As they walked westward into the sun, all that was visible were the backs of three Lobos, the only distinguishable feature being the numbers on their jerseys.
The bench that Michael Green, Levi Rossi and Patrick Pacheco had just sat on during the UNM men’s soccer team’s scrimmage against Colorado State-Pueblo now rested on their shoulders, as they carried it back toward the storage facilities.
It was the epitome of Green’s talking points, his spiel about this team’s solidarity. Case and point: Nobody on the current roster, Green said, is above any job, not even carrying back the bench.
Without pointing fingers or singling out names, Green hinted that wasn’t the case last season, a sentiment shared by his teammate Michael Reed and head coach Jeremy Fishbein.
“If you have a bunch of stars and no chemistry, it doesn’t work,” Green said. “Players that have been here in the past (have had) different views and said, ‘This is how we should do it.’”
How the Lobos did it on Saturday was less than flamboyant, devoid of one-on-three encounters and fancy bicycle kicks. It was, nonetheless, just as robotically effective, translating into open opportunities for teammates.
The first of the Lobos’ two scores came after Lawrence Robledo created enough space for a lob pass to find him. Robledo charged toward the goal, before being tripped up and drawing a penalty kick. In the name of altruism, though, Robledo deferred to Reed, who banged in the go-ahead goal.
That type of display wasn’t lost to Fishbein.
“This is just a team of equals, in the sense that nobody feels entitled,” Fishbein said. “It’s never equals in terms of ability. This is just an honest, hard-working group. I think this is a little bit more humble team than we’ve had.”
At the same time, Fishbein said he encouraged his players to freelance in Saturday’s game, creating scoring opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have materialized.
At times, selfishness is apropos, Fishbein said.
“You got to pick your spots,” Fishbein said. “You’re not going to have the same time in a regular game as you are in these games. You can’t get carried away, but, yeah, you want to build confidence.”
But it appears this team already has that constructed.
Reed said he can expect his teammates to guess where he’s going to be or where he’s going to place a pass, almost as if they have a telepathic connection.
“We have a different team than we did in years past,” he said. “We have a system, and the system’s working. I think the guys just have a feel for each other.”
That commitment was made back in January, Green said, when the Lobos began painstakingly preparing for the upcoming season.
“It’s more of a close-knit group. Everybody just connects,” Green said. “Earlier in January, all those hard workouts, I wouldn’t say they were fun, but more enjoyable to do around teammates. It’s a better environment.”
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Fishbein said the team has already started to “establish themselves and have an identity.”
That identity is uniform — with not one player being the face of the program.
“We’re more of team,” Reed said, “rather than trusting just one guy to put it in the (goal).”