El Paso Locomotive FC impressed the home crowd Saturday, notching important points as the team begins a long 3-week stretch on the road. After a shaky first half that had the teams tied 1-1, tactical changes were made by El Paso for the second, earning them the additional two goals.
Forward Jerôme Kiesewetter continued his streak, scoring his third brace in as many games since his debut in El Paso. Calvin Rezende opened the scoreboard for the evening in the 10th minute of play, celebrating his first professional goal of his career off of an assist by Omar Salgado. The midfielder continues to make the most of his time on the pitch.
“For every professional player, you’re going to have that opportunity and you have to make the most of it,” Rezende said. “So it goes down to how badly you want to be in that starting 11. I saw the ball coming and just froze time and picked out a spot in the goal. I cannot express how happy I am. We’ve been doing a lot of finishing in training so it’s showing. I hope it continues.”
Locomotive FC was missing two key midfielders Saturday – Yuma due to a red card received against New Mexico last week, and Nick Ross on the injury list – losing physicality and experience, Coach Mark Lowry noted. The missing players gave opportunities to Edwin Partida and Josué Gómez, both making their debut. Midway into the second half, Partida received a pass from Kiesewetter, maneuvering the ball into the box, to find Kiesewetter once again before the German-American blasted the ball to the back of the net off his right foot.
“The first half was pretty bad, we didn’t do a good job defending,” Kiesewetter said in the post-match press conference. “They had too much time on the ball, second half you saw a completely different team. Calvin scored his first goal so I’m pretty happy for him. We got the win, that’s what matters at the end of the day. We were ready for this game; obviously we had a pretty bad game on Wednesday (losing in the U.S. Open Cup). Mistakes happen, but you can’t let them happen twice. We had a good, long, hard week – three games in seven days.”
The three points helped move El Paso up to seventh place in the USL standings. The team continues to dominate possession, keeping intensity high in their matches. The success of the players stepping up to fill the gaps the team has had to face shows the depth the Sun City has on their bench. Gómez was aggressive and made an impact in only the final 10 minutes after he was subbed in, showing the potential he has for the team. The Locos will need to rely on that depth when they face Portland Timbers 2 next weekend, currently second in the league standings.
