San Antonio FC wraps up a three-match home stand this Saturday night when they face newly rebranded FC Tulsa for the second time this month. As with the last time these two sides faced off, both teams lead the way in Group D. This is the second of three meetings between the two teams this season and the only one at Toyota Field.
Both teams are coming off mid-week action. San Antonio FC dominated OKC Energy 4-0. Meanwhile FC Tulsa had a home match with Austin Bold, drawing 2-2. Both teams remain undefeated but FC Tulsa only has two wins to SAFC’s five, and most importantly, San Antonio holds an 8 point advantage entering the game. FC Tulsa does have two games in hand on SAFC.
Things continue to roll for San Antonio. Matt Cardone notched his second clean sheet of the season on Wednesday night. He has only allowed one goal in three games. And offensively things took a giant step forward as four different players scored for SAFC including two players who scored their first ever goals wearing the black and red, Mitchell Taintor and Victor “PC” Giro, the latter by way of a penalty kick.
The overall numbers are starting to rise to new heights. It was the third multi goal game for SAFC this season and they have 9 different goal scorers through 8 games. San Antonio is now tied for third in goal scoring in all of USL Championship with fifteen Goals and they are first in all of USL Championship in clean sheets with five. Those are big time league rankings for a team that hasn’t been known for their gaudy statistics in past seasons. Halfway through the 2020 season, it sure feels like Alen Marcina is building something special with this group.
The goal scoring is particularly interesting when you realize no individual player for SAFC is ranked higher than 17th in the league. It’s a true team effort from Marcina’s squad.
Said the Manager, “It’s the total buy-in to the team culture. This is the work of many people from the front office and technical staff to the players. It’s about the total buy-in to the team culture that we have put forth.”
Maybe the most impressive part of Wednesday’s win was how SAFC kept swarming the ball in OKC’s end, even with a 4-0 lead. They never turned off their attack and they strangled OKC’s game plan into submission, making them work for every inch on the pitch.
Forward Luis Solignac talked about that effort, “We work really hard on and off the ball. We know there are games where we aren’t going to be good on the ball, but we still fight until the end…I think that is our identity, to fight all the time. I think that is the key to why we are unbeaten – we are really hard to beat and we work really hard.”
Solignac also had a bit of history on Wednesday night. His goal was the 200th goal in the history of San Antonio FC.
FC Tulsa comes into the match off a 2-2 draw with Austin on Wednesday night. Midfielder Rodrigo Da Costa and Dario Suarez both lead the team with 2 Goals. Six different players have an Assist, and Ariel Martinez and Lebo Moloto each lead the team in Chances Created with six each.
Sean Lewis is the man in goal for FC Tulsa. He has 19 saves in six appearances with two clean sheets and five goals conceded. Bradley Bourgeois leads the FC Tulsa Defense with 24 clearances.
This match officially kicks off the second half of the season for San Antonio FC. Both teams are undefeated but SAFC has three more wins than Tulsa and on paper seems to have the upper hand entering this match. A win in this game would send them 11 points clear of Tulsa with only 7 games to play. That’s a position SAFC would love to find themselves in come Sunday morning.
The Matchup (W-D-L)
FC Tulsa (2-4-0, 10 points)
at San Antonio FC (5-3-0, 18 points)
Toyota Field, Saturday August 22nd, 2020
Kickoff 8:00pm Central Time
Table Position
Current Form (W-D-L)
San Antonio FC - 2020 Home Record (3-1-0)
W-W-D-D-W
FC Tulsa – 2020 Road Record (2-2-0)
D-W-W-D-D
All Time History (W-D-L)
Saturday will mark the 13th all-time meeting between the two clubs including one meeting in the Open Cup and once in USL Playoffs. This will be their second meeting as FC Tulsa.
As the Roughnecks, San Antonio finished 5-2-2 against Tulsa in league play and 6-2-3 against the Roughnecks in all competitions, including the only playoff win in Club History; a 2-1 victory at Toyota Field in October 2017.
SAFC are 0-1-0 against the newly rebranded FC Tulsa. All time SAFC are 6-3-3 against the Tulsa organization.
Season Series
8/12/20 @ TUL DRAW, 0-0
8/22/20 @ SA
9/26/20 @ TUL
Last Time
On August 12th, San Antonio FC and FC Tulsa played to a gritty 0-0 draw at ONEOK Field. It was the first time ever that SAFC earned a draw in the stadium. It was a tightly fought defensive battle that saw 6 combined yellow cards issued in the match. It was also the final start for SAFC Keeper Dayne St Clair before he was recalled to Minnesota United.
Here are the match highlights:
SAFC Wins If :
…if they can finish off the most grueling part of their schedule. San Antonio only has one more midweek game this season, so if they can come out of this stretch of games with a double-digit points lead, they will be in tremendous position to win the Group. They have played with a refreshing tenacity, a balanced offense, a renewed defense and a true team fighting effort through the first half of the season. More of that, please.
IMAGES: SAN ANTONIO FC TWITTER
PHOTOS: DARREN ABATE, INSTAGRAM: @PEAKACTION