Since it kicked off in the USL Championship five years ago, New Mexico United delivered a consistently good on-field product.

During the tenure of former head coaches Troy Lesesne and Zach Prince, United earned playoff berths in three of its first four seasons. That included a remarkable abbreviated 2020 campaign in which it was forced to play every game on the road due to COVID-19 restrictions in the state of New Mexico, which saw Lesesne earn Co-Coach of the Year honors.

But despite achieving a certain level of success, there were firsts that were still yet to be accomplished.

So, how do you take a club that had been good and turn it into something great, one that can legitimately claim itself to be a challenger for a title?

For current United Head Coach Eric Quill, it started in the offseason.

“You have to really diagnose your needs, come up with a smart plan as to the type of profiles you need, and the personalities you need in order to achieve championship status,” Quill told USLChampionship.com this week. “You know, we can all fall in love with talent, and that’s part of the puzzle, but talent without the personality, it can lead you to question a lot, because you need a good balance. You need some ‘Type A’ guys and multiple vocal leaders, some guys that are real, real competitors, guys that have won championships before, so they know exactly what that arduous, tireless work to be champions is.

“We wanted to get younger, which allowed us to press higher up the field and be a little more dynamic, and also really get younger guys that are still climbing in their career. We have a bunch of guys that have a year or so in MLS, got a taste of it, and have the age and want to go back.”

The result? New Mexico not only achieved its preseason objective of earning the first home playoff game in club history but sat on top of the Western Conference standings by seven points after setting club records for wins (18) and points (59).

If there’s a common trait Quill saw in those players – and those like Daniel Bruce and Alex Tambakis, holdovers from prior seasons – it was the mentality they brought to the field. In Quill’s opinion, it’s the primary non-negotiable he has as a coach when it comes to building a winning squad.

“Talents without mentality are almost useless, and guys that maybe don’t have the greatest of ability, but they have a massive mentality, our values, those guys are [invaluable],” said Quill. “I’ve seen it before. Guys have 12-to-15-year careers. You’d say they’re not a great player, but their heart and desire just out-matches most in their profile. And they just have an effectiveness for the game because of their ability to want to be great, and their ability to win duels and just be interior, internally motivated guys.”

That certainly helped as New Mexico navigated a road-heavy early season schedule that brought it to the Eastern time zone four times before the end of April. While it only came away with four points from those games – which included defeats to both the Charleston Battery and Tampa Bay Rowdies – the side’s two wins at home and a road victory in Phoenix alongside those left the group feeling positive about their direction.

Then, when the home schedule really kicked in, more wins arrived in short order.

Building off its success at the end of last season, United constructed a 10-game home winning streak that ranks as fifth-longest in league history. The club’s 11 home wins this campaign ranked third in the league, key to earning homefield advantage in the West and the chance to take advantage of its raucous home support.

“We wanted to put something in perspective that these guys could look for and understand our why on a daily basis,” said Quill. “The percentages I showed them about teams that win championships, homefield advantage is typically a vast indicator of teams that win. Your percentages lie and you’re favored at your home field, so that’s what we’ve been shooting for all year long, and we just did a beautiful job of grinding our way up the table.”

It also saw Quill sign a new two-year contract that could keep him at the club through the 2026 season. While there has been a focus in delivering on the field success, the 46-year-old and his family have taken to life in New Mexico away from the field.

“The people have just embraced myself and my family,” he said. “People have been amazing, and so our kids are thriving in school. I’ve got four kids who are elementary school and down and making sure they’re taken care of, and they’re happy and healthy, and they’ve been taken care of since we've been here. The club’s been great to us. 

“Once you live here, it’s the land of enchantment, and I can totally see why people fall in love with it once they’re here.”

On the field, the next first on United’s list is a trip to the Western Conference Final. Standing in its way on Saturday night at Isotopes Park is Las Vegas Lights FC, a club that has had its own big come-up this season. Following the acquisition of the club by former Major League Baseball All-Star José Bautista, the Lights almost achieved the biggest points increase year-on-year in league history as they went from last place in the West a season ago to earning a home playoff game to start their first trip to the postseason.

Quill is full of admiration for what counterpart Dennis Sanchez and his group have achieved, which notably included breaking New Mexico’s home winning streak when the sides last met in July. He also sees similar traits across the philosophies he and Sanchez have tried to implement with their squads, predicated on possession and tempo.

“I think they played great football,” said Quill. “If I had to say, I think ourselves and Vegas play probably the best brand of football, one that maybe hasn’t been the M.O. of most teams in the USL Championship over the years. But we're showing that we can play a brand that moves it fast and plays through lines, and it doesn't have to be this one-size-fits-all, direct, route one game.

“There's still some teams, like, obviously Louisville. You know, they play, but there’s a direct verticality to them that has made them successful over the years, like Sacramento. I really like what we do, what we’re doing here. I like what Las Vegas is doing.”

No surprise, then, that this past regular season the Lights ranked first in average possession at 58.7 percent while New Mexico was close behind in third at 55.5 percent. With that as the tactical backdrop – and as Quill notes, only one ball between them – there’s a central focus for United as it tries to level up once again.

“For us, I think, it’s putting together a full game of focus and discipline,” said Quill. “We thought we were nervy in the first half against Phoenix. We had a lot of guys who’d never played a playoff game before. So, my hope is that just this past game, we got this big growth moment for us, and we'll relax a little bit more and be more aggressive to take the game to Vegas and not wait. I felt like we had chances to go forward and against Phoenix, and we, just to be safe, went backwards.

“These times that we win the ball in good areas, where they can get these even numbers or even five versus fours, or six versus fives, we want to take advantage of those before they get set up and make sure we’re punishing in those moments. Tactics are stingy in the playoffs. You can see all these games and nobody's giving up much. [Expected Goals] are low, moments are limited, and we got to pounce on our moments, and we got to get a lot done on the other end. But you have to be really focused and determined and disciplined to have that.”

Two wins away from the club’s first silverware, and three from a league title, New Mexico continues to level up.