Locos Move Into Tie For Second After 3-0 Win over LA Galaxy II

The El Paso Locomotive FC defeated the LA Galaxy II 3-0 Saturday night at Southwest University Park to pick up their 6th win of this 2019 inaugural season. This victory moves the Locomotive into a 3-way tie for second place in the western conference of the USL Championship with the Phoenix Rising and the Portland Timbers 2 all three with 23 points, only 2 points behind conference leading New Mexico United.

In the standings table you will find El Paso officially in 4th place because of goal differential.
With a 3-0 result one would think this El Paso’s performance last night was superb, and in a lot of ways it may have been…just don’t ask any of the players or head coach Mark Lowry to agree.

Yes, James Kife found Jerome Kiesewetter twice in the 43rd and 87th minute for the Locos first two goals. El Paso native, Omar Salgado scored his first goal in front of the hometown crowd in the 88th minute to seal the victory.

Still in the post match press conference, four players were brought into field questions from the media (James Kiffe, Drew Beckie, Kiesewetter and Salgado), and the general consensus was the same, the team’s overall performance could have been significantly better. The team from the 915 lost something in the second half and this was highlighted when in the 55th minute the Galaxy’s Brian Iloski received a red card. With the one man advantage the Locos didn’t seem to go for the kill that would guarantee the result, they appeared only to the try and maintain the 1-goal advantage that they had.

A hydration break mandated by the league would allow for Lowry to gather the troops and have a stern and motivating talk with his team that would be the spark the produced the 2 goals in the closing stages of the match.

Aside from the victory and the 3-points that come with it, Mark Lowry was happy with his team’s ability to recognize that their performance left quite a bit to be desired. "It makes me proud actually to know that they are aware and educated on what is a good performance what is not such a good performance, the roles and responsibilities they have and the vision that we have on how the game should look. The first half was great, that first goal was phenomenal. The second half we took our foot off the gas a little bit, got sloppy in possession stopped running and it made the game harder than it should have been. I’m glad they are aware of it, I want them to enjoy the victory, you always have to enjoy winning because we work so hard…but we want more, that is the culture we are creating, today was good but we can be better."

Up next for the Locomotive will be a road match against Tulsa Roughnecks FC next Saturday at 6:30 MST. Tulsa is currently in 12th place with 17 points coming off of a loss to Phoenix Rising.