Unlucky bounce dooms United in loss to FC Tulsa

Missed opportunities ended up being the theme for New Mexico United on Saturday night.

United largely outplayed USL Championship Western Conference-leading FC Tulsa for most of the evening at Isotopes Park, but couldn’t keep their shots straight when it counted. NMU banged a ball off the crossbar in the waning minutes and narrowly missed the frame on numerous attempts.

It came back to bite the home team — hard.

After 90-plus minutes of scoreless soccer, Tulsa received a stoppage-time gift. A long inbounds throw-in toward the front of United’s goal deflected off Sergio Rivas and trickled into the net. The own goal was the difference in FC Tulsa’s 1-0 win, sending the home team and a crowd of 9,177 home frustrated.

“So close on so many opportunities,” United coach Dennis Sanchez said. “I felt like we broke (Tulsa’s) press really well, gave ourselves finishing opportunities. If we just one of those to go, it changes the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”

United outshot the visitors 11-10 and held a remarkable 69% of the game’s possession. But only one of NMU’s 11 shots was on target. Tulsa had two shots on goal, but it was a lucky — or unlucky — bounce that made the difference.

The long, high throw sailed into a crowd in front of the United goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time and appeared to hit two players before deflecting past NMU goalkeeper Kris Shakes. Rivas was charged with the own goal, and Shakes picked up the ball and fired it toward midfield in frustration.

“FC Tulsa’s scored a number of goals on throw-ins,” Sanchez said. “Sergio’s trying to do the right thing and keep the ball away from them. Just an unfortunate bounce.”

Defender Will Seymore, who fired one of several NMU shots that zipped narrowly outside the goal frame, felt good about United’s defensive performance. But like Sanchez, he was frustrated by his team’s inability to finish.

“We had a lot of chances,” Seymore said, “got to score on some of those. The effort and intensity was there all night. Tulsa’s a 90-minute team, too, and this was a match we could’ve won.”

New Mexico had at least four golden chances to break the scoreless deadlock prior to stoppage time. Two of them found the feet of Greg Hurst in the first half, but he sent a driving one-on-one shot over the crossbar and later blasted an open rebound opportunity just outside the right post.

In the second half, Seymore also narrowly missed on a long blast just outside the right post. In the 81st minute, United’s Ousman Jabang drilled a shot in front that was deflected and slammed off the crossbar.

Frustrating as the outcome was, Sanchez and Seymore both felt it was a major improvement over NMU’s 5-2 loss in Tulsa on Aug. 9.

“Three games in eight days and playing the first-place team in the West, I’m proud of the guys,” Sanchez said. “Not the result we wanted, obviously, but the overall performance was good.”

Pending the result of Phoenix Rising’s late game in Sacramento, New Mexico finished the night tied for third place in the USLC Western Conference with San Antonio. Just two points separated six teams in third through eighth place.

United’s next two matches will be on the road against Monterey Bay next Saturday and Colorado Springs on Sept. 24 and Seymore remains confident.

“I think we were prepared for Tulsa and we had a good defensive performance,” he said. “We didn’t finish this one but I think we’re trending up at just the right time.”

Meow Wolf Night at New Mexico United's home game against FC Tulsa