San Antonio FC

San Antonio FC

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MATCH PREVIEW: San Antonio FC vs Austin Bold FC, 8/15/2020

San Antonio FC returns home for the first of three straight games at Toyota Field starting this Saturday night against regional rivals Austin Bold FC. It will be the second of four meetings between the two Texas clubs this season. SAFC drew first blood two weeks ago with a 4-2 win in Austin. San Antonio has won both of their home games so far in 2020.

San Antonio FC announced on August 6th that no fans will be allowed for any of the three games on this current home stand.

San Antonio enters the match with a 5-point lead over FC Tulsa in Group D after those two teams played to a gritty 0-0 draw in Oklahoma on Wednesday night. They have an 8-point lead over the third place Bold, but the Bold do have two games in hand on SAFC.

Manager Alen Marcina talked about the team’s mentality after a successful road trip. “The standards that the guys have set as a collective are very high here. We hold each other accountable to those standards. At the same time, we are one of the handful of teams that remain undefeated in the league, so it’s something to be proud of at this point. We will continue to build and progress.”

Keeper Dayne St Clair added his 3rd clean sheet of the season on Wednesday which is tied with Rafael Diaz of Sacramento Republic for best in USL Championship West. SAFC’s best Offensive player, Cristian Parano, was not involved on Wednesday. Expect that to change on Saturday night.

USL Championship - RGV FC Toros vs San Antonio FC

Austin comes into this match more rested than SAFC as they have not played since last weekend. They dominated RGV FC by a 4-1 score to earn their first win since the restart. Ismalia Jome had a brace for Austin and former SAFC player Billy Forbes also scored for the Bold in the win. Saturday will be the first road match of 2020 for Austin Bold.

The Bold added a new player since the first meeting against San Antonio. Austin native Nathaniel Adamolekun, a Forward. He’s a 21 year-old who scored 8 goals last year in Austria and has Lonestar SC and Orlando City’s MLS Academy among his playing resume.

In the early going on Offense Forbes and Jome are the Goal scoring leaders with two each. Five different players have an Assist. Ema Twumasi and Sean McFarlane lead with five Chances Created each. Their conversion rate jumped to a Western leading 26% following the big win last weekend. Austin (79%) has a similar passing accuracy to SAFC (80%).

Diego Restrepo continues to be the man in between the pipes for the Bold. He has seven saves in four appearances and one clean sheet so far in 2020, conceding eight goals.

Fabien Garcia continues to lead the way with 14 clearances for the Bold on Defense and Jermaine Taylor is once again a focal point of the back line as well, with 12 clearances in the early going.

San Antonio FC are undefeated at home so far in 2020 and remain unbeaten through six games. With games against all three of the teams directly below them in the standings on this home stand, San Antonio FC could all but put Group D to bed with three more wins.

The Matchup (W-D-L)

Austin Bold FC (2-0-2, 6 points)

at San Antonio FC (4-2-0, 14 points)

Toyota Field, Saturday August 15th, 2020

Kickoff 8:00pm Central Time

Table Position

Current Form (W-D-L)

San Antonio FC - 2020 Home Record (2-0-0)

D-W-W-W-D

Austin Bold FC– 2020 Road Record (0-0-0)

W-L-L-W

All Time History (W-D-L)

Saturday will mark the fifth all time meeting between these two teams. San Antonio FC has won two straight games in the series. They are 2-0-1 vs the Bold in USL Championship play. San Antonio has also lost to Austin in Open Cup play for an all-time record of 2-0-2 against the Bold.

Season Series

8/1/20 @ ATX W 4-2

8/15/20 @ SA

9/16/20 @ SA

10/2/20 @ ATX

Last Time

It was San Antonio FC’s biggest offensive output of the season last time these two teams got together on August 1st, when SAFC battled to a 4-2 victory at Bold Stadium. SAFC jumped out to a 2-0 lead only to see Austin tie the game up on a Yaro own-goal. Parano scored a sensational winner and Solignac added his second goal of the night to seal the win for San Antonio.

Here are the match highlights:

SAFC Wins If :

…if they can manage this tough portion of the schedule. They already played twice in the last week and they’ll play three more times in eight days starting with Austin. If they can get through this gauntlet with two or three more wins, they will be in fantastic position to win Group D as the season hits the back half of the schedule. The team has shown they can be comfortable at Toyota Field both with and without fans in 2020.

IMAGES: SAN ANTONIO FC TWITTER, AUSTIN BOLD FC TWITTER

PHOTOS: DARREN ABATE, INSTAGRAM: @PEAKACTION


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