After the pandemic paused its season, El Paso Locomotive FC came into the USL Championship playoffs red hot, boasting a 9-2-5 record. Locomotive FC goalkeeper and former Bradley Brave Logan Ketterer played a central role in bringing them to the Western Conference final on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Ketterer went on a run himself, earning four of his eight clean sheets in his last four games, something he credits for improving the team’s mindset heading into the playoffs.
“We were putting up some good performances, scoring some goals [and] keeping some clean sheets,” Ketterer said. “It … helped us ride a bit of a wave of confidence, knowing that we can beat anyone … we just gotta play our game.”
While Locomotive FC came into the postseason on an 11 game unbeaten streak, getting to their conference final was not an easy task. Two wins, 240 minutes and two penalty shootouts later, they faced off against Phoenix Rising FC, who handed them their last loss back in August. After being deadlocked 1-1, they fell 4-2 in penalties.
El Paso conceded first in the 18th minute, off Phoenix’s Jordan Schwiterzer’s shot taken right outside of the 18. The shot deflected off of both El Paso’s Richie Ryan and the crossbar, leaving Ketterer with little to do about it.
“It’s pretty unlucky … that they got a massive deflection that loops up and over,” Ketterer said. “Unfortunately that seems like how a lot of our goals went in this year, deflections or penalties.”
After going into halftime with a score of 1-0, Ketterer had one piece of advice for the team: Keep playing their game.
“They got lucky … we know we’re going to get a chance,” Ketterer said. “There [was] nothing tactically or technically that we had to change that would have affected that [goal] going in or not.”
The equalizing goal came in the second half when Bryam Rebellon’s shot hit the upper 90 just inside the penalty box in the 59th minute.
Unfortunately for El Paso, its strong hold on possession and six shots on target weren’t enough to put them ahead. After two scoreless halves of overtime, they headed to their third penalty shootout of the postseason.
Although it’s become familiar territory for him, Ketterer feels there’s not much a goalkeeper can do to prepare for penalties. It’s just a matter of doing your homework.
“Before most games, you go around and see if you can find out who you think might kick a penalty,” Ketterer said. “The rest is being in the right headspace to be able to handle it, whether you had a poor game, whether you had a great game.”
Despite not coming away with a result, Ketterer praised his team’s effort on defense while giving credit to Phoenix’s goalkeeper, Zac Lubin.
“They had some counters, but we shut things down really well, we defended as a team,” Ketterer said. “Their goalkeeper had some unbelievable saves, unfortunately, he’s the reason that they’re going through and not us.”
This is El Paso’s second conference final appearance in just two years in the league. While disappointed at seemingly not making any progress, Ketterer hopes to continue shaping its position as a model expansion team.
“The plan and the goal is to get back to where we were this season and finally get the deed done,” Ketterer said. ”There’s going to be some additions and some subtractions from the squad, but we just need to keep building our identity.”
The USL Championship wraps up its season with Phoenix Rising FC squaring off against the Tampa Bay Rowdies in Tampa on Sunday, Nov. 1.
