El Paso Locomotive come to Fresno tonight at 7:30 P.M – gates open at 6:00 P.M. and unlike the El Paso game earlier this week, it will be available on ESPN+ if you are tuning in from afar.

Pride Night

Our game against El Paso is Fresno FC’s Pride Night Celebration. The entire Chuk will be decked out in a rainbow explosion to show our support of the LGBT community. Last year the team seemed to be establishing a baseline for everything, there was little done theme-wise and there was some scrambling to be ready. This year, theme nights abound and Pride is already going strong with a great offering of merch and partnerships that fans can jump into to show their support.

El Paso

This is gonna be quick because I am tired.

El Paso is a sleeper team. They had a rough start to the season, but they have been slowly winning games and gaining position on the table. Right now they are third after a few games without winning, but they are still higher than us on the table. Their record is 7-3-6 which is impressive for a new franchise. The trains(?) have found their footing in the league and it will be a tough match for us.

The secret to their success lies in their strong defensive game. El Paso has only let in 13 goals across all 16 games which is joint second lowest across both divisions – part of their low goals allowed stems from the fact that they have 8 clean sheets.

Their attack is not nearly as potent with just 21 goals in 16 games. Half of all their goals are the result of a single player, which makes their threat containable. If we can silence that player, we will stem the goals they can score.

Who to Watch

Their main attacking threat comes from Jerome Kiesewetter(#17) who has scored 10 goals in 12 appearances. His main move is a nice right footed shot that he loves to score off volleys. We will want to watch out for crosses coming in close to goal, our best bet is to hamper those passes.

For creative play, Omar Salgado and Sebastian Conteraras are leading El Paso with 4 assists each. Both of those players are potent attacking threats and will be key in their attempt.

On the back end, their defense is strong and the key man is their goalkeeper Logan Ketter. With Ketter between the posts, El Paso has not conceded in 50% of all games played. Though he isn’t solely responsible, despite 8 clean sheets he has only had to make 22 saves – which lends credence to the fact that their team is defensively stable.

Our Play

The Foxes will need to be crafty to get anything from this game. We are stronger offensively, but weaker defensively. I think our best bet is to shoot for a low scoring game – one where we manage a single goal and keep their weak offense at bay.

We will want to play 4 at the back because their wings play in cross after cross to try and hit Kiesewetter. It would be a good game to have Cooper back but we can manage with Elijah and Zach if need be. I think a 3 at the back might put us out for too many chances, letting them score a goal would be a huge mistake and something that we need to stop because they are likely to stop us from scoring.

I want to see Jemal and Qudus taking it to their defense. They will be well organized and I think we need to rely on speed and power, rather than trying to pass the ball in – shots from outside the box could be the magic bullet to put this game to rest.

Prediction

I see this as a low scoring game. Their defense is strong, and ours is nothing to scoff at. I think if we can manage to use our superior attacking abilities we might be able to squeeze a goal from this match.

1-0 to the Foxes.

Goal to come in the second half.

#SomosZorros