The Yukon Selects soccer club is looking sharp.

And the timing couldn't be better.

The Selects settled for second in the 2011 Alaska Invitational held in Anchorage over the weekend.

The Yukoners clashed with Anchorage-based Alaska United in a final which came down to the wire.

Whitehorse's Travis Olynyk opened the scoring in the first half, helping to sustain the 1-0 lead for the first 45.

Within five minutes of the second half, however, United were up 2-1.

Olynyk, who has represented Team Yukon at the Canada Summer Games, added his second of the match to tie the score 2-2.

But any hopes of winning slipped away from the Selects with minutes remaining in the game.

United buried its third goal after the ball bounced around in the 18-yard box to go up 3-2 with five minutes left.

"And then we had to sell the show and try to equalize, so they scored another one to make it 4-2,” said captain Jeff Hills.

Not a bad scoreline considering the Selects starting keeper, George Maratos, broke this thumb five minutes into the game.

Against his own instinct, Maratos played the full 90 minutes.

"He said after the game that he should have switched Kieran (Goodwin) into the net,” Hills said of the back-up keeper.

"We were with them the whole game; just a couple lapses,” Hills added.

The Selects took 13 Yukoners to Anchorage and picked up three players from Juneau: Sam Greely, Dominic Smith and William Gonzalez.

And each contributed to the Selects' run.

The Selects won their opening match 2-1 over Dream's Over from Anchorage, with goals coming off a shot from David Ratcliff outside the 18 and a strike from Smith.

"It was the first game, we hadn't really played together,” Hills said. "We probably could have buried them.”

In their second game, the Selects squared off against a U16 team from Anchorage.

That ended in the Yukon's favour: 2-0.

Hills scored the opening goal and Greely notched the second.

"We owned the ball,” Hills said. "They were 16 so we had no problem. We could have had way more goals.

"It was a chippy game. They were typical 16-year-olds.”

In their final group-stage match, the Selects got revenge over rivals New Sagaya of Anchorage, a thorn in the

Yukon's side in previous appearances at the state championships.

Kurtis Hills scored the game's only goal in the 86th minute off a rebound after Jeff hit the wall on a free kick.

By then, however, the Selects had already qualified for the semi-final and chose to rest key players, Jeff said.

"We played a lot of guys out of position. It was (messy), but we got the win.”

That third-straight win put the Selects at the top of their group, which meant a face-off against the second-place team in the other group, Rusty Buffalo from Fairbanks.

In the State Cup two years previous, Rusty Buffalo knocked out the Selects in the semi-finals.

This year, however, the Selects got revenge with a 2-0 win to advance to the final.

Alaskans Smith and Greely potted the goals for the Yukon.

The Selects will take the second-place finish.

The club is looking forward to the Challenge Trophy, the country's top club tournament, in Brossard, Que., in October.

Midfielder and Selects founder Jake Hanson said this year's squad is looking sharper than any of the previous five appearances at the nationals.

"The team going off to nationals this year is lining up to be the key players, the top available players, in the territory right now. It'll be our best team ever,” Hanson said.

"There is certainly the possibility of surprising someone.”