San Antonio FC will face RGV FC for the third time this season on Friday night as SAFC travels to HEB Park for the second time in 2020. Just like last month, these two teams will once again face off in back to back weeks. They’ll complete the season series at Toyota Field on September 5th.
This match was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but was moved to Friday night so it could be featured Nationally on ESPN Deportes. San Antonio can perfectly even the all-time series between these two teams at 5-5-5 with a victory. So far this year SAFC has claimed a win and a draw against their Texas rivals, and SAFC are unbeaten in three straight games in the series.
San Antonio enters the match after a 2-0 win over FC Tulsa last week. Luis Solignac scored his team leading 4th goal of the season from the penalty spot and that was enough to hand FC Tulsa their first defeat of the season. Solignac has now scored in back to back games for the first time this season. The only other SAFC player to achieve that this season is Cristian Parano.
Ignacio Bailone scored in the 89th minute to continue his status as SAFC’s super sub. His two goals and two assists in 2020 have all come as a substitute.
It was a big result for Matt Cardone in Goal. The clean sheet was his 17th all-time with SAFC, a new club record. His three clean sheets in 2020 tie him for third place in all of USL Championship (along with teammate Dayne St Clair) and as a team SAFC’s six clean sheets is best in all of USL Championship. No other team has more than four.
Defender Hunter Gorskie talked about the defensive performances, "The moral is really high. We want to keep this unbeaten streak going, so obviously we enjoy it. The secret is all 11 guys on the field put in the work. I can’t tell you how much easier my job is when all the guys in front of us working as hard as they can to make our job easy.”
San Antonio FC was plenty busy in off-field news this week as well. First, there was a little bit of controversy in SAFC’s win over Tulsa regarding a late substitution in the 92nd minute. It was San Antonio’s 4th substitute of that match, with each sub happening individually. Technically that’s a no-no as current league rules state that a team’s 5 substitutions need to occur over no more than three separate change opportunities, not counting Halftime.
The outlined punishment for this offence is a 3-0 forfeit of the match plus a monetary fine. This amounted to a lose-lose situation for the League. Either they had to reverse a clear on-field result due to a late substitution that had a minimal impact on the outcome, or they essentially had to look past their own rules. In the end, USL decided that while their officials made a mistake, a forfeit wasn’t warranted because SAFC didn’t exceed the 5 allowed substitutions.
It’s fair to say SAFC dodged a big bullet with this ruling and hopefully the coaching staff learned a lesson going forward for the rest of 2020. As for the fallout, at least one National reporter, Jeff Rueter, suggested that many around the league felt SAFC deserved the forfeit.
In more positive off-field news, SAFC announced on Tuesday that fans will be welcomed back in a limited capacity for their remaining home games. The club will cap attendance at 2,000 fans, or 25% capacity, and the opportunity is only available to the Club’s Season Ticket Members. Fans attending matches should expect strict safety protocols such as temperature checks and mandatory masks.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to welcome back a select number of our Season Ticket Members to SAFC home matches at Toyota Field,” said SAFC Managing Director Tim Holt. “With this opportunity comes an associated responsibility to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for fans and participants. Because of this, we will introduce health protocols and a modified, socially-distanced seating arrangement that has been developed over the past several months in consultation with health professionals and league officials.”
Finally, two players parted ways with the club. Midfielder Jesus Enriquez and Forward Tabort Etaka Preston. Neither was a big contributor to SAFC’s season as the two players combined for only one start. Neither player had a goal nor an assist. SAFC’s roster stands at 23 players after the moves. Enriquez signed with Reno 1868 on Wednesday.
As for SAFC’s opponent this week, RGV-FC continues to struggle this season as they lost for the sixth time in nine games over the weekend. The latest was a 3-2 loss to Austin. RGV only have three points this season and they have a negative eleven goal differential. That puts them 24 behind SAFC in that category, but more importantly they are in last place in Group D and trail SAFC by 18 points. With 7 games left for both teams, it’s a safe bet RGV-FC will not catch San Antonio.
RGV added an exciting prospect at the end of July when the Houston Dynamo signed United States U-20 National Teamer Ian Hoffman who was previously in Germany with Karlsruher SC. The plan is for him to spend 2020 with the Toros.
Nobody for RGV has scored more than one single goal this season, but 7 different players have tallied. Carter Manley and Robert Coronado lead the team with 2 Assists each while Isidro Martinez leads with 13 Chances Created.
Paul Blanchette continues with the nod in goal, putting up 24 saves but also allowing 14 goals through his eight appearances. He has one clean sheet. Robert Castellanos is far and away the main cog in their defense leading the team with an eye opening 70 clearances. Nobody else has more than 26 for RGV.
Last time SAFC went down to the Valley they gave up a late goal and let two points slip away. It hasn’t hurt them to this point, but you can bet SAFC will be looking for some redemption this time around.
Forward Ignacio Bailone adds, “We're doing things right, we're in good form, our group has adapted and if we have to play against the same rivals multiple times, we look at how our initial match-ups go so that we can improve at the next one."
Getting three more road points off a Texas rival would definitely meet that improvement standard.
The Matchup (W-D-L)
San Antonio FC (6-3-0, 21 points)
at RGV-FC (0-3-6, 3 points)
HEB Park, Friday August 28th, 2020
Kickoff 7:00pm Central Time
Table Position
Current Form (W-D-L)
San Antonio FC - 2020 Road Record (2-2-0)
W-D-D-W-W
RGV FC – 2020 Home Record (0-1-2)
L-L-L-D-L
All Time History (W-D-L)
Friday will mark the 15th all-time meeting between the two clubs. RGV FC is the most common league opponent for SAFC in their history. After RGV FC won 4 of the first 6 matches between these two clubs, San Antonio has improved in the match-up, but RGV maintains the edge in this series. All time SAFC is (4-5-5) against their Texas rivals with RGV leading the series 20 points to 17.
Season Series
7/19/20 @ RGV DRAW 1-1
7/25/20 @ SA W 1-0
8/29/20 @ RGV
9/5/20 @ SA
Last Time
San Antonio FC defeated RGV FC 1-0 on July 25th behind a second half Gonzalo Di Renzo goal that stood up for the victory. It was Di Renzo’s first goal of the season. Dayne St Clair recorded a clean sheet in goal.
Here are the Match Highlights:
SAFC Wins If :
…if they can finally be dominant against RGV-FC. San Antonio FC have had two tight games with a team that is proving to be the far inferior side. The hard part of the schedule is over for San Antonio and they will finally have a decent amount of rest before this game. And SAFC has been very good at HEB Park, only losing one time in five matches. They certainly don’t want to stumble against the last place team in the Group in front of a National TV audience.
SAFC Awards
Defender Mitchell Taintor was named to USL Championship Team of the Week on Tuesday. Taintor completed 89 of his 124 passes over two games last week. He also scored his first goal of 2020 in the 3-0 win over OKC Energy FC.
Taintor is the only player to have played every minute for SAFC this season.
IMAGES: SAFC TWITTER, RGV-FC TWITTER
PHOTOS: DARREN ABATE, INSTAGRAM: @PEAKACTION