Despite the Loss, Laredo is Headed to the Playoffs as the # 4 Seed

Laredo, TX (Saturday, July 6, 2024) – A rough second half of the regular season was still just enough to qualify the Laredo Heat SC for the postseason as it earned the fourth and final spot in the NPSL’s Lone Star Conference despite losing 3-1 Saturday on the road against FC Brownsville.

With the loss, Laredo (5-3-2, 17 points) needed the Lubbock Matadors (5-2-3, 16 points) to lose, and fortunately Lubbock delivered with a 4-1 defeat against West Texas FC (7-2-1, 22 points). A draw or victory for the Matadors would have seen Laredo lose out on the playoffs on tiebreakers.

West Texas won the Lone Star Conference regular season title and will host the Heat in next week’s playoff opener. Brownsville (6-1-3, 21 points) earned a home match with Saturday’s win and will host the Denton Diablos FC (5-3-2, 17 points). Denton took the No. 3 seed over Laredo due to the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Laredo will attempt to break out of a rough stretch in the postseason as it suffered all three of its losses in the second half of the regular season. The Heat were 1-3-1 in that stretch with the lone victory being a 3-0 win over Austin United FC.

Just like in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw, the Heat jumped ahead early scoring the go-ahead goal in the 11th minute. A cross from the left side by Sebastian Rivera was deflected away by a defender, but it went right to a waiting Jorge Amaya in the center of the box as he buried it for a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately for Laredo, history also repeated itself with former Heat player Roberto Ordonez finding the back of the net for Brownsville. Ordonez scored the equalizing goal on a free kick in added time on Wednesday.

In the 39th minute Saturday, Ordonez had a free kick from 25 yards out go off the post, but Gabriel Claudio was called for a foul in the box. The ensuing penalty kick from Ordonez was saved by Adrian Gallardo, but Ordonez cleaned up the rebound for the equalizing goal.

Brownsville then jumped ahead in the 48th minute as an appeal from the Heat for an offside call went unheeded.

Following a delay due to lighting issues, the second half started similar to how the first half ended with Brownsville scoring and the Heat calling for an offsides call. The refs again declined to raise the flag making it a 3-1 game.

While attempting to score his second goal of the night, Amaya received a red card for a late challenge in the Brownsville box. He will now serve a suspension during the playoff opener.

The Heat will travel to face West Texas on Wednesday, July 10th in the Lone Star Conference semifinals.

The Heat won 2-0 at PEG Energy Stadium in Laredo when the teams met on June 8. If Laredo wins, it will travel to face the winner between Brownsville and Denton on Saturday, July 13 in the conference championship.

Visit youtube.com/@LaredoHeatSC for live streams of the Heat’s matches. To stay up to date on all things Laredo Heat, visit laredoheatsc.com, follow @laredoheatsc on all major social media platforms or email vaswanifamily@about-time.com.