Stop sign: Red card proves costly for United in loss to Sacramento Republic FC

New Mexico United hit an unexpected stop sign Saturday night in Sacramento, California. The resulting ticket proved costly.

NMU defender Kalen Ryden picked up a red card late in the first half of the USL Championship season opener at Sacramento's Heart Health Park. The momentum-changing call abruptly turned the match toward Republic FC, which scored twice in a two-minute span around halftime and pulled out a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

Greg Hurst netted the lone goal for United, which had control early and effectively held its own for most of the second half despite playing a man down. New Mexico finished with 55% of the match's possession and created numerous scoring chances in coach Dennis Sanchez's debut.

But in the end, New Mexico could not overcome the red card ruling, which resulted in a tying penalty kick and forced United to change its approach against one of the USLC Western Conference's top contenders.

"Obviously the red card and the PK changed things," Sanchez said in a postgame phone interview. "But overall I'm very happy with the way our guys responded. At halftime we said we were going to find out about the mentality of the team, and the way we fought says a lot about the kind of group we have. It's not the result we wanted, but the big picture looks pretty good going forward."

Sanchez said he had not yet seen a replay of the play that drew Ryden's red card and chose not to comment on the call.

United seemed to have things going its way for most of the first half. Tomas Pondeca slammed a shot off the right post in the 20th minute, and the visitors grabbed a 1-0 lead just a minute later.

It came when Mukwelle Akale found Hurst with a lead pass on the right wing. Hurst worked around a defender in the box and left-footed a shot off the leg of Sacramento goalkeeper Danny Vitiello and into the net.

But later in the half Ryden was ruled to have denied an obvious scoring opportunity after a United turnover near the top of the penalty area. The Sacramento attacker went down after a takeaway, Ryden received a red card, and Republic FC's Russell Cicerone converted the resulting penalty in the 45th minute to make the score 1-1.

Playing a man down, United was caught on its heels early in the second half when Sacramento headed a ball off the right goalpost. The ball bounded in front of the goal where Lewis Jamieson tapped it home for a 2-1 lead.

United pressed hard for most of the second half and briefly appeared to pull even on a Hurst rebound goal. But the play was ruled offside.

"I thought we executed the game plan pretty well," Sanchez said. "The first half was pretty positive and even in the second half we were finding chances. Obviously, we had to take some risks being down a man, but I really liked our mentality and our fight."

Sacramento finished with 19-12 shot advantage (6-4 in shots on goal) but was unable to get a clinching third goal past NMU goalkeeper Alex Tambakis, who finished with four saves.

United remains on the road next week, visiting Sanchez's former team, Las Vegas Lights FC, on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. NMU's home opener is March 22 against El Paso Locomotive FC.