Looking to rebound from a 0-2 road trip to start the season, the New Mexico Men’s Soccer Team will take on UNLV (1-1-0) on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the UNM Soccer Complex. As a result of their rough start, the team has dropped out of the NSCAA rankings.
The game will be shown on the Mountain West Network, with a link available through golobos.com.
For soccer, UNLV plays in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and are the defending Tournament champions; they’re coming off a 1-0 overtime loss to Oregon State. The team’s win came last Friday when they upset No.15 Portland on a last-second header. The Rebels return all 11 of their starters from last season and 18 total letter winners.
Among the top returners for UNLV are forward Danny Musovski and 2016 WAC Freshman of the Year Timo Mehlich. Last season, Musovski was named WAC Tournament MVP, as well as to the WAC First Team and NSCAA All-West Region Second Team; he recorded 30 points on 12 goals and six assists.
This is the second straight season that the Lobos have started 0-2.
Last year, the team lost to No.15 Indiana and No. 9 Notre Dame to open the season. It followed it up with a four-game winning streak, a feat UNM will be looking to repeat this season.
Still, the team hasn’t lost at the UNM Soccer Complex since October 2015. That 11-game streak is tied for fourth best in program history. Once again, coach Jeremy Fishbein will be looking for his 200th win while leading the Lobos. He is also just six wins away from 300 career wins, he currently sits 21st on the list of winningest active coaches.
If the Lobos want to win on Friday, they will need to improve offensively. Over the weekend, the team only managed to produce 14 shots, three of which were on target. By comparison, Seattle produced 11 shots on target and 20 overall against the Lobos. UNM was able to stay competitive in that game, thanks to the efforts of goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu, who had a career high of 10 saves. Luckily for the Lobos, it’s still early in the year, and as a result, Fishbein isn’t concerned about the lack of shots.
“I think it’s playing with personnel,” Fishbein said. “(During) the Washington game, neither team had many opportunities; I think the statistics on that Seattle game are somewhat misleading, because you have the home team scorekeeper. A lot of those shots were from 30 yards or crosses, I don’t know that you really consider those shots, or challenging shots. But for us, we’re trying to build, and we’re trying to play through teams a little bit. You’ve gotta connect that final pass to create opportunities. Both teams that we’ve played, especially Washington, they play the numbers. It’s direct, it’s no openings in the back, play off second balls, and if you do that well it’s really efficient. Our team really isn’t built that way. We have guys that want to be on the ball, they want to connect passes. Time will tell if we can be good enough, play how we want to play and be successful. You’ve got to be a little bit better to play that way.”
In order for the team to be successful this Friday, they’ll need to find a personnel combination up top that allows them to create more chances. Having a goalkeeper as good as the Lobos’ only goes so far if the team can’t consistently create enough offense to put themselves on the scoreboard. UNLV is a strong offensive team, so the Lobos will need Beaulieu and the back line at their best once again, but it will ultimately be up to the offense to take the pressure off.
Following the matchup with the Rebels, UNM will once again hit the road. This time, the team travels east to take on the Marquette Golden Eagles on Monday night at 6 p.m.
Cameron Goeldner is a freelance sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer, but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
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