San Antonio FC relied on a pair of key moments in the first half to earn a 1-0 win over the Oakland Roots at Pioneer Stadium on Saturday night.
The first moment came in the 4th minute, when San Antonio’s Luis Solignac scored the only goal of the match. It was set up by Jorge Hernández, who received a pass just outside the penalty area, took a couple of steps toward the middle, and laid the ball off for Juan Agudelo. The former U.S. National Team striker paused, then returned the ball for Hernández as he made his run toward the six-yard box. Oakland goalkeeper Paul Blanchette was there to make the original save, but Solignac tapped in the rebound.
The second key moment came in the fifth minute of first half stoppage time, when Oakland’s captain Camden Riley received his second yellow card, resulting in his ejection. San Antonio’s Luke Haakenson shoved Riley in the back and Riley retaliated with a kick to Haakenson’s leg, resulting in yellow cards for both. Riley had received his first yellow card three minutes earlier on an awkward challenge on Hernández from behind.
After the match, Oakland Roots interim Head Coach Gavin Glifford was upset about Riley’s ejection, as well as another incident in the 78th minute, when the referee yellow carded Trayvone Reid for diving, after a collision in the box.
“It’s ridiculous, it’s insanity,” Glifford said. “You’re gonna give a soft red, a soft second yellow to a guy that’s getting trampled, fine, what? Whatever. But then looking and giving a yellow card for a dive and then missing a penalty? It’s just every week, it seems like the control of these matches is getting less. You can’t talk to these guys and they’re quick to give out yellow cards if you’re even questioning decisions. We’ve had Phantom VAR decisions earlier this year. That’s the first time I’m talking about it and I don’t want to continue to harp on it, but it’s not even close to the standard and it’s not close to what those guys are doing.”
Second Half Chances
Oakland was able to create a few chances in the second half. Neveal Hackshaw came close in the 58th minute with a strong header on a cross from Justin Rasmussen, but his shot went wide.
The Roots looked dangerous on a counter attack in the 86th minute. Irakoze Donasiyano turned quickly on a pass from Reid and took a shot that took a couple of bounces in front of the empty net and went harmlessly over the end line, as Oakland’s Ilya Alekseev arrived a half-second too late for the tap-in.
Reid went down in the box again less than a minute later fighting for the ball in the box with a pair of San Antonio defenders, but no call was made.
Reid challenged San Antonio’s defense again in the fifth minute of stoppage time, as he sent in a cross from near the left touchline that ducked under the crossbar, forcing goalkeeper Richard Sánchez to redirect the ball off the crossbar and eventually to safety.
There was one final chance for Johnny Rodriguez in the final seconds of stoppage time. He was able to get off a soft shot, but Sánchez stood in the way and the shot went over the end line for a corner.
While Glifford called his team’s performance in last weekend’s 5-0 loss to North Carolina FC “an abomination,” he was generally happy with his team’s effort this week.
“I thought we were good with the ball,” Glifford said. “I thought we didn’t give up anything in transition. Obviously, you start off giving away a fourth minute goal and against a team like that. They are very content to just kind of sit in and kick balls away and they don’t need the ball necessarily. So when you know when you’re trailing you’ve got to live off of half chances and ways to pull them out of their box a little bit. I thought we had some some good moments. We’d like to to create a little bit more. But again, it’s tough when you’re down to 10 men and they still have a real threat in on the counter.”
Sinisterra Makes His First Start
Meanwhile, help is on the way, as the Roots continue to incorporate new signees into their system. José Luis Sinisterra made his first start for the Roots on Saturday, and Dom Dwyer made his second. And former Cruz Azul star Rafael Baca is training with the club and will be making his debut soon.
“They’re good character guys. It’s been been pretty seamless,” Glinton said. “They’ve been asking a lot of questions, they’ve been involved with the group. They’ve asked and taken on all the little tactical details and stayed after to get more clarity and make sure that they’ve kind of come up to speed quickly. I thought Jose Luis did really well tonight, his first real start with the group and so we’ll continue to blend. Baca is coming in as well and we’ll be getting Dom more minutes as we go forward.”
