SACRAMENTO, Calif. — San Antonio FC concluded their two-match California road trip with a 1-3 lopsided loss to Sacramento Republic FC at Heart Health Park on Saturday night.
The Story: The result sees San Antonio’s unbeaten snapped at four matches, owning a 1-1-3 record over the past five matches and collecting six out of a possible 15 points in that stretch.
- Sacramento scored early after SAFC defender Connor Maloney took down Republic’s Jack Gurr inside the box just two minutes into the match. That would result in the home side taking the lead on a penalty kick from Sebastian Herrera in the seventh minute.
- Ignacio Bailone’s goal in the 74th minute was his fourth of the season, the second-most on the team.
“We’re as a collective disappointed with the result, to go down a goal that early,” SAFC Head Coach Alen Marcina said after the match. “It was disappointing. We fought hard to try and come back and got one back, unfortunately, had a player sent off and made it difficult.”
Diving in: Sacramento’s defense made things difficult for San Antonio in the first half, not allowing the visitors to get anything set up on the offensive side of the ball.
- SAFC’s injuries have played a part in their issues on the defensive side of the ball. PC missed the match with a lower-body injury while Lamar Batista was suspended on yellow card accumulation.
“The boys went down in the eighth minute, I take full responsibility for that one. Took a guy down in the box, gotta take that one on the chin and learn from it, and do anything and everything this week to make it up,” Maloney said.
Seeing red: With San Antonio trailing 1-2 in the final minutes of the game, frustration boiled over as goalkeeper Jordan Farr was shown a red card and ejected from the match. Defender Mitch Taintor was given a red card of his own moments later, putting SAFC to finish the match with nine men.
- SAFC defender Fabien Garcia took Farr’s place following his ejection as acting goalkeeper. On the very next play, Sacramento scored their third goal on a free kick from Luis Felipe.
- With PC injured and his status unclear for next weekend, San Antonio will also be without the reigning Goalkeeper of the Year in Farr as well as their top defender in Taintor.
- As they did a year ago, San Antonio will need to find ways to win. With just eight points separating second and eighth place, every point will matter in a tight Western Conference.
“I think he [Alen Marcina] does a good job of having a mindset shift to the next game,” Maloney said of the team’s mindset. “This is a marathon not a sprint. There’s always the next game, and the next game is Birmingham. So we have our focus on that right now, and we’ve got to be ready.”
UP NEXT: San Antonio FC is now 6-3-7 (25 points) on the season and will return to the pitch next Saturday to face Birmingham Legion FC at 8 p.m. at Toyota Field.
