Locomotive FC Seek Season Sweep of New Mexico United

El Paso Locomotive FC will be looking for the 2023 sweep of their biggest rival New Mexico United this weekend.

The team from up north will make the four hour trek down I-25 to Southwest University Park in downtown El Paso for a match that will kickoff the 4th of July weekend festivities in the Sun City.

A little less than month ago, back on June 3 the El Paso Locomotive FC defeated New Mexico by the score of 1-0 in what was one of the more lopsided matches between these two clubs in recent memory. In that match, it was all El Paso. Since then, the United have announced a new head coach in Eric Quill and while he has only been at the helm of this team for a couple of weeks, his tutelage is already being felt. They won their most recent match against Colorado Springs Switchbacks, 2-1.

While the Locos will be looking to regain first place in the western conference in the USL with a win on Saturday, the team from Albuquerque will be looking to get back into playoff contention.

This makes New Mexico just that much more dangerous in being the team that breaks the Locos’ current unbeaten streak of 12 matches. No doubt that accomplishing this would be the cherry on top for the team from the Land of Enchantment.

As for how El Paso head coach and technical director Brian Clarhaut sees the return leg of ‘El Derby del Camino Real’, he was practical going in: “They have a new head coach, trying to do a few new things, so it will be a bit of a different game. From what I’ve seen, there’s a (few) differences and they're coming off a good result from this past weekend.”

In their last home match a couple of weekend’s ago El Paso had a season high attendance, this Saturday’s match should surpass it. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MST and, as always, the match will be televised nationally via streaming on ESPN+.