Following a scoreless draw on the road versus the Hartford Athletic, New Mexico United returned home for some Prinx Tires USL Cup action versus Phoenix Rising. New Mexico dismantled Phoenix 4-0 after a huge second-half performance.
New Mexico applied pressure throughout the first half, but gained more shots on goal in the closing minutes. In the extra time before the whistle blew at half, United forward Niall Reid-Stephen scored off of a perfect assist from defender Christopher Gloster.
“You got to stay focused,” Reid-Stephen said after the game. ”You might get a chance and not score, but the next one, you got to keep your head on and make sure you score.”
United was dominant in the second half as they would pull away with three more goals. The first would be in the 53rd minute, when defender Ousman Jabang added to the lead with an outlier of a goal from midfielder Valentin Noël. After assisting Jabang, Noël scored a goal of his own in the 70th minute to stretch the lead to 3.
“Once you found the first goal, the second one, you knew that there was going to be spaces to exploit with how they were defensively organized and the man-oriented press,” United Head Coach Dennis Sanchez said. “I was really proud of the group, and I think you can respond in a couple different ways at halftime, but we found our goals and probably could have found more throughout the night. So just another performance too to build on.”
The victory was in hand as midfielder Dayonn Harris decided to join in on the fun and put an exclamation point on the game with an unassisted goal in the 85th minute.
“We said, we have a few things to adjust, few things to fix, we were more killer in the second half when we were able to convert more, but definitely pleased with the amount of chances that we had,” Noël said.
Off the heels of a big win, New Mexico will stay at home for a showdown with Orange County SC on Saturday, June 13.
Alex Joe is a freelance videographer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @DailyLobo
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