El Paso Locomotive Hold Press Conference to Preview 2020 Season

Earlier today the El Paso Locomotive FC held a press conference to discuss all things having to do with their upcoming 2020 season. General Manager Andrew Forrest was in attendance along with head coach Mark Lowry and players Richie Ryan, Logan Ketterer and Bryam Rebellon. Various topics were discussed so here is quick synopsis for Locomotive fans.

-The USL will be celebrating their 10th season in existence this 2020 season.
-The Locos will have 17 home games this season. 12 of those matches will be held on Saturdays, 3 on Wednesdays, 1 on a Thursday and 1 on a Sunday. The Sunday match will be televised on ESPN Deportes.
-Individual game tickets will go on sale for the general public on this coming Saturday, January 18th at 10am. Season ticket holders can buy additional individual game tickets starting today.
-Head coach Mark Lowry announced that 15 or 16 players from last year’s team will return to the Locomotive for the team’s second season. In addition, the Locos have already added 3 new players and 2 more players are on their way with announcements coming soon.

The two biggest things that got my attention regarding today’s presser was the announcement of an impressive preseason schedule and the total number of players that Locos will have on their roster.

The Locos will have a total of 7 preseason games leading up to their March 6 season opener. They will square off against 4 USL western conference rivals, 2 MLS franchises and have a friendly against FC Juarez (most likely their under 20 squad like they did last year).

Lowry also let it be known today that the Locos will have 21 players on their roster for this upcoming season. Typically soccer teams have 25-28 players on a roster. This, without a doubt will be a storyline that will be followed all year long. The USL is a long season and attrition was a factor for the Locos last year in the middle part of the season. Lowry argued and backed his decision by saying, “If you have 24, 25, 26 players. But if numbers 19 thru 24 aren’t good enough to play then you don’t really have 24 players. So now we’ll have 21 players where I can close my eyes pick any 11 of them and well go on the field and potential win a game of football. It didn’t feel like if we had that last year.”