You’d be hard pressed to find an expansion club that jumped out to a quicker start than El Paso Locomotive. Kicking off in the USL Championship in 2019, the club finished both of its first two seasons in the Conference finals of the playoffs. Since that early success, the club has gone through two managerial changes while struggling to find a return to that early level of success.

Last season, the club kicked off with a new head coach at the helm, Brian Clarhaut. While an experienced manager with 6 years coaching in the Swedish leagues, Clarhaut had zero professional coaching experience in the United States. His first season in the Championship was a mix of highs and lows, including a 12-match unbeaten streak, followed by a 5-match run of losses. Regardless of that inconsistency, the season ended with the club returning to the playoffs as the 7th-seed, losing in the first round to Orange County SC.

“I’m a guy who’s had a knife to his neck in Europe,” Clarhaut says, as he reflects on last season. So when players went down with injury and the roster wasn’t going as planned, he modified his approach to get his team into playoff contention. “I made a choice with the team and we accomplished our goal. Was I happy? Probably not, in the grand scheme of things, but I couldn’t let this club go two years without making the playoffs.”

The New Jersey-born coach continued his discussion of last season, listing some differences between his time in Sweden and his first season in the Championship. “From a footballing side in Sweden, it’s very organized, there’s not too much space to operate. From a tactical side, it’s very tough. The USL is a very open league, very athletic, there’s a lot more pace in this league.” Of course, there’s also plenty of geographic and weather differences to deal with. “It’s the travel, it’s a big country, time differences, different weather conditions…Adjusting to the heat in the summer, during training. I’m used to seeing frost on the cones on the practice field.”

As he discusses last season, it’s clear that injuries and roster limitations stymied some of the tactics he planned to implement in year one. “It was a bit of a roster issue. When we were in good form, we were one of the best teams with goals conceded in the whole USL. With the injuries, we let in 20 goals in 5 games. Prior to that we were superior, and during that period, we lost our leading goalscorer, Luis Solignac, to injury. It was a roster issue, but the roster affects the tactics. As a coach, you need to know what you’re working with. I tried to continue the same model that we had in our success, but it wasn’t working with the group we had. I say all the time, adapt or die.” So Clarhaut adapted and got his team into the playoffs.

But this year, Clarhaut has upped his standards for success. “We need to be a top 4 team in the West and have a home game in the playoffs. We need to be more dominant in how we play. We need to be more successful in the West. We need to compete for trophies.” To do that, the Locomotive roster has gone through a massive overhaul, with 11 of last year’s players exiting for other clubs. The coach sees the roster turnover as trying to return to the club’s early success. “Part of it is standards of performance and what our club stands for. Before I came here, this was a team that was twice a Western Conference finalist. Our standards need to be higher. I had to make some hard decisions about individuals that had been a big part of this club since day one. But we haven’t been good enough, to be frank. I knew what players I needed to play a certain style of football that’s in my philosophy and we’ve been able to attract those players to El Paso.”

While the roster will look dramatically different from last season, Clarhaut is confident that he’s retained enough of a veteran core to maintain a club culture that he’s happy with. Paired with those veterans, he also feels that the additions to the team will integrate quickly to reduce the risk of growing pains. “A lot of the guys we brought in have experience in this league, so hopefully that will help the learning curve.” The offseason additions to the club also reflect Brian’s exposure to the USL Championship. “If we were having this conversation last year, I’d tell you…’I’m not an expert in this league. I’m an American, but I’ve been in Sweden the last seven years.’” But now, a year into his time in El Paso, he’s watched the league’s players from the sideline and been mentally noting which could contribute to his rebuilding project.

After a season of adapting to a nation-wide league full of unfamiliar clubs, dealing with an injury-plagued roster, and playing a second-choice style of soccer, Clarhaut seems ready to truly put his stamp on Locomotive. He’s built a roster full of USL-caliber players who have the experience and skill to deliver his style of soccer. It should be no surprise if Clarhaut delivers on his goals yet again.

- Dan Vaughn