Win points opportunity and 3-goal lead wasted in draw
San Antonio FC was in control of the game. Until it wasn’t. A chaotic comeback from San Diego Loyal turned a 3-0 halftime lead for SAFC into a 3-3 draw Saturday at Toyota Field.
“We were in complete control of the game,” San Antonio coach Alen Marcina said. “Certain decisions change games. I’m proud of my guys for playing down a man for so long and fighting as hard as they did.”
San Antonio scored its three goals in the first 20 minutes of the game. San Diego scored its three in the final 20 minutes. For 70 minutes San Antonio was trying to hold on with 10 men after a controversial sending off of Tani Oluwaseyi in the 20th minute.
The draw kept San Antonio in third in the west with 23 points. San Diego remains in fourth with 21 points. San Antonio was, however, able to push its home unbeaten streak to 25 games in a row — just not in the way it wanted.
“This is two points lost,” San Antonio FC goalkeeper Jordan Farr said. “It’s frustrating. It starts with the first goal and then it cascades. It comes down to us as a team. We all take this as a loss to be fair. We refuse to make excuses. At this point its about putting this behind us.”
San Antonio was first on the board in the third minute when Mitchell Taintor played a ball into the box that Tani Oluwaseyi got on the end of and headed into the goal. Taintor later put San Antonio FC up 3-0 in the 16th
minute.
“It was my first goal and first assist this season,” Taintor said. “It was good to help the team with a goal and an assist.”
Two minutes later San Antonio went up 2-0 in the fifth minute when Rida Zouhir scored from a free kick just outside the San Diego 18-yard box.
Controversy began in the 12th minute when Oluwaseyi was given a yellow card for a foul on San Diego that didn’t seem to warrant a yellow card.
Four minutes later San Antonio went in front 3-0 off a free kick when Taintor redirected a rebound into the goal. During the goal celebration Oluwaseyi appeared to say something to San Diego’s coach Nate Miller. Miller went to the fourth official to complain and the referees conferenced before showing Oluwaseyi a second yellow for dissent. By rule the second yellow was followed by a red
card and San Antonio FC was forced to defend their 3-0 lead with only 10 men on the field.
“If that red card doesn’t happen, we are looking at a very different game,” Taintor said. “It would have been a different score line if not for that red card.”
San Antonio had more issues with the refs near the end of the half when San Diego’s Grant Stoneman kicked high on the leg of Mohammed Abu outside of the field of play. In most cases it would have warranted a red card but on Saturday night Stoneman was only shown a yellow card.
“I thought that should have been a red on Stoneman,” Taintor said. “It was a horrible tackle.”
San Diego finally broke through for its first goal in the 75th minute when sub Ronaldo Dumas shot in from just outside the 18yard box to cut San Antonio’s lead to 3-1.
Four minutes passed before San Diego moved even closer on a goal from Evan Conway in the 79th minute.
San Antonio held on to its 3-2 lead almost until the final whistle but San Diego equalized in stoppage time when Damus scored his second goal on a header off of a corner kick.
“We have a lot of positives to take from this,” Marcina said. “I felt we deserved the three points but we take the one point and move on with our undefeated streak intact.”
San Antonio will conclude the three-game homestand next Saturday night against El Paso at 8 p.m. San Antonio and San Diego meet again in San Diego on June 14.