I’ve been really into the Olympics this year. It’s been so fun and inspiring to see all of these athletes give their best while embodying the Olympic Spirit of competition and sportsmanship. If El Paso Locomotive competed in the Olympics, I think they would be able to take home the gold medal with ease. After all, is there a team with more Olympic Spirit than El Paso? Well, we’re going for Gold in the USL Championship and taking on San Antonio for the Copa Tejas, and here is how that match looks:
MATCH DETAILS: USL Championship Regular Season Game #15; vs San Antonio; 7:00 p.m. MT kickoff
VENUE/WEATHER: Southwest University Park; El Paso, Texas; 90F degrees and sunny.
TICKETS: Click Here!
WATCH: ESPN+
RECORDS/STANDINGS: Locomotive: 9-1-4 (31 points, MTN-1); San Antonio: 5-4-6 (21 points, MTN-5)
PREVIOUS MEETING: It was just a week ago that El Paso Locomotive took on San Antonio FC. Locomotive went up first in the 18th minute after a handball in the penalty area provided Locomotive a penalty kick opportunity. FW Lucho Solignac stepped up to take the kick and converted against his former club in San Antonio. Locomotive stood fast against a San Antonio side that was chasing the game and ultimately extended the lead in the 71st minute from a beautifully chipped shot from MF Diego Luna. That two-goal lead lasted only three minutes however as San Antonio’s Axel Sjoberg pulled a goal back in the 74th but couldn’t find a second, leaving Locomotive to claim three points.
Are you tired of me talking about the incredible undefeated runs that Locomotive constantly finds itself on? Not only is the club 16-games undefeated at Southwest University Park, including playoffs, but earlier this season, Locomotive held on to an 18-game undefeated regular-season streak that threatened the league record. That streak ended in a 3-2 loss to Rio Grande Valley FC, but that game feels like nothing more than a bump in the road in the overall run that Coach Mark Lowry’s side has been on. Since that loss, the Boys in Blue have gone on as if nothing ever happened, earning a record of 5-0-1 to kick off a new undefeated streak.
Just before the Locos take on his former club of San Antonio FC for the second time in one week, Lucho Solignac was named USL Championship’s Player of the Week and I could not think of a more deserving player for that title in Week 15. I, admittedly, might be a little biased. Lucho rocked the USL Championship in the past week helping El Paso claim six points in one week with three goals. The first was a penalty conversion he made against his former club, slotting home the ball past Matt Cardone with a stutter step to open the night’s scoring. Just days later against Real Monarchs at Southwest University Park, he came in as a substitution in the 58th minute and scored his first goal in the 61st. He headed the ball away into Jeffrey Dewsnap, who deflected the ball back to Lucho for the tap-in. Not quite finished yet, Lucho got his brace against the Monarchs in the 81st minute, eliminating Dewsnap altogether by rounding him and passing the ball into a wide-open net. The point is the goals have begun to fall for Lucho who now leads the team this season with six, so it only felt right that he was named Player of the Week.
Speaking of goals and goal scorers, it feels very likely that Locomotive will be recording its 100th club goal across all competitions (ideally) within the next few matches. From the very first goal scored by Derek Gebhard in the opening March 9 match against OKC Energy FC all the way to the rounding-keeper goal Lucho Solignac took against Real Monarchs on Saturday, Locomotive has recorded 98 goals across all its competitions. I might have barely passed my math class back in my undergrad years of college, but if my math skills aren’t failing me now, we are only two goals away from the milestone 100. A single goal can go down to anyone as so far in the 2021 season we have seen goals from all across the field in every position. We have had eight different players score for Locomotive this season but the obvious frontrunners are those who have been regularly putting away goals. As I mentioned above, Lucho currently leads the club in goals this season with six, but right behind him are both Diego Luna and Aaron Gomez who have both recorded four goals so far. Gomez even takes it a step further as the club’s all-time regular-season goal scorer, having recorded 15 goals since joining the team in 2019. Two more goals before one of these players etch their names into the Locomotive record books forever and I, for one, can’t wait to see who it will be.
In the 2021 USL Championship Copa Tejas, El Paso Locomotive has presented itself as a clear favorite to take home the Texas trophy. El Paso has played four games out of 12 Copa Tejas matches, taking home the three points in three of them and falling only once to Rio Grande Valley FC. Sitting second on that table with nine points, just one shy of RGV, Los Locos are primed to claim Texas by the end of the season. RGV has played eight of its 12 games, while Austin and San Antonio have each played six. Tonight’s match against San Antonio tonight could see El Paso vault over Rio Grande Valley on the Tejas table into first with games in hand against its Texas rivals.