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USL San Antonio FC

San Antonio FC Comes Back from Two Goals Down to Tie Indy Eleven 3-3

October 15, 2023 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
San Antonio FC News Release


SAN ANTONIO - San Antonio FC drew Indy Eleven 3-3 tonight in front of a sold out Toyota Field, despite twice trailing by two goals, thanks to Mitchell Taintor's goal in the 88th minute to equalize. SAFC finishes the regular season 14-6-14 with 56 points, and will enter the USL Championship playoffs next weekend as the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

Indy struck first, finding the back of the net in the ninth minute. Indy would double the lead in the 37th minute, but SAFC would pull one back just before halftime. In stoppage time at the end of the first half, Santiago Patiño converted a penalty to cut the deficit in half. The goal was Patiño's seventh of the season, the third-most on the team.

In the 54th minute, Indy added another to make it 1-3.

San Antonio answered in the 58th minute, with Tani Oluwaseyi recording his 17th goal of the season to again cut the deficit to a single score at 2-3. Then in the 61st minute, San Antonio went up a man after Indy's Solomon Asante was sent off for his second yellow card.

Taintor equalized in the 88th minute, finding the back of the net after a shot from Fabien Garcia was deflected in front of the goal.

The draw is the second time in the last three matches that SAFC rallied to earn a point after trailing by multiple goals.

Next Up

San Antonio FC starts the team's playoff campaign next week, hosting a Western Conference Quarterfinal against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC on Saturday, Oct. 21 in a rematch of last year's Conference Final. Tickets for the postseason tilt are still available at SanAntonioFC.com and on the SAFC app. The match kicks off at 8:00 p.m. CT, and will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Postgame Notes:

San Antonio FC finishes the 2023 regular season 14-6-14 (56 points).

SAFC finishes the regular season as the fourth seed in the USL Championship playoffs.

San Antonio finishes the season 7-1-9 at Toyota Field.

Forward Santiago Patiño scored his seventh goal of the season, the third most on the team.

Forward Tani Oluwaseyi's goal in the 58th minute was his 17th of the season, extending his club record for single-season scores.

Defender Mitchell Taintor's goal in the 88th minute was his third of the season.

The sellout crowd of 8,146 was the team's fifth sellout of the season, setting a club record for most regular-season sellouts.

SAFC finishes the 2023 season with 63 goals scored, breaking a club record of 62.

Statistics

Full individual and team stats from the match can be found here.

Media assets

Game highlights, interviews and photos can be found here.

Attendance: 8,146 (sellout)

Quotes:

Head Coach Alen Marcina

(On the draw...)

"I'm proud of my guys' fight and resilience. Definitely felt like a playoff game, two very good teams battling toe to toe. Obviously, some goals we conceded were not the best. And then towards the end we had two very very big opportunities, we could've put them away and get the three points. I feel pretty strongly if this was a playoff game and you go into overtime, we're winning and moving on. So a lot of positives moving forward. Also, reflection here, to finish top four is a very good season in my opinion, probably will finish the league top in goals, so we've demonstrated that we are an attacking threat. Lot of positives, again four years not only in a row making playoffs, but four years in a row earning a first round playoff game at home. Which is another great achievement. So all in all, a lot of positives. And we'll put it all behind us, and get ready for playoffs."

(On the team's resilience heading into playoffs...)

"No one can take away this team's fight, this team's resilience. Demonstrated all year, so we'll take that and I think those are important behaviors and actions come playoff time in particular. So all in all a lot of positives."

Defender Mitchell Taintor

(On the draw...)

"I think given the circumstance, it is slightly disappointing. It was a good comeback in the end, but ultimately wasn't the result that we absolutely needed. I think earlier on in the season that would be a great rallying point. There were a lot of good things that we did, coming back, scoring three goals right before playoffs is really good, it's a good sign scoring goals but there are some things that we need to clean up before next week."

(On not being able to clinch the second seed...)

"Of course it's frustrating, like I said it's not the result we were aiming to get. Especially given the circumstances of where we are, but we didn't lose. It was a really really good comeback from the guys, I'm really happy with the effort and mentality on that aspect. And Alen said after the game if this is playoffs it goes into overtime and that's a completely different animal. And I think we're setup really good for playoffs coming next week."

(On the team's mood heading into playoffs...)

"I think playoffs are a completely different animal. We're fortunate enough to play at home again, and the fans are going to give us a really good boost. We're not looking back on the past, regardless of what the run of games were in the last 10 games, we've got to move forward and we know that we've got the talent and the work ethic to beat anyone in the league. It's do or die time this week, so it's going to be a good week of training, then going to be amazing to play Saturday night in front of our fans regardless of who it is."

Forward Tani Oluwaseyi

(On the draw...)

"Games like this where so much goes on, it's important not to get caught up in everything and just kind of take the positives. Take the positives but also take the negatives, the things that we did wrong, and just kind of reflect on it, go back home and watch some film and see what went wrong, why we went down, and what we can work on. Especially going into playoffs. Games like this, we don't really want chaotic games like this. We want to be in control of games. So the mistakes that we made are things that we're looking to clean up heading into the playoffs, and then just looking forward, this is going to be one of those games where it's like we feel like we dropped points, we always want three points and we feel like dropped points tonight, but we can't dwell on it too much because we've got playoffs coming up next week."

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