Juan Agudelo scores team’s second brace of the season
SAN ANTONIO (July 26, 2025) – San Antonio FC advanced to the USL Jägermeister Cup knockout stage with a 2-2 draw against New Mexico United (3-0 PK) Saturday at Toyota Field.
Andres Paredes delivered a brilliant cross from distance to Juan Agudelo in the box, who poked in the opening goal for San Antonio in the 8th minute.
Agudelo then secured his first brace of the season, intercepting a pass from a New Mexico defender and chipping in the finish to put SAFC up 2-0 in the 51st minute.
New Mexico was able to equalize in the final ten minutes of play, scoring a pair of goals in second-half stoppage time. SAFC fell 0-3 in the following penalty kick shootout, but its regulation point was enough to secure the team’s spot in the upcoming knockout round.
As winners of Group 2, SAFC will host Hartford Athletic in a USL Jägermeister Cup quarterfinal Wednesday, August 20 at Toyota Field.
Scoring Summary:
SA: Juan Agudelo (Assisted by Andres Paredes) 8’
SA: Juan Agudelo 51’
NM: Valentine Noel 90+2’
NM: Dayonn Harris (Assisted by Talen Maples) 90+9’
Penalty Summary: NM wins 3-0
NM: Greg Hurst (scored)
SA: Jorge Hernandez (saved)
NM: Mukwelle Akale (scored)
SA: Mitchell Taintor (missed)
NM: Talen Maples (scored)
SA: Harvey Neville (missed)
Next Up
San Antonio FC returns to league play Saturday, August 2, hosting Sacramento Republic FC at Toyota Field. Kickoff is set for 8:00 p.m. CT, and the match will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network and ESPN+. The 10th anniversary season is presented by Toyota.
Postgame Notes:
- SAFC closes out the group stage going 4-0-1, winning Group 2 with 10 points.
- Forward Juan Agudelo scored his second and third goals of the Jägermeister Cup, giving him four across all competitions this season.
- Agudelo scored the team’s second brace of the season and the third of his SAFC career.
- Midfielder Andres Paredes recorded his second assist in as many matches, also assisting the game-winning goal July 12 against Tampa Bay.
- Defender Harvey Neville made his first club start after subbing on in the team’s previous match against Tampa Bay.
- Midfielder Jorge Hernandez made his first appearance back from injury.
- Goalkeeper Joey Batrouni made two saves in the match.
Attendance: 6,092
SAFC Starting XI: Joey Batrouni, Alex Crognale, Mitchell Taintor (Captain), Rece Buckmaster, Harvey Neville, Almir Soto (Diogo Pacheco 79’), Nicky Hernandez (Alexis Souahy 62’), Lucio Berron, Luke Haakenson (Jorge Hernandez 62’), Andres Paredes (Landry Walker 77’), Juan Agudelo (Jake LaCava 62’)
Substitutions Not Used: Dmitrii Erofeev, Shannon Gomez, Dyllan Mendoza, Daniel Namani
Disciplinary Summary:
NM: Yellow Card (Will Seymore) 10’
SA: Yellow Card (Luke Haakenson) 10’
NM: Yellow Card (Ousman Jabang) 20’
SA: Yellow Card (Nicky Hernandez) 47’
NM: Yellow Card (Talen Maples) 73’
SA: Yellow Card (Diogo Pacheco) 82’
NM: Yellow Card (Valentine Noel) 82’
NM: Yellow Card (Jaylin Lindsey) 85’
SA: Yellow Card (Mitchell Taintor) 88’
SA: Yellow Card (Rece Buckmaster) 90+4’
NM: Yellow Card (Chris Gloster) 90+5’
Quotes:
Head Coach Carlos Llamosa
(On the result…)
“Strange match. This is what we expected, a team who’s really good in possession. That’s what we practiced during the week, trying to deny possession, but I said, they’re very patient putting passes in the back. If they don’t find the forward pass, they just keep it. They put together a lot of passes tonight, and we couldn’t deny that possession, but with the deeper block, we were better closing the gaps. In the first half, they only had one shot. In the second half, they keep the possession again, but they didn’t have any shots until the last minutes of the game at extra time. As I was saying the last couple of games, we create chances, and we need to be more clinical. You know, the game could’ve gone another direction. At the end of the second half, we created chances. We have a lot, three or four, one-vs-ones against their goalie, and we missed those, so if we score more goals, I think we kill the game at the end, and there’s no hope for the other team with that score.”
(On conceding two goals in the final minutes…)
“Yeah, it’s always worse when you had the lead at the 90th minute. Two-zero, and then you concede two goals in that time, it always sucks. We’re not happy about that. I don’t think the players are happy about that. I know we won the group and we went through. We move on, but as I said, this is a team that we’re going to see again later in the season, so we need to learn from this game tonight, and be better against them and any opponents here.”
(On if New Mexico’s comeback taught the group a lesson…)
“Definitely, it’s like a good wake up call for everybody. It’s not like we didn’t get chances. No, we scored two goals and we created four more chances. It wasn’t like 50-50 chances. They were basically our forwards and the goalkeeper, so those opportunities, we need to be clinical. We need to have the killer instinct. Our forwards have to be better.”
Defender Alex Crognale
(On the team’s performance…)
“It was a weird match. They dominated possession, but we had, I think, a lot more chances than they did, a lot more shots on target. They kept the ball in their back half with their defenders and midfielders, but they weren’t particularly dangerous, and then on the counterattack, I think we were really dangerous, but then, you go up two goals, and then you miss a few chances where I think it could have easily been four-zero this game. Things happen, 10 minutes of stoppage time, an unlucky injury with Andres [Paredes] and so the game presents these scenarios, and we just have to respond in a good way and in the knockout round to be ready to go.”
(On how to respond after a tough match…)
“Yeah, it fuels us. I mean, it’s a long season. There’s always going to be ups and downs, so you never want to get too high or too low, and I think, given the circumstances, I think we played well tonight. We finish a few chances, and this game looks a lot different, and we’re having a different conversation, so definitely not concerned by any stretch. We will regroup and get back to league play and focus on league play until the knockout rounds.”
(On positives from the night…)
“I think we fought really hard as a group. I think we worked really hard defensively. We created chances, and, you know, other than the chances we gave up at the end, I thought we were good defensively, so, you know, we need to make Toyota Field our fortress, and it’s got to be hard to come and win games here. That needs to be the mentality, and the rest of the league needs to know that for the rest of the season.”
Forward Juan Agudelo
(On the result…)
“They are a good team, but I think we got to look at ourselves and what we could have done better. It felt like we had the chances to finish off the game and the last 15-20 minutes were just tough.”
(On his two goals…)
“It played out the same way that I played out against Tampa. I had a chance when Andres [Paredes] played the ball. Beautiful ball, and I was just ready for it, just in case it happened again, so I could give him an assist and so he could keep doing it. It just came across and I tried to hit it on target with enough power to have the goalie have some trouble with it, so I’m very glad that it went in, and then on the second goal, similar thing, just get it on target and good things will happen.”
(On the team working together in the match…)
“We were dogs out there. This is a team that when we play against them, we’re building some sort of rivalry. I feel like we’re going to see them maybe once or twice this season again. We really wanted to beat them. I could see it in the coaches’ energy and our coaches’ energy. I could see it in our players, the way we were hustling, fighting, fouling, so I really want to see them again, because we’re trying to we’re trying to beat them.”
