San Antonio FC (16-10-8) has played RGV-FC (14-8-12) twenty times in their history. The 21st time will long be remembered in San Antonio beacuse of what it meant. SAFC evicerated their biggest rivals 3-1 on Saturday night at Toyota Field in front of a Sell Out crowd of 7,966 fans. The win advanced San Antonio FC to their first ever appearance in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio FC are now one win away from their first trip to the USL Championship Cup. They will travel to play Orange County SC next weekend in what will be the first ever road Playoff game in SAFC's history.
San Antonio's Forwards are coming up huge in the post-season thus far. Santiago Patiño lead the way for San Antonio scoring a brace with goals in each half. Patiño now has three goals in the 2021 Playoffs to lead SAFC. San Antonio Forward Nathan put the exclamation point on the proceedings with his second half goal which gave SAFC a 3-0 lead. Nathan is right behind Patiño with two Playoff goals.
Only a late penalty kick awarded to RGV-FC could break the shutout, but make no mistake, this night belonged to SAFC in every way. San Antonio put up 13 shots with 8 of those coming from inside RGV's box and an impressive 46% shooting accuracy on the night.
This was the first ever post-season meeting between the two south Texas rivals. The match split the tie as both teams have 7 all time wins and 6 draws in league play against each other. RGV-FC upset top seed Phoenix Rising in penalty kicks last week but could not duplicate the effort in San Antonio.
Said SAFC Manager Alen Marcina after the match, "We had a sold out stadium. We do this for our fans. It was so loud they are so passionate. Players feed off that energy.RGV FC is an excellent team. They gave everything hats off to them. They battled really hard and played good soccer. At the same time, our guys were effective with and without the ball. Not only did we perform, but we executed at a high rate.”
Patiño got things rolling for San Antonio in the 24' when SAFC Midfielder Jose Gallegos put a shot on frame that was saved by RGV-FC Keeper Colin Miller. But Patiño was there to pounce on the rebound and Miller had no chance to make a second save, and with that it was 1-0 to the home side.
San Antonio would double their lead when Patiño secured his brace with his second half goal in the 55'. Patiño controlled a pop up in the middle of the RGV box, settled himself quickly and before you could blink the ball was in the back of the net and SAFC were feeling it up comfortably 2-0. At that point the Toyota Field faithful, many no doubt still savoring the 2-0 USA win over Mexico on Friday night, took to chanting "Dos A Cero!" at an RGV-FC club that looked beaten even with 35 minutes to play.
SAFC Forward Nathan would add the exclamation point just six minutes later when he recived a Gallegos pass in the RGV box in stride and buried his shot for the commanding 3-0 lead.
RGV's Elvis Amoh would score a penalty in the 69' which would account for all of their offense on the evening. They would get no closer as SAFC was busy writing a new page in their history books.
Patiño talked about his successful return from his lengthy injury this season after the match. “The club, the organization, my teammates have done an incredible job during the time I was out to stay with me the whole time, helping me with recovery when I came back. Everybody welcomed me and the coaching staff – the buildup of the minutes that I had was incredible and it helped me so much to get fit. That’s the biggest part. The soccer part you don’t lose as much, it’s more the fitness component. We did an incredible job with that and I’m just happy to help the team.”
Next up for San Antonio FC will be their first ever appearance in the Western Conference Championship game. They will face Orange County SC on the road for the right to play in the USL Championship Cup. The match is Saturday night November 20th at 9pm. SAFC will host a watch party for fans at The Winchester on Broadway.
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PHOTO: DARREN ABATE / INSTAGRAM: @PEAKACTION