Know Your 2026 Playoff Opponent: New Mexico United

Isotopes Park will be the backdrop for this year's Western Conference Finals as Sacramento has not reached this point in the competition since 2023. Sacramento got their last match against El Paso started early, with Cal Jennings finding the back of the net. Locomotive found a quick response to tie it up. But Michel Benitez scored the winner to send the Republic into the next round.

Amidst the chaos of the playoffs, New Mexico has been the steadiest team so far. A pair of clean sheets through the first two rounds have seen them solidly move past Phoenix Rising and Colorado Springs Switchbacks. This will be Coach Dennis Sanchez's third consecutive Western Conference Final, as he coached Las Vegas in 2024 and this New Mexico side in 2025. He will look to go one step further this time around, as he bowed out of the playoffs in both of his previous attempts.

Tale of the Tape:

All-time record: 9W-2D-4L

Republic 2026 Away Record: 4W-8D-3L

New Mexico 2026 Home Record: 9W-3D-3L

Previous matchups this season:

6/20/26: 0-1 loss vs. New Mexico.

9/26/26: 3-2 win at New Mexico.

New Mexico United

Manager: Dennis Sanchez

Formation: 4231

Regular Season W-L-D: 15-8-7

Last 5 Games: WLWWW

Players to Watch: Greg Hurst, Kris Shakes

Top Goalscorers: Greg Hurst - 15 goals

Top Assists: Dayonn Harris - 6 assists

Top Yellow Cards: Zico Bailey - 10 yellow cards

Top Red Cards: Charlie Dennis, Joseph Quiah, Niko Hämäläinen, Zico Bailey - 1 red card each

Homefield Advantage: United have only lost three matches at home. It is one of the baseball stadiums in the league. And it's one of the shortest ones, as it measures 400 feet down the center field line, which is the MLB minimum length. This matches up with Southwest University Park (El Paso), Oakland Coliseum (Oakland), and ONEOK Field (Tulsa). This kind of field suits how New Mexico likes to play. New Mexico has not lost a game at home since the September match against the Republic. 

Getting a win on the road will be the Republic's mission, as they've only grabbed four away wins so far this season. But three of those four wins came against playoff teams (Colorado Springs, New Mexico, and El Paso). And it's not like the Republic has lost a lot of matches on the road, failing to register a point in only three of their matches. Their last road loss came back in August against Tulsa. 

Midfield Engines: New Mexico's midfield line is loaded with creative talent to fuel a very vertical, very direct style of attack. The five players that started the United midfield account for 16 of their 43 assists this season, or 37% (Ousman Jabang - 5, Zico Bailey - 3, Charlie Dennis - 2, Valentin Noel - 4, Joseph Quiah - 2). And then you take a look at the rest of the lineup, with Niko Hämäläinen and Chris Gloster in the backline with 5 and 3 assists each. And that's not even mentioning the assist leader for New Mexico, Dayonn Harris, who has been coming off the bench for them. This team is stacked with attacking talent all aimed at finding their leading goalscorer, Greg Hurst. Hurst finished the regular season two goals behind the pace set by the Golden Boot winner, Ihsan Sacko, at 15 goals.

Greg Hurst delivers again! 👊 @NewMexicoUTD doubles their advantage at home! 🏡 https://t.co/rmYWdYBoaa

— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) November 8, 2026

Hero in Net: Kris Shakes made a case for the Golden Gloves this season with his performances in net for New Mexico. Out of all the keepers, Shakes has made the most saves this season, with 117 saves, averaging 3.9 saves per match. But that is mainly because Shakes has faced the most shots out of all keepers this season, at 149 shots against. For comparison, Danny Vitiello has made 67 saves from 99 shots faced. Shakes has had to make nearly twice as many saves as Vitiello for the Republic. You would think that would lead to him conceding significantly more goals. But Shakes has only conceded two more goals than Vitiello at 30 goals against 28 for Vitiello, with Vitiello playing two more matches. It should be worth noting that New Mexico has kept the same number of clean sheets as the Republic, with 11 apiece. That should show how good Shakes has been in goal for New Mexico that despite the volume of shots that comes through, he can stand on his head on any given night. 

So that points to a very leaky defense. Taking the 149 shots Shakes has faced across the 30 matches he has played this season for United, that would average to 4.97 shots faced per match. So the New Mexico defense allows just under 5 shots on net. This isn't a consistent defense. Coming into this match, New Mexico has kept three clean sheets in a row for the first time this season. (Technically, they did this earlier with two regular season matches and a USL Cup match). And they did this by holding their opponents under that 5 shots on target mark. Of course, it helps New Mexico if they allow fewer than 5 shots on target, as they have a 58.3% win rate if they do so, as opposed to 44.4% when they allow 5 or more shots on target. You know, fewer shots faced means fewer opportunities for their opponent to score. However, New Mexico has a record this season of 0W-2D-5L when an opponent scores the opening goal within the first 15 minutes of a match. Four of those losses were against playoff-caliber sides, with the lone non-playoff team being Oakland in the season opener.

Better Call Shakes if you need a playoff clean sheet ☎️ That’s back-to-back clean sheets for Kris Shakes 🔴⚪️ Shakes is your @ValleyFenceNM de-FENCE-ive Player of the Match! https://t.co/O2xEMhwJbp

— New Mexico United (@NewMexicoUTD) November 11, 2026

Republic's Way to Victory: It's going to be a similar plan of attack to the El Paso match. Thankfully, the Republic can look back at a recent clash as proof of concept. Sacramento was able to take advantage of space out wide to generate their chances via players like Jack Gurr. It took a couple of bangers in the last match for New Mexico to get their shots past Danny Vitiello. If they do score, make it difficult. Keep them at arm's reach. Don't let them get up to speed and ratchet up the tempo. Make them take shots at a distance. Of course, the player to watch for the Republic defense is Greg Hurst. Deny him service and force New Mexico to target someone else. This won't be an easy contest. The Republic will need to stay disciplined to book a place in the league final.