With the first game out of the way, the New Mexico men’s soccer season is picking up speed, especially with the nation’s top-ranked team coming to town.
This weekend, fifth-ranked UNM will host the Lobo Invitational featuring American University, UC Riverside and No. 1 UCLA. The Lobos will play the Highlanders Friday at 7 p.m. and the Bruins on Sunday at 6 p.m.
Last weekend the No. 5 New Mexico Lobos defeated the No. 13 Akron Zips 1-0 in their season opener. The Lobos dominated the game and outshot the Zips 20-5.
Like the Lobos, both UC Riverside and UCLA also won their opening games. But by the end of this weekend, at least one of these teams will not remain undefeated.
It certainly won’t be a stress-free weekend, but head coach Jeremy Fishbein said his team is going to play one game at a time, and at the moment, all their focus needs to be on Friday’s game.
“UC Riverside is a good, quality team. They will challenge us in different ways than Akron,” Fishbein said.
He also added that the Highlanders have fluid transitions and good attacking players. UC Riverside defeated the Pacific Tigers 5-1 during its season opener last weekend. Three of those five goals belonged to one player: junior forward Michael Salazar.
Salazar’s hat trick earned him a spot on the College Soccer News Team of the Week. It also got him a few Player of the Week honors including Big West’s Offensive Player of the Week and LA Soccer News Men’s College Player of the Week.
The Lobos received recognition for their own performance last week as well. Oniel Fisher was named Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week, and James Rogers was named one of the 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award.
Although the Highlanders are not going to hand over the game, the pressure will increase even more for UNM on Sunday when they have to face top-ranked UCLA.
Last Friday the No.1 Bruins opened their season with a 3-1 win against No. 11 Wake Forest. Two days later they defeated No. 10 North Carolina 1-0. That win did not come easy, though, because UNC outshot UCLA 10-7.
The Lobos have outshot their opponents in their last couple of games. But of course, shots only count when they make it in the goal.
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Fishbein said this week his team has been working on shaping things on both sides of the goal, and he feels positive about the weekend because he knows the Lobos are a team that “strives and improves.”
The team needs to remain confident, and the biggest challenge for the Lobos right now, according to Fishbein, is to focus on Friday’s game and not give any thought to UCLA’s game yet.
“I know it’s cliché, but I feel it’s wasting energy to be thinking about it right now,” he said.
Isabel Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
