Full match highlights available here
Head Coach Alen Marcina
(On the win…)
“Very proud of the guys. It’s our second game of three games in eight days, so so far collecting six points is huge. Proud of the guys’ resilience, our intensity from start to finish we sustained, which is not an easy thing to do. The mentality has been fantastic from the players, incredibly proud of them for that. And we knew playing against a team like RGV, it’s always a battle. So well earned, well deserved three points and now it’s about recovery.”
(On what has changed since the 7/22 loss to Miami…)
“It was a great learning lesson. When we did reflect, we were the better team. But we were hoping things were going to happen rather than making things happen. And from that day on, I think the guys definitely learned, we were very critical. Guys understood, we didn’t perform at our best. And from that day on the intensity has been from start to finish, and the mindset – maybe a little bit of a shift from last year where it was you know ‘we don’t concede,’ this year it’s ‘we score one more than the opponent,’ right the objective of the game. But truly they’ve been demonstrating that through their behaviors saying ‘hey we concede, doesn’t matter that means we score two.’ So I’m proud of them for that, it’s not an easy thing to do.”
(On the team’s recent points gained from losing positions…)
“There are some things that we know we’ve got to get better at. It’s a season-long process, and as I mentioned maybe a little more than a month ago, there’s been some individual errors rather than a collective, that we’ve got to clean up and reduce those, especially in critical spaces on the field. But at the same time incredibly proud, because in the game of soccer anything can happen, we concede, our mentality is that we maintain the intensity. The heads don’t go down, and they’ve demonstrated that.”
Forward Santiago Patiño
(On his first match back in San Antonio…)
“It’s great to be here, before the game I was praying, I was thanking God to be back here. I think in Brazil, I grew so much, and I look at that experience like I’m a better player now … than I was before. So I just came here to help the team, and apply the experience that I gained over there.”
(On scoring in his first match back with the team…)
“I think San Antonio FC has shown the last couple years how competitive they are, how competitive we are at home, we know being in first place is a big advantage when it comes to playoff time. One of the reasons why we won it last year, … we knew playing at home, it was going to make it easier for us, and playing with our crowd is going to make a difference. Since I was here in 2021, we had to play away with the [Western Conference] Final with Orange County. We learned, and we know being first is a big advantage for us, and we’re going to fight to stay in that position, and to finish in that position.”
Defender Carter Manley
(On what stood out in the win…)
“I think the biggest thing was resilience, going down early and then not getting our heads down. I think early in the year, we probably struggled a little bit for the comeback but recently I think we’ve kicked it into another gear and heads don’t go down, we go back in and we keep fighting, we get the three points.”
(On what has changed with the team…)
“I think just mentality. I think we’ve been building into it all year, we’ve kicked it into another gear. I think I said this earlier but we’ve been trending up and up, we’ve had some speedbumps along the way but I think as this team continues through the season we’re just gelling together a lot more, we’re on the same page with each other, and we’re all bought in.”
Postgame Notes:
- San Antonio FC rises to 13-4-7 (46 points) on the season.
- SAFC has failed to score the first goal of the match in the last five of the last six, going 5-0-1 in the stretch
- SAFC leads the league in points gained from losing positions with 16.
- Forward Santiago Patiño scored in the second straight match, just his second match with SAFC this season.
- Midfielder Rida Zouhir’s goal in the 30th minute was his seventh of the season, second on the team.
- San Antonio FC has now won four straight matches, and seven of the last eight.
- The San Antonio defense has now gone seven-straight matches without allowing a goal in the second half.
- SAFC is now atop the Western Conference with 46 points, and trails Pittsburgh by just one point for the top spot in the league.
- SAFC leads the Copa Tejas standings, and can secure the trophy for a second-consecutive season with a win or draw on August 30 at RGV.
