Not many places in the world have two professional soccer teams separated by an international border, but El Paso and Ciudad Juárez do.
The cities share more than a border – they share a historic friendship, as well as a love of soccer.
The El Paso Locomotive FC plays in the USL Championship league while FC Juárez plays in Liga MX.
The two teams faced off during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in a closed-door match. FC Juárez played that match with their under-20 lineup and lost 2-0 against Locomotives FC.
But on March 20 of this year, the two teams faced off in front of a crowd for the first time – 8,372 in El Paso’s Southwest University Park. This was the second largest crowd for a Locomotive FC game at home.