Big Soccer Weekend Coming Up in the Borderland

Bravos de FC Juarez, El Paso Locomotive FC and Bravas de FC Juarez will all have home matches this weekend giving soccer fans across the Borderland plenty of live soccer to take in.

The Bravos will welcome Chivas de Guadalajara to Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium, while Locomotive will host Phoenix Rising both on Saturday evening, while the Bravas will host Club America on Sunday evening also at the stadium on the banks of the Rio Grande 24 hours later.

Bravos
FC Juarez will go into their Saturday night match against arguably one of the most, if not the most popular team in all of Mexican soccer, coming off of a loss.

The Bravos suffered their fourth loss of the season, losing to Atletico San Luis 1-0. It was a match that Bravos dominated and was the better team for a majority of the match. San Luis scored the lone goal in the match only three minutes into the second half when no one pick up Oscar Macias to defend him, Macias received the ball just outside the small goal box, took his shot sliping it between defender Moises Mosquera legs to find the back of the net. Bravos had more than several chances score, the ball simply did not go in.

The Chivas arrive to the Borderland in worse form, they are coming off of a week where they played the arch-rival Club America in seven days. In that span they won the first match 1-0 in CONCACAF Champions Cup play, had a scoreless draw in the second in Liga BBVA MX play on Saturday night and got humiliated 4-0 on Wednesday night again in Champions Cup play.

The Borderland’s major league team is currently ahead of Guadalajara in the standings table. The Bravos find themselves in eight place with 17 points as a result of five wins, two draws and four losses. The Chivas are two places behind in tenth with 15 points as a result of four wins, three draws and four losses.

A win for Juarez on Saturday and the Bravos would set a record for the most points obtained in a season with 20. To do against a historical powerhouse like Chivas would make it that much more special.

The match will be televised on Fox Deportes, kick off is scheduled for 7 p.m. MST. The match is sold out.

Locomotive FC

El Paso Locomotive FC will play their second consecutive home match to start their 2025 campaign when they host Phoenix Rising also on Saturday evening at Southwest University Park. Both will be looking for their first win of the season. The Locos tied their season opener last Saturday against defending USL Championship Champing Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC by the score of 2-2. Meanwhile, the Rising lost 1-0 to San Antonio FC in the Texas hill country.

El Paso looked more than formidable in their season opener. They improved over the span of 90 minutes being able to comeback after falling behind in the score on two separate occasions. The visiting Switchbacks scored in the first 90-seconds of the match. Locomotive was able to get the equalizer just before the end of the first half in the 43rd minute thanks to forward Amando Moreno. Colorado Springs re-took the lead in the 74th minute. Andy Cabrera came off the bench to be the hero of the night for the team from the 915 to get the match equalizer in stoppage time (92nd minute).

The theme in the post match conference that was echoed by all that addressed the media was the mental toughness Locomotive showed in order to equalize the score on two occasions. Moreno summed it up best regarding the team’s new mindset going into this season by saying, “Last year, this is a match we would have lost.”

Saturday’s match is also set for a 7 p.m. MST kickoff and will be televised via streaming on ESPN+ and on the CW. Tickets for this match are still available.

Bravas

The Bravas will wrap up the weekend action for the MountainStar Sports Group soccer team on Sunday even when they play Club America at home. The Bravas are currently trying to overcome what can be a midseason slump losing three matches in a row scoring only two goals while allowing 10.

The Bravas got back on the winning track defeating Atlas at home 1-0 last Sunday. In their most recent match, the Bravas tied versus Xolos de Tijuana 2-2 on Thursday night on the road. Juarez failed to maintain the lead on two occasions with the match equalizer coming only one minute after the Bravas scored their second goal.

Their match against Club America Sunday will, without a doubt be the toughest match of the season for Bravas as they will be facing the team that is currently in first place in the standings table. The team from Mexico City has 10 wins, one draw and only one loss of the season. They have scored 47 goals in 12 matches while only allowing seven. Quite the offensive juggernaut to say the least and quite the challenge for Bravas.

This match is also scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff and will also be televised on Fox Deportes.