The New Mexico Men's Soccer team travels to Charlotte, North Carolina to take on the No. 19 Charlotte 49ers in the team's final regular season matchup on Saturday night at 5 p.m..
The Lobos are coming off of a 2-2 draw against Marshall last Saturday in the home finale for a program scheduled to be cut in July.
Thanks to the other results around Conference-USA this week, the Lobos have already clinched a berth in the conference tournament, which will be played in Charlotte beginning next Wednesday, as the 49ers are the defending tournament champions.
As things stand, UNM is the No. 6 seeded team for the tournament, with the possibility of moving into the fifth seed with a win and a Marshall loss.
Charlotte comes into the matchup with a record of 11-3-1 (5-2 C-USA) and a perfect 8-0 mark at home. The 49ers have only given up seven goals this year, good for a goals against average of less than half a goal per game.
The 49ers leading scorer is Patrick Hogan who has five goals this season, but the main creator of offense for Charlotte is Teddy Chaouche, who has one goal and ten assists. They have scored 30 goals in total, with 17 of those coming in the second half. The Lobos have given up 18 goals in the second half, being out scored by nine goals in the final 45.
“(Charlotte) plays the numbers, they don’t beat themselves, they create opportunities,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. "They don’t lose games and they create opportunities to win games. It’s a successful approach and they’ve had buy-in from their team and how they play for quite awhile. It will be a good battle, a good contest.”
After the game against Charlotte, the Lobos will stay in town for the conference tournament and a matchup against a still to-be-determined opponent.
Cameron Goeldner is a sports beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer, women’s basketball, softball and the Albuquerque Isotopes, but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
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