SAFC shut out for just the second time this season
SAN ANTONIO (June 5, 2024) – San Antonio fell to El Paso Locomotive FC 0-1 Saturday, dropping to 4-4-5 on the season with 17 points.
After a physical first half between the rivals, El Paso struck in the 65th minute, converting a free kick from just outside the box to put the visitors up.
The loss was San Antonio’s first at home since July 22, 2023, breaking an unbeaten streak that included 15 USL Championship matches between the regular season and playoffs.
Next Up
San Antonio FC hits the road to face FC Tulsa Saturday, June 8. Kickoff from ONEOK Field is set for 7:30 p.m. CT, and the match will be broadcast on ESPN+ and Bally Sports Southwest. This season is presented by Toyota.
Scoring Summary
ELP: Brandan Craig 65’
Postgame Notes:
- SAFC moves to 4-4-5 on the season with 17 points, sitting in 5th place in the Western Conference.
- Forward Jake LaCava makes his club debut and first start since his transfer to SAFC Monday.
- Defender Richard Windbichler makes his first start in league play.
- The loss snaps a 15-match unbeaten streak at Toyota Field. SAFC is 21-3-18 at home since the start of the 2022 season.
- SAFC Pro Academy product Gio Padilla and Izaiah Garza made their first-ever appearances in USL play. Padilla previously featured in SAFC’s 2022 and 2023 U.S. Open Cup runs.
- Goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh made three saves in the match.
Attendance: 5,805
SAFC Starting XI: Kendall McIntosh, Richard Windbichler, Kendall Burks, Mitchell Taintor (captain), Carter Manley (Gio Padilla 9’), Luke Haakenson, Jorge Hernandez, Jake LaCava, Kameron Lacey (Izaiah Garza 84’), Hugo Mbongue (Jose Mulato 52’), Juan Agudelo
Substitutions Not Used: Eduardo Fernandez, Brandon Gongora, Landry Walker
Disciplinary Summary:
ELP: Yellow Card (Liam Rose) 23’
ELP: Yellow Card (Tony Alfaro) 30’
SA: Yellow Card (Hugo Mbongue) 53’
SA: Yellow Card (Jorge Hernandez) 78’
ELP: Yellow Card (Ricardo Zacarias) 90+6’
Quotes:
Head Coach Alen Marcina
(On the loss…)
“Yeah, we deserve more from that game. The game can be cruel at times. You know we had, going into this game, nine players out international duty and injury. You have one of our pros, Carter Manley, go down five, six minutes into the match, so we’re facing a lot of adversity, needless to say, and that’s probably roughly over six weeks and again, the guys fought over the course of the game. I felt we definitely earned more than we got tonight. So right now we just make best efforts to recover as best we can and then focus is on Tulsa.”
(On moving on to Tulsa Saturday…)
“Yeah, it’s done now, so always we have postgame quick reflection and right now it’s recovering. We have a game in two days. It’s maybe less than ideal to have three games in eight days with so few bodies but we’re mentality monsters, right? We’ll get through this again. The adversity will end, and come later on in the season, I think we’ll definitely have the most resilient team that exists in the league.”
Defender Mitchell Taintor
(On positives to take away from the match…)
“I hate the word excuse and just saying we’re low on bodies, but it’s kind of a makeshift team, jigsaw puzzle at the moment. You know, we get one guy back in Carter [Manley], and then he goes down, so we’re juggling a lot of pieces right now, and regardless of where El Paso is in the table, I said earlier, they’re a fantastic team with a lot of quality. They’re experienced guys as well, and with where we’re at, I felt like we played a really good game and deserved more from it, so I’m gonna go watch the tape and the positives with Gio Padilla playing a fantastic game, blocking up their guys in his first pro game, Richard getting his first 90 minutes here. I thought he played a good game as well. Guys are playing out of position and you know, we want to win. We need to win. It’s what we want here, so it’s going to come, but these are the positives that we need to take.”
Defender Kendall Burks
(On the team pushing forward after falling behind…)
“Guys are resilient. I think we have nine guys out. Hats off to the guys that came on. I think we had two academy guys make their debuts tonight. They played really, really well when they came on, couldn’t ask more of them. Gio [Padilla] was outstanding, and I thought he defended really well. We just got to keep going. Numbers are really, really low. We have guys with national team duty and obviously a lot of injuries, and we just need to get healthy and just keep going forward. It’s a long season.”
