Rested squad ready for tough road trip
Last week’s bye week came at a good time in the schedule for San Antonio FC, allowing the team to rest and recuperate after 11 games in 10 weeks.
The club returned to work this week preparing to return to league play on Saturday night with a trip to Albuquerque, N.M., where New Mexico United waits.
“We had a really productive week off and I think we made a lot of progress,” San Antonio defender Mitchell Taintor said. “We’re back to it this week. New Mexico is a fantastic team. They have done a lot of really good things this season.” While San Antonio FC (3-2-5, 14 points) was off, the rest of the league played. During the bye week, the club dropped from fifth in the USL Western Conference to sixth after Phoenix Rising jumped them with a win last week.
Despite sitting in sixth, San Antonio is just one point back of a threeway tie for third place. Quite the feat considering that San Antonio has not won since April 20. Instead SAFC has held it ground, somewhat, with back-to-back draws in league play.
“We are in and around where we desire to be,” San Antonio coach Alen Marcina said. “We expect to be in a playoff position. We desire to be in the top four. We are right there. There is a lot of belief in this group, and we continue to move forward.”
New Mexico (6-2-1, 19 points) is second in the West, five points ahead of San Antonio FC. The Western Conference standings are a jumble at this point of the season.
A win in Albuquerque can move San Antonio into third place, but a loss and the club could fall to ninth place.
There are still 24 games left in the regular season, so a loss or draw in May might not doom the club, but points earned now could be important
Courtesy of Darren Abate/usl Championship come October
“The draws are definitely frustrating because we think in a few of our draws we feel like we deserved the three points. They are behind us now and all we can do is move forward,” San Antonio defender Kendall Burks said. “We want to win as much as we can because the points now matter at the end of the season as well. We want to turn those ties into wins. If we continue to keep at it and keep working it will come.”
New Mexico is 3-0 at home this season, but all
SAN ANTONIO FC VS. NEW MEXICO UNITED
When/where: 8 p.m. Saturday at Albuquerque, N.M.
TV: ESPN+. three of those wins have been by one-goal margins. San Antonio has won two in a row in Albuquerque after beating New Mexico 1-0 in 2022 and 3-0 in 2023. San Antonio leads the all-time series with New Mexico 5-3-1, but New Mexico is 3-2 all-time against San Antonio in Albuquerque. “New Mexico is one of the better-performing teams in the league right now,” Marcina said. “They have a lot of players who are full of energy so our focus has to be at optimal levels.”
This season New Mexico has scored 13 goals and allowed 14. Greg Hurst leads New Mexico with four goals scored this season. San Antonio has scored 15 goals and allowed 12 this season.
San Antonio returns home June 1 when the club plays Memphis 901 FC at Toyota Field.
“It’s about getting our forwards in good positions to score,” Taintor said. “We have a bunch of quality, we just need to help them and set them up for success. If we can get that part right, I think everything is going to work out in our favor.”