One of the two new teams in the USL Championship from the Southwest is in Tacoma to play their first match against the Tacoma Defiance.
The El Paso Locomotive FC have an interesting name. It’s one of the most used names in world soccer; they share it with teams from Moscow, Tianjin, Zagreb, Kyiv, Plovdiv, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Tashkent and Leipzig. It was originally a shortening of Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society which was a group of Soviet teams supported by the national railroad. Around this time, teams associated with national railroads changed their names to Lokomotiv (spelling varies by language) throughout the Soviet Satellite States.
The teams in Sydney, Lokomotiv Cove FC, and El Paso are they only two Locomotives with no connection to a national railroad or a railway workers’ union. It is not clear why El Paso chose this name beyond vaguely remembering having heard it associated with other soccer teams and thinking it sounds cool (hello Real Salt Lake). Anyways, I guess we should talk about the soccer part briefly.
Locomotive has a very similar style of play to the Defiance, valuing possession and high volume passing above all. Neither team has found much attacking success with this style of play, but Locomotive has found more. They have scored 14 goals to the Defiance’s 12 and average 84% passing accuracy to the Defiance’s 77.4%. They also use possession much more successfully as a defensive strategy, allowing about 1⁄3 of the goals the Defiance have. If both teams try to employ their typical style, Locomotive is going to come out ahead because they are just better at it. If Tacoma wants to have a chance at coming away with a result, they will need to change things up.
If the Defiance can get a result it will be their fourth straight—twice as long as any previous streak this season—and their fourth at home in their last five.
nos audietis in somniis | nos audietis in altum
you will hear us in your sleep | you will hear us from the deep
this is our Sound
Keys to the Game:
- Don’t try to outpass Locomotive
- Don’t give Jerome Kiesewetter space in the box
- Don’t let Locomotive pull you out of shape
Lineups
Tacoma, your Defiance Starting XI against @eplocomotivefc. #DefiantlyTacoma pic.twitter.com/m0w4mwfjK0
— Tacoma Defiance (@TACdefiance) June 2, 2019
How to Watch
Match date/time: 7:00 PM PT, Saturday, June 1, 2019
Venue: Cheney Stadium, Central Tacoma, Puyallup-White River Watershed, Cascadia
Streaming: ESPN+ (Talent: Andrew Harvey and Dave Clark)
How I'm watching
Outfit: A nice, professional cardigan.
Where: Likely in the pressbox of the good old ball field, Cheney Stadium.