ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – As he looked out across the club-record crowd of 12,921 fans that filled Isotopes Park last Friday night for New Mexico United’s clash with the Portland Timbers 2, there was one emotion in particular going through the mind of NMU Owner and President Peter Trevisani.

“I was humbled,” Trevisani said this week. “To see so much trust and support for a team that nobody had really seen before or knew much about was just very humbling, in the sense of a deep sense of gratitude and also a commitment to make sure we don’t let anyone down, and for anyone who came out and supported us, to make sure we re-earn that support every single game, every single night, every single day.”

It's been 11 months since the arrival of professional soccer was announced in the capital of New Mexico, and the fervor that has surrounded the first-year side has been arguably the most remarkable story of the 2019 USL Championship season in an expansion class that has included other outstanding on- and off-field stories.

NMU sits in third place in the Western Conference standings going into this weekend’s action having lost only once in its opening nine games of the season, and second in league attendance with an average of more than 11,500 fans packing into Isotopes Park for the club’s first four home games of its inaugural campaign.

With San Antonio FC visiting for a Cinco de Mayo clash on Sunday evening, Trevisani is expecting the biggest night of the season so far. While that will be a big accomplishment, it also speaks to how in tune NMU has been with its region and its state.

“It will be our biggest crowd of the year,” said Trevisani. “I think there is a lot of focus on attendance, but we talk a lot that the number of people who come to a match, that doesn’t validate our mission, it doesn’t validate our values, so although we want to see the park filled every single night, we also want to make sure we’re speaking to our mission of being an agent of positive change and uniting our community and our entire state. When you have a sold-out stadium, when you have a crowd that might be the biggest in the history of the park in the past 20 years, we’re certainly sending a statement that New Mexico is united.”