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Analysis: Road Jitters Makes Impact on United

In the aftermath of New Mexico’s 1-all draw Saturday at Rhode Island, what stood out -- besides goalkeeper Alex Tambakis -- is that United has the resiliency to battle through an emotionally charged atmosphere on the road.



Despite regularly playing in front of throngs of adoring fans in perhaps the USL Championship’s toughest road atmosphere, New Mexico has its challenges when away from the Lab.


When the cheering falling from the stands are in your favor is a whole lot different than when that noise is designed to boost the home side, especially when the team is playing its first-ever game like Rhode Island.


It’s great “when the fans are cheering for you,” New Mexico coach Eric Quill said. “But when they’re cheering for your opponents, it’s different. The loud moments they’re cheering are off of your mistakes, off of your mentality plays. It can make you a little nervy, especially when you’re up 1-0.”



That manifested itself on the field, he said.


“Soccer kind of goes out the window,” Quill said. “More of a heart and desire, the last 10-15 minutes when they’re just trying to put as much stuff on top of you in your box as they can. It’s never easy.”


Those chances, however, could have been avoided if United had been able to focus beyond the external factors.


“I thought maybe we don’t get to those moments if we were cleaner with our possession in the second half,” the coach said. “We had some careless giveaways. That allowed us to not chew the clock away. So we have to be better in valuing possession when you’re up 1-0 to make sure that those extra-time minutes don’t add up and they don’t present extra chances to the opponent. We were cheap on the ball a few times and that’s where their last couple of moments came from. But it’s not easy. It’s not easy to win when teams are pushing numbers forward and putting stuff in the box.”


To help ease those moments on the road, United needs to more precise in putting chances away.


“We would have loved to be up two,” Quill said. “If we had gotten the second goal, the game is over. That’s what we have to be trying to do in these 1-0 games. You don’t want to be in the last 10 minutes up just 1-0. We have enough quality, we could have put a few chances away (Saturday). Now, they had a couple of chances too. But I think we had some moments where we could be more clinical and maybe we’re up 2-0 and we kill the game off and where the nerves aren’t quite as much.”


All in all, however, escaping with a point at this point of the season wasn’t all bad.

“Second game of the season, on the road, in a hostile environment; I thought we did a lot of really good things that I’m proud of,” Quill said. “We’ll learn from it. We’ll grow from it. And we’ll be better for it next weekend.”



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