Head Coach Alen Marcina
(On the win…)
“Fantastic performance from the guys. I felt we dominated the game from start to finish. The intensity in our actions from opening whistle to the end was where it needed to be. It’s another great achievement for the club, the only Western Conference club since 2020 to make four years in a row in playoffs … so an incredible achievement there, and like always we want more, but all in all a great performance tonight.”
(On the recent successes against playoff teams…)
“We’ve been proud of our performances, tonight we said we’ve got to dominate both boxes. In our box we’ve got to be focused and smart, to make good decisions, and then in the opponent’s box we say we have to be focused and ruthless. Wanting to score goals. And tonight they executed flawlessly.”
(On snapping a winless run…)
“If you ask any of the players it’s a very confident group, because we know we’ve done extremely well and again the moment we are focused in our box and we don’t make any less-than-desirable decisions in and around our box, and that we continue to be ruthless in the opponent’s box, only good things can happen.”
Forward Tani Oluwaseyi
(On how needed the win was…)
“The truth is we’ve dropped way too many points this year. We’ve had a lot of games where we should’ve left with three points and something’s gone wrong and we’ve conceded and ended up tying so many of the last few matches. So finally being able to see it over the line, see it over the 90 minutes, was incredible. From minute one to minute 90 eeryone was locked in. We had a great game last week and we just couldn’t finish strong, but this week we made sure that we were locked in all the way through and you can see on that second half we came out even more energized than the first half, and it’s a perfect win for us. Kind of like a, I don’t want to say statement win because this is what we expect to do every time we step on the field but, it’s a good win to get going into playoffs.”
(On how last week’s result impacted this week…)
“They always say experience is the best teacher and I think for us, going through that last week, we knew coming into this week that if we got a lead, especially going into the second half, that there was no way they were taking that out of our hands. And we battled through, right up until the end and we were able to come away with the victory. And that’s just how it is as football players, you go through different experiences and situations and scenarios and what separates good players from great players, or good teams from great teams, is learning from your mistakes, learning from what you did wrong and just making sure you don’t do it again.”
Defender Tulu
(On his goal…)
“It was something that we did on the training ground, so I knew exactly where the ball was going to go, I knew exactly where Jorge [Hernandez] was going to cross it to, so it was good preparation during the week. And my teammates were telling me during the week like ‘hey look Tulu I feel like you’re going to get one tomorrow, you’re going to get one tomorrow.’ And it happened man, I was just there in the right spot at the right time.”
(On the win…)
“This was important, we needed to bounce back from the draws, all the losses that we took. Felt like tonight was a great night to do that, stadium was packed, fans was there, we really needed this today so very important moving forward.”
Postgame Notes:
- San Antonio FC moves to 14-5-12 (54 points) on the season.
- The win secures a playoff spot for SAFC, the team’s fourth-straight trip to the playoffs.
- SAFC becomes the only team in the Western Conference to reach the playoffs in each of the last four seasons.
- SAFC moves to within one point of Sacramento Republic FC for the top spot in the Western Conference.
- San Antonio moves to 60-straight matches without a loss when scoring first, including 10-0-4 this season.
- Forward Nathan Fogaça scored his second goal in as many matches, striking in the sixth minute. The goal was his second of the season and 14th of his career with SAFC.
- Forward Tani Oluwaseyi assisted on Fogaça’s goal, his seventh assist of the season.
- Defender Tulu scored his first goal of the season, and first with SAFC, in the 50th minute.
- Midfielder Jorge Hernandez’s assist on Tulu’s goal was his 10th of the season, giving him sole possession of the club’s all-time single-season record, and extended his league lead.
- Oluwaseyi added his 15th goal of the season in the 57th minute, adding to his club single-season record total.
- Midfielder Rida Zouhir assisted on Oluwaseyi’s goal, his fourth of the season.
- Forward Santiago Patiño scored his fifth goal of the season, and 24th with SAFC, in the 61st minute.
- Fogaça assisted on Patiño’s goal, his second in as many matches.
- Goalkeeper Nick Marsman recorded his first clean sheet of the season, making five saves.
