Aiming to climb further in the USL Championship Western Conference playoff race, San Antonio FC has a tough task ahead of them when the top club in the league comes to Toyota Field on Saturday.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies (15-4-6, 51 points), who have the best record in the USL, and SAFC (9-6-10, 37 points) kickoff their match at 7:30 p.m.
SAFC comes into the match after drawing Sacramento Republic FC 0-0 on the road Sunday. The tie allowed San Antonio to inch up in the Western Conference table, jumping from seventh to sixth, as they aim to overtake several clubs ahead of them in the conference standings – FC Tulsa (10-7-7, 37 points), fifth; Lexington SC (11-10-4, 37 points), fourth; and Colorado Springs Switchbacks (11-9-5, 38 points), third.
SAFC coach Carlos Llamosa said his club was is in good spirits and rested up.
“It’s been a positive week after a tough game in Sacramento,” Llamosa said. “I’m excited for the next game. We’re playing the best team in the league and those big games are always exciting and motivation for every player in the world.”
San Antonio faces a Tampa Bay squad, which has already clinched a playoff berth and is on its way to taking the top spot in USL Eastern Conference table. The Rowdies are are eight points ahead of second place Charleston Battery in the Eastern standings with five games remaining in the regular season.
The Rowdies are solid on both sides of the ball. Tampa Bay is second in the USL in goals scored (45) led by forward Matt Myers, who has 12 goals, placing him as one of the top seven scorers in the league.
Tampa Bay has one of the stoutest defensives in the USL with a league leading 13 clean sheets and has conceded 23 goals, the third lowest in the league. Rowdies goalkeeper Jahmali Waite has 11 clean sheets, tied for the best in the league, with 50 saves.
Llamosa said it will be a tough task for SAFC to breakdown Tampa Bay’s defense, but there could be an opening for San Antonio to get the win, as the Rowdies have cooled off recently, winning only two of their last five matches, although they shutout Birmingham Legion FC 4-0 last Saturday.
“It’s not an accident that they are atop of the league,” Llamosa said. “They’re a very good team on both sides of the ball and they’re a tough team to breakdown and create chances against. But as I say, we’re training. We’re doing a lot of good things yet to try to break their block. Only thing is we just need one goal. Last year we played in the same situation, they were coming and had a run, we just needed one goal to win last year. So, hopefully this time is the same.”
Forward Diogo Pacheco, who played in his first game in Sacramento coming back from an injury, echoed Llamosa’s assertion the club needs to do more to create and take advantage of scoring opportunities.
“We had games where we created a lot, we couldn’t score,” Pacheco said. “We had other games we created three chances and we score. So, this league is very tight. I mean you look at the table. Every week, one win, one loss can change everything and we’re looking at every game now like a final and coming back home in front of our fans against Tampa, one of the best teams in the league, we have to perform and most importantly, put the chances that we have in the net.”
Pacheco and forwards Andres Paredes and Christian Sorto are coming off injuries and could make an impact for SAFC, which has only scored one goal in its last four matches. For Paredes, the Sacramento match was his first appearance this season after being signed by club in August.
Defensively, San Antonio has held its own, getting clean sheets in three of its last four matches, the exception being a 2-1 road loss to Colorado Springs on Sept. 11. At the net, goalkeeper Joey Batrouni has had a breakout season for SAFC with 59 saves, tied for seventh best in the league.
Batrouni came up with one of his best performances of the season in Sacramento, making five saves as he earned his seventh clean sheet of the year, tied for eighth-most in the league. It was also the ninth clean sheet overall for SAFC, tied for fourth best in the USL.
Defender Alex Crognale said its important for the club to maintain its defensive identity while it looks to secure a playoff spot in the final five matches of the regular season.
“It’s important that we’re keeping clean sheets and playing well defensively,” Crognale said. “So, we just have to continue to grow into that and make sure defensively we’re locked down first. But we need to find ways to be confident and get that killer instinct back to put balls in the back of the net.”
Subscribe
There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at SAFC to host USL Championship leading Tampa Bay.
About the Author
