On a blustery, windy night at Toyota Field that turned surprisingly chilly, San Antonio was all warm and fuzzy on the inside thanks to goals by Forwards Bradford Jamieson IV and Ever Guzman as San Antonio FC recorded a 2-0 win against Los Angeles Galaxy II. The win gives San Antonio FC their first winning streak of the season.
Jamieson IV, who is on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy, could not hold back his smile in the locker room after the game, both on his face nor in his words, when asked about scoring on his parent team.
“You just have to smile about it. I think the work speaks for itself and obviously I couldn’t do this without my teammates working just as hard. The way the goals come out- a lot of guys cover a lot of distance to take advantage of chances, and again the work from the week came off on the weekend, so we’re happy to see it.”
Guzman has scored in back to back matches for the first time since October 2018, when he did so against Las Vegas and Texas rivals RGV FC. Jamieson IV also scored in back to back games. It was the second match in a row playing in a 3-4-3 formation, and it has paid obvious dividends so far for the Forwards who are now finding their goal scoring stride. It could have been 3 for 3 if Brian Gomez would have hit the target on a wide open net in the 18' on a rebound attempt. But it bounced to him on a tough angle and the ball sailed on him, just squeaking over the net.
Manager Darren Powell was also in good spirits after the match, and he spoke about the formation. “Any formation that we put out there is all about what we do when we have the ball and when we don’t. The organization right now is something we like and the players have been performing well on the field and executing in their roles very well, so now we’ll look at a couple of different ways of playing and as a staff we’ll look at what we want to do with and without the ball.”
Jamieson IV and Guzman got things going for SAFC early in the match in the 14' when IV played to a streaking Guzman in the open wing. Guzman delivered the ball back to IV across the LA box. His first shot was blocked by a defender but the ball came right back to IV. He would not miss his second opportunity as he slotted it past LA goal keeper Justin Vom Steeg into the left side of the goal for the early 1-0 San Antonio lead.
In the 35' San Antonio would put LA away when a long ball met Forward Brian Gomez at the top of the Galaxy box. Galaxy Keeper Vom Steeg charged out to make a punch on the ball but collided with Gomez in the process. The ball bounced to the left side of the box in perfect position for Ever Guzman to volley his strike home into the empty net giving San Antonio a 2-0 lead that they would carry until the final whistle. It was Guzman's third goal of the season to lead SAFC. Gomez was credited with an assist on the play, his first for SAFC.
San Antonio finished the match with their first clean sheet of the season after LA manged 0 shots on target for the match despite holding 58% possession. Remarkably, the game only had one corner kick in the match as well, for Galaxy.
Defender/Midfielder Kai Greene let out an audible sigh after the match when asked about finally shutting a team out and not allowing a late goal as they had done in each of the previous 5 matches.
“Man, this is a relief. It’s all about fighting and everyone fought for the guy next to them tonight. It took effort and we dug deep. We knew we had to secure the win but we also wanted to secure the clean sheet, and that’s exactly what we did. We have great momentum right now heading into our next match and everything is good right now.”
Next up for SAFC is a road trip to face Real Monarchs. San Antonio has won two straight matches on their ground.
The next home match for SAFC is Friday April 26th against a newly re-branded Tacoma Defiance. Fans might remember them as the former Seattle Sounders 2 team.
Tweet of the Night:
Scoring Summary:
SAFC: 1-0, Bradford Jamieson IV 14’
SAFC: 2-0, Ever Guzman (Brian Gomez assist) 35’
Disciplinary Summary:
SAFC: Yellow Card (Michael Lahoud) 22’
LA: Yellow Card (Diedie Traore) 73’
LA: Yellow Card (Ernesto Walker) 83’
SAFC: Yellow Card (Moises Hernandez) 90’
Attendance: 6,096
Match Notes: San Antonio Midfielder Leo Torres made his debut in the 18-man game day lineup for SAFC. While he didn't get into the match, it's another step closer for the SAFC Academy prospect. Torres is 15 years old.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
PHOTOS: DARREN ABATE/ USL CHAMPIONSHIP PHOTOGRAPHER/ INSTAGRAM: @PEAKACTION
IMAGES: SAN ANTONIO FC TWITTER