Santa Fe Unidos
12
SE SEPTEMBER PTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 5, 2021
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SFREPORTER SFREPORTER.COM .COM
In just its third year, New Mexico United has developed a loyal, low-profile soccer following in the capital
BY WILLIAM MELHADO w i l l i a m @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m
D
amian Reyes, a United player, is noticeably shorter than the defenders he faces. What he lacks in size, he makes up for in confident speed. Receiving a good look from the open left field, he fakes one defender, then another and chips the ball beyond the keeper’s splayed hands for the team’s first goal. Reyes leaps gracefully in celebration against the shadows that stretch across the pitch at the Santa Fe Municipal Recreation Sports Complex one Wednesday afternoon. “Alright, go drink water,” coach Daniel Trejo tells his team. Most of the players trot to the sideline, where their parents sit on blankets with toddlers—the players’ younger siblings. But Reyes, 10, keeps kicking the ball with his co-captain, Derek. Reyes never misses a day of practice; he’s clear on what lies ahead for his future soccer career. Without hesitation, Reyes tells SFR he’ll play for the other United team when he gets older. His favorite player on the United Soccer League team based in Albuquerque is Sergio Rivas. The midfielder, with 21 shots on goal this season, four of them finding the mark, was born in Mexico but grew up in New Mexico. Reyes’ dreams of making it to the professional level like Rivas got a boost from Santa Fe United Football Club (despite the shared name, there’s no affiliation between the two soccer teams). The youth team helps get kids onto the pitch who otherwise might not have a chance to participate in prohibitively expensive tournaments—a longstanding, well-known barrier to soccer that’s been a hallmark of private clubs in Santa Fe and statewide. Reyes, his family and scores of other Santa Fe-based United supporters reveal that in the capital, there’s a wellspring of pride and devotion to New Mexico’s first professional soccer team. Talking to any New Mexico United supporter, whether it’s in the parking lot before a game or on fields south of Santa Fe, passion for the three-year old team is evident. Some say it’s the universal love for soccer, often referred to as the world’s game. Others point to United’s bold-colored, progressive, artsy merchandising schemes. Whatever the source, the popularity of New Mexico’s first truly successful professional sports team is impossible to ignore. The jubilance in the team’s host city is obvious in bars or at tailgates, but this obsession has taken root outside New Mexico’s primary population center, too.
