Alex Méndez lands Team of the Week after El Paso win

Alex Méndez’s goal and assist in El Paso Locomotive FC’s 2-1 road win over Las Vegas Lights FC earned him a place on the USL Championship Team of the Week for Week 17/18. The recognition came after a July 4 match at Cashman Field in Las Vegas that snapped El Paso out of an eight-game winless streak in league play and kept the club above the playoff line in the Western Conference.

Méndez set the tone early by opening the scoring in the 20th minute, finishing a one-touch chance before Las Vegas equalized just before halftime. El Paso then leaned on halftime adjustments and got the decisive strike from Álvaro Quezada in the second half, with Méndez providing the assist that turned a tense road night into three points. For a team that had spent weeks searching for traction, the sequence mattered as much as the result.

The performance also sharpened the case that Méndez is becoming the on-field barometer for El Paso’s attack. It was the second time this season he recorded both a goal and an assist in a Locomotive victory, a sign that his impact is not limited to isolated moments but extends across the way El Paso creates and finishes chances. When Méndez is influencing both the first punch and the final pass, Locomotive look more like a side capable of climbing the Western Conference than one waiting for its next streak.

Week 17/18’s Team of the Week reflected a league-wide spread of form, with Méndez selected alongside Aaron Molloy, Emilio Ycaza, Zico Bailey, Yaniv Bazini, Emil Jääskeläinen, Oliver Semmle, Garven Metusala, Nico Benalcázar, Makel Rasheed and Adrien Pérez. Pérez, of Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, was named Player of the Week after a two-goal, one-assist outing against Phoenix Rising. For El Paso, though, the headline is less about the honor itself than the timing: Méndez delivered it in the same week his club finally broke through.