New Mexico United’s players, coaches, and staff might lack the excitement of hitting the highway that is conveyed in Willie Nelson’s classic “On The Road Again” song.
But like it or not, criss-crossing the American Southwest on buses is a weekly reality for the second-year USL Championship club based in Albuquerque. That’s due to state-mandated directives that forbid contact sports in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and because of it, the team has had to play every match away from home since the July 11 re-start of league play.
New Mexico United (3-2-1) hasn’t played in Albuquerque this year. All six of their games, including one before the shutdown, have been away.
“It is challenging. It is challenging to drive eight hours tp OKC, play, then the next day drive eight hours back,” New Mexico United coach Troy Lesesne said. “That’s a challenge, but how are we going to embrace that challenge? But these guys, I can’t say enough about them.”
The road seems to suit New Mexico United well, however. The black-and-yellow-clad team lost its first road match Saturday night, 5-2 to Rising FC, but before that was undefeated in four straight road matches. After Saturday’s game, it still has four more to play on the road, according to the USL website’s schedule page.
The club plays at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC on Aug. 15 and 29, with two games against Real Monarchs SLC in between on Aug. 15 and 19.
“It’s incredible the resilience that they’ve displayed. And I think that we have a group that has a really good understanding of our club’s ethos, which is hard work, humility and diligence,” Lesesne said. “They’ve really displayed that through some of the challenges of just having to travel so much in the beginning of the season, and travel that’s in the foreseeable future for us if we don’t get home matches. They haven’t complained once. I think it just speaks a lot to the high character within our club.”
All that travel might have finally caught up to New Mexico United. Playing in 100-plus degree heat, the club wilted in the later minutes of the second half after cutting the Rising lead to 3-2.
It seemed only fitting that just before halftime, Casino Arizona Field’s automatic sprinklers turned on and doused a crowd of United players positioning themselves to defend a corner kick.
Phoenix coach Rick Schantz wasn’t about to feel too sorry for his rivals in this regional derby.
“You have two strong fan bases and relatively close communities. Two very good teams with distinct styles,” Schantz said. “When you know you have to go on the road and it’s out of your control and there’s another reason for it, it’s easy to motivate your players to become road warriors and give them extra motivation that hey, if we have to go on the road, we might as well go and win.”
Players have quickly learned how to best pass the time on the road.
“It’s about educating these guys. They need to watch movies like Good Will Hunting,” Lesesne said. “They’re young, and it’s important that we bring them up to speed on these classic movies. So I have to provide that.”
Midfielder Andrew Tinari further educates himself.
“We all have our own agenda. We’re trying to sleep as much as possible. Some of us are reading,” he said. “Me personally, I try and read as much as possible so it’s a good amount of time just sitting there, so why not?”
Midfielder Daniel Bruce, from England, never could have imagined hours and hours on the road, which is now his reality.
“You can go up and down the entirety of England with some of these journeys we’re doing, twice,” he said. “You kind of learn what your body needs on bus journeys and how to kind of spend the time wisely. I do a lot of talking with some of the European guys about football. I do different memory football games and watch football interviews.”
