After three tough road matches, the Lobos are ready to get back on their home pitch, where the team is undefeated and hungry for another win.
New Mexico’s men’s soccer hosts the Marshall Thundering Herd on Saturday, a team that, when it comes to conference play, has found itself in a similar position as the Lobos.
Marshall currently holds a 6-8 overall record while the Lobos are 7-6. Both teams are 1-3 in Conference USA and have three points each.
South Carolina leads the conference, sitting at the top with 10 total points.
New Mexico is in 7th place, which is a dangerous spot since only the top seven teams will qualify for the conference tournament when the regular season ends.
However, with four matches still remaining, head coach Jeremy Fishbein hasn’t lost any confidence in his team.
“Not worth looking at (the standings),” he said. “It’s going to be a big game against a well-rested team. Right now we just have to focus on getting our guys rested and prepared for the match.”
The Lobos enter the match riding a season-high three game losing streak.
The first loss was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of then-No. 17 Charlotte (8-2-1, 3-1 C-USA), although each team recorded seven shots. Both goals against the Lobos were from penalty kicks.
Then, New Mexico took a 2-1 loss to FAU (4-7-1, 2-3 C-USA) after two overtime periods. The Lobos outshot the Owls 21-8 but couldn’t get the desired result.
Most recently, the Lobos fell to the No. 5 Denver Pioneers (13-0-2). The 2-1 loss also occurred in double overtime. It was particularly painful for the Lobos as the deciding goal came with just eight seconds remaining on the clock.
“That was an uncharacteristic mistake,” Fishbein said. “But you can’t ever blame the game on one single moment. There’s always other things to look at.”
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New Mexico held an 11-8 shot advantage against the Pioneers. The statistics this season show that the Lobos don’t have much trouble creating chances.
The Lobos have outshot their opponents 182-118 so far this year. The team just needs to find a way to finish on those scoring opportunities.
Fishbein said there is no way to pinpoint exactly where the Lobos have gone wrong in the their recent stretch of play.
“It’s not that simple,” he said. “You have a list of things you want to check off and I think we checked off all of them. But it’s little moments that dictate the game. It starts with coaching. It’s both sides of the ball.”
Marshall is coming in with a two-game losing streak. The Thundering Herd took a 1-0 loss to Wake Forest, followed by a 2-1 double overtime loss to FIU.
When Marshall and New Mexico faced each other last year, the teams could not have been more evenly matched. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, with the Lobos recording 15 shots and the Thundering Herd registering 14.
“They have a physical nature. They are well-organized and good in attacking transition,” Fishbein said about Marshall.
Although he said his team is not where he would like it to be at the moment, the coach still has a lot of faith in his players and that it’s a matter of not giving up.
The Lobos are undefeated in Albuquerque with a 6-0 record. They took a 3-0 shutout over Louisiana-Monroe in their last home match on Oct. 4. After the game, Fishbein said it was important to “hold down your fort.”
Fishbein said the importance of winning on the Lobos’ own pitch is paramount.
“We need to have that mentality,” he said. “That has to continue.”
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She mainly covers men’s soccer and basketball. She can be reached at sports @dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
