United playing time at a premium
Deep team creates edge, keeps players on edge
Nothing keeps a locker room happy quite like winning.
And there’s no USL Championship team that has done that more in the past week and a half than New Mexico United — fresh off an impressive 8-day, 3-win, 9-point stretch from Aug. 15-22 that has the team not only atop the Group C standings, but already closing in on clinching a playoff spot in the revamped 16-game season.
So, even when coach Troy Lesesne trotted out an unusually unfamiliar lineup of several first-time (this season) starters and several other usual bench players for a 2-0 win last week in the first of two victories over Real Monarchs SLC, everyone was happy
about it, right?
About the winning? An unequivocal yes for United (6-2-1).
But about that lineup? That depends on whom you ask.
A Journal reporter did that Wednesday with four players, including three of them regular starters who were on the bench to start that night.
Team captain Josh Suggs, one of those who came off the bench, fielded the question as a team captain should.
“To be honest with you, man, like there was no doubt in any of our minds about how that match is gonna play out,” said Suggs. “The one thing about this team is that’s different than any other team I’ve been a part of is the amount of depth that we have.”
Stars Kalen Ryden and Amando Moreno — the former started while the latter did not but did score a goal in the second half — echoed the sentiment.
Soon, the weekly news conference then shifted to other reporters’ questions.
But nearly 10 minutes later, while answering one of those, Lesesne circled back, saying he noticed the Journal reporter “didn’t get the juicy response he was hoping for out of the players.”
“I’ll tell you, there’s a young man on this call right now that scored six goals in seven games that was not happy that he didn’t play. And I love that,” Lesesne said, referring to Wehan, the 26-year-old former Lobo whose six goals this season are third most in the 35-team USL Championship.
“I told him that. I said, I appreciate it. But it was the right decision for him to try to get him rested, because that’s the balance right now. It’s not easy making these decisions with a very, very good roster, where anyone can step up at any time. But I have to make hard decisions in order to keep everybody fresh and fit given the strain that’s on them right now as well. … Chris Wehan’s happy to support his teammates, but he’s unhappy not to be in the mix. And I love that from him and that’s why he’s a top, top player in our league.”
Wehan, whose thunderous second-half strike from outside the box for a goal in the Saturday night match, when he had returned to his usual starting role, begrudgingly admitted his coach might have — maybe — made the right call. Depth on the team, he noted, is only making him, and all his teammates, better.
“Yeah, I was upset for a number of different reasons,” Wehan acknowledged about not playing in that Aug. 19 match despite having been on such a roll.
“… Every single one of those guys that played big minutes on (Aug. 19) should have every reason to be fighting for minutes and to be deserving of minutes because they proved that. What it does for a player that is playing is you know you’ve gotta be focused game in and game out, because there’s a guy ready to take your spot right behind you. That’s such a good thing to have in a group. Every successful team that I’ve been a part of, that’s always been the case.”