“You don’t ever back down. Whether it’s this situation or a life situation you fight your way out of it. That’s all I know and that’s all we’ll do.” -Head Coach and Technical Director John Hutchinson.
El Paso Locomotive FC heads into a Friday night contest against a Colorado Springs side that sits in the third-place spot in the Western Conference. El Paso is coming into the match with an insatiable hunger to get back on track after dropping points in their last four including holding the top two teams in their respective conferences –Louisville and San Antonio—to a 1-0 result. The last time the Locos were in this same situation they would go on to secure nine wins, three draws, and only two losses across the subsequent seventeen matches. If history tells us anything, it’s that we have been here before and the train will power through.
“It’s obviously not a great place or where we want to be, but we have a little bit of experience there. We can use that experience to our advantage,” commented Defender Matt Bahner before this Friday’s match. “Early in the season we saw all it took was just one game for things to turn then we went on a good long run like we did. We take the experience from earlier in the year and put our best foot forward. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We keep going, keep fighting, and things will turn.”
Heading into the last nine matches of the regular season Locomotive knows what needs to be done and are looking for that moment of brilliance against a Colorado side that in their last four matches has lost two and split the points in the other two. In the sixteen regular-season meetings between the two sides, El Paso has never lost and holds a 7-0-9 record against the Switchbacks.
In the previous meeting this season between the two sides, Locomotive found the game-winning goal early in the match with a header from Forward Aaron Gomez in the 18th minute of play, notching his sixth of the season.
“I think we draw from our experience when we played them at home and beat them one-nil,” said Bahner. “We have a little experience, and they know that. It’s always tough going on the road but it’s just about drawing from our experience when we beat them. They’re a good team and they’re good at what they do.”
With playoffs around the bend and looking at the remaining nine matches across the next two and a half months, the message is to fight through and move forward. There are still 27 points left up for grabs for Locomotive to add to the table. Historically, in the USL Championship, teams have needed roughly 50 points to guarantee a playoff position.
El Paso currently holds 33 points while sitting above the red playoff line and is in position to grab hold of the roughly 17 points needed from the remaining nine games to earn its fourth straight playoff berth. While there is a sense of building urgency within the locker room, Coach Hutchinson stated on Tuesday after training that earning a playoff appearance is still well within the team’s hands.
“I look at what is coming up the next day. Focus on that, let’s get through that, and let’s continue from there,” acknowledged Head Coach and Technical Director John Hutchinson. “I’m a big believer in that it’s in our hands. It’s 27 points. That’s enough points to get us into where we want to be in the playoffs. We did target a better finish obviously but it’s still in our hands. I don’t look at the table and say, ‘who is playing who’ and ‘what’s happening?’ We have Colorado [Springs] in Colorado. Win that, we come home and have two home games.”
Colorado Springs will no doubt provide a challenge for El Paso Locomotive but the team has trained throughout the week to rise and perform under the Friday night lights.