ON THE ROAD AGAIN
United headed to El Pas for playoff game tonigh
Citing the state’s exploding positive COVID-19 tests in recent days, New Mexico’s governor dropped a suggestion for residents hoping to avoid potential hot spots. “Please,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during her weekly address on Thursday, “do not go to El Paso.”
Well, it’s not as if the New Mexico United have any choice.
Told two months ago that home matches are out of question during the pandemic, the state’s professional soccer franchise has pulled together one of the more improbable sports stories of 2020 by playing all 16 of its matches on the road.
Next stop: El Paso, a place that reported more coronavirus cases the day of Lujan Grisham’s warning than all of New Mexico.
The United will face El Paso Locomotive FC on Saturday night in the Western Conference semifinals of the United Soccer League playoffs.
A win sends New Mexico into next week’s conference championship against either Reno or Phoenix.
The United has traveled thousands of miles by bus and spent what feels like endless hours commuting back and forth for matches devoid of the fanfare it had become accustomed to in 2019 when the club led the USL in attendance.
“This club, this group of players in particular, have taken on the challenge this year under extreme circumstances,” coach Troy Lesesne said. “I said it a couple [of ] weeks ago, this could be mission impossible for most clubs to do what we’ve done. They’ve taken it on with such a phenomenal attitude, and I think it’s instilled the positivity and hope in our community that’s needed.”
Saturday’s match will be the sixth meeting this season between New Mexico and El Paso, which includes a preseason friendly. Needless to say, it’s not exactly a friendly rivalry.
United forward Devon Sandoval made that clear when he talked about the club’s win last week in San Antonio to open the postseason.
Late in the contest, Sandoval and San Antonio’s Mitchell Taintor collided, Sandoval landing on his back.
Taintor appeared to spit on Sandoval as he got up — a move that merely put a smile on Sandoval’s face.
He sat next to Lesesne on the flight back to Albuquerque, telling the coach that he knew the United were in control because Taintor’s actions showed San Antonio had lost its composure.
The pair also spoke about the matchup with El Paso. It’s clear that the chippiness that exists between the clubs has created no love lost between them. After five meetings, there are no secrets — and, apparently, there’s no more Mr. Nice Guy.
“I’m happy it’s them because we get to settle the score,” Sandoval said. “And I’m happy it’s at their place.”
“All in all, though,” Lesesne said, “both teams know each other extremely well and it’s going to be a battle. You saw that the fourth time we played them. It was actually kind of a scrape. It was ugly for a long period of time.”
New Mexico will again be without injured defender Justin Schmidt but everyone else is healthy. The defense has posted seven clean sheets as goalkeeper Cody Mizell and the back line has been dominant.
Forward Chris Wehan credits the team’s conditioning, something the United have done entirely inside their own bubble in Albuquerque.
With nothing else to do but work out, the players are in peak physical shape at just the right time.
“We’ve had a hell of a season, just in terms of what we’ve gone through to get here,” Wehan said, adding that close games like the overtime win at San Antonio have only made the club play with more composure.
“If you look back toward the end of regulation, we’re not panicking at all,” Sandoval said. “If it goes to overtime, you could sense that we are very confident, that we would get the job done.”
As for playing again on the road, Lesesne said it just goes to show that even in a time when people are told to stay inside, to avoid contact, to give up on the idea of watching kids play sports or college and pro teams take the field, some good can come out of it.
“New Mexico as a state is overlooked so often, and I think these players are bringing more and more recognition to our state through this vehicle of soccer, and I think that they’re showing you can do things here in New Mexico that should never happen,” he said.
“You should never make the playoffs playing 15 matches on the road, you should never progress in the first round for a 16th match at a club like San Antonio that had such a phenomenal year.”