Locos Look for Fresh Start As 2nd Half of the Season Begins, Bravos Travel to Face Toluca

El Paso Locomotive FC and FC Juarez will play this weekend looking to pick up wins and more importantly the three points that come with a victory in their respective matches. The Locos will host the Las Vegas Lights tonight at Southwest University Park in downtown El Paso, while the Bravos will travel to central Mexico to face Toluca on Saturday night. 

For Locomotive, their Friday night home match versus the team from ‘Sin City’ will mark the start of the second half of the season. Probably more important than all that, the Locos will be looking for that elusive first home win of the 2024 season For Juarez, it will be the first road match of the 2024 Apertura season. 

El Paso will be coming off of 2 weeks of rest and preparation as their last match was a 3-0 loss to Rhode Island in New England. The Bravos played to a 2-2 draw at home in their season opener against Atlas at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium here in the Borderland. 

Locomotive midseason reset

The first half of the season for El Paso is the worst in the six years the team has existed. Locomotive are currently in last place of the western conference with a total of only 12 points after 17 matches in which there records that of three wins, 3 draws and 11 loses.

The halfway point was marked by a 2-week break in action for El Paso. It was a time for the team to rest and prepare for a second half of the season in which the team from the Sun City will need to turn things around as far as results go if it aspires to make the playoffs.

Tonight’s match, ironically enough, will be against the team in the Lights that currently occupies the last playoff spot. Las Vegas also defeated El Paso at Cashman Field by a score of 1-0 in March. To get the win tonight, at home, to mark the start of the second half of the season is almost vital.

Locomotive head coach Wilmer Cabrera said, “It matters a lot. It (this match) has a lot of pressure on our shoulders and it should be like that because we haven’t won (at home) and that’s not good enough.”

 As for the break in action Cabrera said, “It helped us to make adjustments as far as how we are playing and what we are doing, to take a look at what has helped us and what has not. We also have looked at what the team has to do moving forward if we want to move up in the table”

Finally as for the mental aspect of this last place team going into the second half of season the Locomotive boss said, “It’s been a battle. I feel that this is what it has been, a mental battle. The players know they have the capacity, but they have fallen short on the field of play both individual and as a team. We have been addressing that, trying to get back to basics.”

Tonight’s Locomotive-Lights match is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. MST kickoff. That match will be televised nationally via streaming on ESPN+.

Bravos look to keep obtaining points

FC Juarez will look to obtain its first road point of the season when they face the ‘Red Devils’ of Toluca in central Mexico on Saturday night. The Bravos looked more than formidable in their season opener last Friday night at home in the 2-2 draw vs Atlas. 

On Saturday night the Bravos will face a Toluca team that failed to score a lone goal in their season opener against Chivas, but they also did not concede a goal. With both team coming into their second match of the season with a draw under their belt they will be wanting to get into the win column.

The team from the Borderland will be without their head coach/technical director on the bench as Maurcio Barbieri will be serving his one match suspension for a red card he received last Friday supposedly lashing out at the assistant referee. That is not the only loss for the Bravos, on Wednesday the club sent out a release confirming that Manu Castro suffered a knee injury that will require surgery, most likely a season ending surgery. Castro had been back in action only 10 months after recovering from a similar injury almost 2 years ago. 

The Toluca-Bravos match will kick off at 7 p.m. on Saturday night and will be televised on VIX, Televisa/Univision’s streaming app.