TACOMA, Wash. — After the first 10 minutes of Friday night’s meeting between the Tacoma Defiance and New Mexico United it looked like we were in for a wide open barn burner. Tacoma scored in the 2’ when Shandon Hopeau made a marauding run down the right side deep into the New Mexico box and found Azriel Gonzalez on the back post with a low cross. Just moments later New Mexico got to men in behind the Defiance backline. They looked to have scored the equalizer but Moduo NDow cleared it spectacularly off the line.
After the opening flurry the game slowed down considerably and New Mexico were able to claw their way to a 2-1 victory.