Soccer Roundup: Bravas Moving Up, Locos Draws, and Bravos Lose

It was win, lose and draw for MountainStar Sports Group (MSSG) soccer teams last weekend. FC Juarez Bravas dominated at home on Sunday defeating Xolos de Tijuana, El Paso Locomotive FC played to a scoreless draw in the Monterey Peninsula, while the Bravos lost to Necaxa in Augascalientes.

Bravas obtaining points, racking up clean sheets

Last Sunday FC Juarez unloaded on Xolos de Tijuana defeating the other team from the Border in Mexican soccer by the score of 4-0. Star Forward Jasmine Cazares scored her first goal of the 2024 apertura season of the Liga BBVA MX Femenil to give the Bravas a 1-0 lead in the first half of the match.

Three more goals came in the second half. Karime Abud sent in an aggressive cross that went in off of a Tijuana defender for the own goal in the 74th minute. Prisca Chilufya and Dayana Martin scored in 80th and in stoppage time (90+2) to give the Bravas their third win of the season.

On Thursday night FC Juarez scored travel to Mexico City to face Club America Femenil. The scoreless draw was not without plenty of moments of excitement. Casarez missed the match’s most obvious threat on goal, while America produced slightly more threats on goal that were all denied by Karla Morales who was the player of the match.

With these results the Bravas have obtained four points in the span of a week and are currently sitting in 10th place in the standings table with 10 points only one point out of the playoff zone.

Up next will be a road match next Tuesday . Juarez will travel to Guadalajara, Jalisco to face Atlas. Atlas is currently in 9th place in the standings, one spot ahead of Bravas with one more point on the season (11).

Locomotive get a point in northern California

At bare minimum a point on the road as a result of a draw is usually never a bad thing in the world of soccer. El Paso Locomotive FC accomplished this on Saturday when they played to a scoreless draw against Monterey Bay FC, but still it is not what El Paso needed. The Locos are in dire need of points if they want to make a playoff run the last two months of the season, but these points need to come in bunches of three points at time which only happen as a result of wins.

The draw did little to get them out of last place in the western conference of the USL Championship and move them closer to the playoff zone.

The Locos have 9 matches left in the regular season and are eight points out of the playoff zone. They are not in action this coming weekend. Next weekend Locomotive will host Detroit City FC who is in fourth place in the eastern conference, one of the better teams in the league. A second consecutive win at home would help the Locos in setting a foundation for a late season charge toward the playoffs.

Bravos return to league play

After a month-long break to participate in the heavily criticized Leagues Cup, FC Juarez returned to Liga BBVA MX play last Saturday and lost to Necaxa on the road by the score of 3-0.

The team execution for FC Juarez was similar to that of their three matches in the MLS/Liga MX tournament in which they defeated two MLS teams in the process. They dominated Necaxa in ball position, threats on goal. The thing that marked the difference in this match was set pieces. Three set pieces led to three unanswered goals for Necaxa.

The Bravos remain in next to last place in the general standings table with one point on the season out of a disputed 15. Only Queretaro is worse, failing to obtain a lone point thus far this season.

The team from the Borderland will have another opportunity to obtain its first point win of the season as they will face Chivas de Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco on Saturday afternoon. Chivas sits in ninth place with eight points on the season as a result of two wins, two draws and one defeat.

Kickoff for the match versus Chivas is set for 5:00 p.m. MST. The match will be televised nationally on Telemundo and Peacock (NBC’s streaming platform).