Locomotive's Liam Rose finds happy home in El Paso
Everything about Liam Rose's resume screams that he's a John Hutchinson guy.
The Locomotive's 26-year-old defensive midfielder came to El Paso from his native Australia last year so he could play for the Australian coach Hutchinson, which made sense given their connection. Hutchinson was the captain for the Central Coast Mariners of Australia's top flight where Rose began his pro career in 2014, later coached Rose there, then brought him to El Paso last May.
Then this offseason Hutchinson moved along from the Locomotive. The player who had so much association with Hutchinson didn't.
Rose has come to realize something in his 14 months in El Paso. He loves the organization, he loves his teammates, he loves El Paso.
That love was returned in full two weeks ago in Birmingham when he scored his first professional goal, a second-half winner in a 2-1 victory that marked El Paso's franchise-record sixth consecutive victory. They go for seven Saturday night at archrival New Mexico.
"To be honest it's still kind of a blur," Rose said of his goal. "Afterward (teammate) Eric (Calvillo) told me, 'Take a deep breath.' I didn't know what was going on, I was quite surprised. I got the intercept and the ball set up perfectly for me. To be fair, as soon as it left my foot I thought, 'It's going in, I have to be excited.'"
He was literally in a position he had never been in before, but something like that was bound to happen. Rose is having his breakout as he has made the adjustment to a new coach and a new system in Brian Clarhaut.
"He's playing the best football in his career," Clarhaut said. "I think he will admit that as well. Part of it, he is a good player, he does a lot of the little things that are maybe unnoticed by the average fan.
"He's always doing the little details and I think we've put him in a position in the double pivot (a defensive strategy where the two central defensive midfielders are interchangeable) for him to thrive. He's in a good environment to thrive, he's in a good tactical environment to thrive, when you put those two ingredients together with a good player you're going to have good success.
"We're seeing that now."
In some ways, Rose realized he was in a position to thrive before the season kicked off. Through a coaching change he's obviously flourished under, Rose knew El Paso was where he wanted to be.
"The decision to stay was easy," said Rose, who played most of his career in Australia but was in Armenia in 2018-19. "Obviously I came for Hutch, but it's football. Coaches move on, it's all part and parcel of the game.
"I saw Brian's pedigree, then coming in the first week I saw what he offers and the decision to stay was easy. The boys are unbelievable, I love El Paso, it's like a second home to me now. I really enjoy it here, it was an easy decision to stay."
And Rose figured that since he was going to stay, he was going to make the most of the entire El Paso experience. He and a couple of teammates have diligently been learning Spanish at the Language Plus school, and while he's having a few struggles learning past tense, he's enjoying the process.
"Me and a couple of the other boys decided to learn some Spanish," Rose said. "We have quite a bit of spare time after training. The environment and the culture, people here appreciate that. We're still sort of babies in learning, but hopefully toward the end of the year we can start to speak to people in Spanish."
On the field he leads the team in intercepted passes — that's how he scored his goal — and second in tackles and tackles won. Those last two stats get to what Clarhaut is talking about when he says Rose takes care of the "little details."
Rose also got to the essence of that when asked what he brings to the Locomotive.
"I like to work hard, help people around me, try to make their jobs easier," Rose said.
Rose has embraced doing that hard work in El Paso, which has become his second home.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
El Paso Locomotive at New Mexico United
What, when, where: A USL Championship soccer match, 7 p.m. Saturday, Isotopes Park, Albuquerque
TV: ESPN+
Records: El Paso is 7-3-1, 22 points, 2nd in USL Western Division; New Mexico is 4-4-2, 14 points, 9th
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Locomotive's Liam Rose finds happy home in El Paso
