Bravos Come Back to Defeat Santos, While Locos Face New Mexico United

FC Juarez Bravos and Bravas had home matches this past weekend at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium. The Bravas hosted Toluca on late Saturday night and played to a scoreless draw to remain in eighth place in the standings occupying the last place in the playoffs with five regular season matches left. Meanwhile the Bravos welcomed Santos Laguna on Easter Sunday.

Bravos string 2 wins in a Row

The Bravos came back in spectacular fashion on Sunday night to defeat Santos Laguna by the score of 2-1. The home team fell behind in the score early in the second half when Emmanuel Echeverria scored in the 63 minute. The ball landed at Echeverria’s feet after a Juarez defender failed to clear the ball efficiently, he did not hesitate to take a left footed strike that got past goalkeeper Benny Diaz.

The equalizer for FC Juarez came with only two minutes left in regulation (88th min.) when Manu Castro sent in a corner kick that found Francisco Calvo in the second post who pushed the ball in via a header unchallenged whatsoever.

The game winner happened seven minutes later in the fifth minute of stoppage time, once again Castro sent in a cross on a free kick to the second post right to Angel Zaldivar who headed the ball in just inside the left post to give the Bravos their second win in a row.

The win increased their total to nine points on the season good enough for 16th place in the general standing table, one point behind 15th place Atlas.

After the game head coach/technical director Mauricio Barbieri spoke with the media and said, "I feel that tonight we executed our game plan. The two goals we got off of set pieces were just as was the result based off of what we did over the course of the game. We were deserving of the win."

Barbieri added, "With every win we get, we get a bigger sense of relief, feel less pressure and our confidence grows. Both are directly related."

Up next for the team from the Borderland will be a road match on Sunday when they face Atletico San Luis on the road. San Luis currently sits in 13th place in the general standings table with 13 points. The match is scheduled for a 6 p.m. MST kickoff and will be televised nationally on TUDN.

Locos visit their biggest rival New Mexico United

El Paso Locomotive FC will resume their 2024 USL Championship regular season play when they travel approximately four hours up I-25 this Saturday to face New Mexico United in the latest edition of El Derby del Camino Real.

Locomotive will be looking for their first win of the season in what is always a tough, hard fought match. El Paso will be plenty rested as they did not play last weekend, receiving a much needed week off after playing a total of four regular season matches in the span of 14 days to start the season in which their only obtained one of the 12 points disputed as a result of three defeats all by the minimal difference (a score of 1-0) and one draw against Monterey Bay FC in a midweek match..

Locomotive head coach/technical director Brian Clarhaut spoke with the media earlier in the week regarding the upcoming road game. “It was nice. We were finally able to train, we hadn’t been able to train in that two week stretch of games, just do recovery (work). It was nice to take a look and reflect, look at things we needed to work on and improve. It was good for me as a coach and good for the players to get their bodies fresh for the New Mexico match.” the Locos boss said.

Clarhaut added, “We’re very close. It’s about staying on course. We feel comfortable in what we’re doing right now, now it’s just getting the deserved points in our performances.

El Paso is currently in next to last place in the western conference with a lone point, only ahead of Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC who has failed to obtain a point in their first three matches.

Meanwhile New Mexico United finds itself in fourth place with 7 points after four matches tallying up two wins, a draw and a loss.

Saturday’s match is set to kickoff at 7 p.m. MST and will be televised via streaming ESPN+.