EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Locomotive FC (West-3, 9-6-5, 32 points) fell 3-1 to Oakland Roots SC on Saturday night at Southwest University Park, its final home match until mid-August.
“First half, we created a lot of chances but not to win the game,” Head Coach and Technical Directer Brian Clarhaut said. “We need to bury these. I take responsibility, we need to be more consistent in our play. We can’t be going in to two halves looking like two different teams. We’re disappointed right now, as we should be when we lose games.”
Offensively, Locomotive had the clearer chances in the first half, outshooting Oakland 7-to-4 and three shots on target. On defense, Locomotive did well to execute offside traps, with Oakland getting called offside on five different occasions to see their plays break down.
Locomotive would find its breakthrough in the 48′, after Petrovic managed to get past his defender in a one-on-one battle to take a shot at goal, which was deflected into the net by Oakland defender Emrah Klimenta.
Unfortunately, Oakland managed to find the back of the three times unanswered, in the 65′, 69′ and 85′, to reclaim the lead and eventually hold out for the win.
FORECAST: 94ºF, cloudy
ATTENDANCE: 6,795
SCORING SUMMARY
- ELP 1 – Emrah Klimenta (Own Goal) 48′
- OAK 1 – Lindo Mfeka (Bryan Tamacas) 65′
- OAK 2 – Johnny Rodriguez (Memo Diaz) 69′
- OAK 3 – Anuar Pelaez (Wolfgang Prentice) 85′
LINEUPS
ELP – (3-4-3) Benny Diaz, Bence Pavkovics, Erik McCue, Eder Borelli – C, Marc Navarro (Miles Lyons), Eric Calvillo, Liam Rose (Herrera), Petar Petrovic (Luis Solignac), Denys Kostyshyn (Chris Garcia), Aaron Gomez (Emmanuel Sonupe), Ricardo Zacarias
Subs Not Used: Javier Garcia, Jose Carrillo,
OAK – (4-4-2) Paul Blanchette, Danny Barbir, Neveal Hackshaw, Emrah Klimenta, Bryan Tamacas (Wolfgang Prentice), Joseph Nane – C, Napo Matsoso, Memo Diaz (Ryan Her), Lindo Mfeka (Trayvone Reid), Johnny Rodriguez (Anuar Pelaez), Jeciel Cedeño (Daniel Gomez)
Subs Not Used: Taylor Bailey, Tarek Morad
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
- ELP – Petar Petrovic (Yellow Card) 29′, Ricardo Zacarias (Yellow Card) 51′, Eder Borelli (Yellow Card) 71′
- OAK – Emrah Klimenta (Yellow Card) 54′, Napo Matsoso (Yellow Card) 75′
MATCH STATS: ELP | OAK
GOALS: 1|3
ASSISTS: 0|3
POSS. %: 55|45
SHOTS: 13|9
SHOTS ON GOAL: 5|7
SAVES: 4|5
FOULS: 12|11
OFFSIDES: 0|6
CORNERS: 2|4
UP NEXT: Saturday, July 29 @ Rio Grande Valley FC. Kickoff set for 6 p.m. MT at H-E-B Park. El Paso Locomotive FC head down to Rio Grande Valley FC for their second regular season meeting, looking to pick up its first ever win at H-E-B Park.