On the fifth anniversary of the first-ever home match in New Mexico United’s history, the club once again opened their season at The Lab. Their opponent was the Bob Lilley led Pittsburgh Riverhounds. The Eastern Conference regular season champions had gone through a lot of change in the offseason, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t go down without a fight. Ultimately, United would pick up the 1-0 win off of a Greg Hurst goal.
In typical Bob Lilley fashion, the Riverhounds would eventually slide into their defensive block, but they started out the opening ten minutes of the match on the front foot. The visitors were able to earn a handful of corner kicks in the opening moments, but nothing would come close to endangering the net behind Alex Tambakis.
To their credit, United didn’t let the early aggression change what they wanted to do. Outside of the first ten, United controlled the possession for the last thirty-five minutes. Most of that control came from the midfield of the Black & Yellow. Newcomer Marco Micaletto was involved often as the hosts just swarmed out of the midfield.
Quill’s game plan was clear. Control the midfield, get the ball to Greg Hurst.
Hurst’s positioning up top was some of the best seen from the forward since his arrival in New Mexico. He looked as if he never lost the form he found at the end of 2023. While the centrebacks were attempting to contain him, they weren’t able to stop him for the entirety of the first half.
In the 43rd, Hurst dropped just a few yards deeper, and that made all the difference. When he did, Jacobo Reyes found an opening to slide a through ball between the Pittsburgh centrebacks. Hurst drove through the defensive line to pick up the ball, then rounding the keeper, he tapped the ball in to open his account for the season and put United up 1-0.
The second half was much of the same for both sides. Pittsburgh came out and were the aggressors early once again. United withstood their best efforts and the Riverhounds just couldn’t find an answer for what United wanted to do defensively.
United held their ground and outside of a couple defensive miscues, there isn’t anything to put in a negative light about how they played today. Even with the mistakes, the Riverhounds weren’t able to put anything past Tambakis as his picked up the first clean sheet in the young USL Championship season.
Today was all about United putting their best foot forward with the new faces and showing the attack that Eric Quill had been preaching about since last year.
Player of the Match
Greg Hurst – The second-year forward for United continued where he left off in 2023. He came into the season looking as though he was in far better shape than when he debuted for the club. He worked off the shoulder of the defenders throughout the match and put himself in places to receive good touches on the ball. That paid off just before the half when he put United ahead for good with his first goal of 2024.
Up Next
After opening the season with a win for only the second time ever, United heads out on their first road trip of the year. They have the distinction of being able to welcome USL newcomers Rhode Island FC to the league in their inaugural home match. Rhode Island made a splash in the offseason by bringing in former Riverhound and the 2023 Golden Boot winner Albert Dikwa. Rhode Island has been prohibitively named a favorite to make the playoffs in the first season, but there’s a long way to go before that gets decided.
Saturday’s match will kickoff at 2 pm (MT) from Beirne Stadium. ESPN Radio 101.7 FM The TEAM will not carry this Saturday’s match due to coverage of the NMAA High School Basketball tournaments.
