 

"It's a tough place to go, Tulsa, and play, and they're desperate. I don't expect anything other than a really, really hard game, and then we've got another game at home and we've got to try and get three points. But first and foremost we've got to go to Tulsa and try and get those three points that we'd love to get and it would really set us up."

Friday's game will mark the halfway point of Arizona’s season and the team wants to hit the crucial second part with some momentum and in form.

As Yallop noted, the key objective for the team this year is to make the playoffs. It's a feat Arizona hasn’t managed to achieve the past two years and would mark a turning point for the club under its veteran coach.

Yallop feels he's laid the foundations in the first half of the season to set the club on its way.

"Everyone’s dream is to make it into the playoffs," Yallop said. "We’re no different. I feel we’re starting to look like we’re ready to compete and be a playoff team. It takes a while to build, but I feel pretty confident that we have a chance. We’ve obviously got to get more points and we need to win more games. 

"We’ve won four now, out 13, which is not great, but at least the last four games have been encouraging. If we can keep that going against Tulsa and then the home game [against Swope Park Rangers] the following Saturday, then hopefully we can get some points and start to climb the table."