San Antonio, Texas – by Miguel Padilla
This past Saturday was a successful day in San Antonio soccer as all three UPSL clubs won; it was a clean sweep of victories including USL side San Antonio FC winning as well.
San Antonio Corinthians (1-1-0, 3 PTS)
The Corinthians had two matches scheduled this week in the Central Conference South Division, starting with a mid-week match and season opener at Athletic Katy FC.
On Saturday, Corinthians came up big with a 2-0 victory against Texas International FC with goals from Carlos Guerrero in the 35th minute and Lalo Escareno in the 65th minute. Guerrero was named the @BCSportsDad show Man of the Match. Corinthians next face Cedar Stars Rush in their home opener in Warrior Stadium this Saturday at 7:00 PM.
Technical Director Jorge Vantolra thoughts on Saturday’s match:
It was truly a pleasure to have been able to play our first official game against the Texas International team (it is worth mentioning that he was an excellent host)
The natural grass field is different to what we are used to. However, we respect our style of play. To know how to play the ball is what we want to be our first virtue. And that’s how it took us to adapt to the field, in addition to the fact that Texas International FC is a difficult team with a great spirit of competition. We were able to make the first goal by means of a classic playing for the band Seevicio of Juan Nava and definition of Carlos Guerrero. For the second half they pressed us with great intensity, however we managed to impose our style and we achieved our second goal in a quick resumption after a foul in favor of Abraham Alpuche and goal by Eduardo Escareño. In general terms, I am happy with the performance of the players, as well as giving them the opportunity to play young players who performed well.
San Antonio Runners SC (1-0-0, 3 PTS)
Runners opened the season on the road in Round Rock, defeating RRSC 4-0 with goals from Mikey Maldonado in the 20th minute, a brace from Reis Woolley in the 35th and 45th minutes and Keegan Woolley capping the day with a goal in the 78th minute. Next match for the Runners is this Saturday at 7:00 PM, it’s the Runners SC home opener at the UTSA athletic complex soccer fields against Killeen FC Knights.
Coach Rankin thought it was a good game; “We started slow but got in the groove of playing quickly and we are looking forward to what we will accomplish through our continued growth and development as a team this season! It was a great game on both sides, a lot of talent and skill shown and we had a lot of players stand out, including those who made their UPSL debut.”
Samba FC San Antonio (1-0-0, 3 PTS)
Samba FC opened the season at home with a 3-1 win over Coyotes FC at Wheatley Sports Complex. Coyotes FC lead early in this one and Samba FC was able to fight back and get the 3 points at home. All the goals came late in the second half during the last 10 minutes of the match. Goals by Luciano “Neto” Chagas in the 82nd minute, Lubomir Bogdanov in the 86th minute and Francis Wilson in stoppage time. Next match for Samba FC is an away match at Waco, Saturday at 7:00 PM.
For all the action across the UPSL and watch matches livestream on mycujoo go to https://www.upslsoccer.com/home
Commissioner’s Corner
with National Director of UPSL, Matt Kahla Jr
Matt Kahla shares his thoughts on the UPSL and the San Antonio clubs:
Excited with the product shown on the field across the National Scale. We had a great showing this weekend across the board, moving more into your region with the San Antonio teams-
San Antonio Runners got a big win over Round Rock and remain unbeaten in the regular season and that’s huge momentum going forward. They’ll have a match with one of the pioneer teams in the Heart Division next week as they face FC Knights, which should be a fun game to watch.
After being down Samba FC came back and how about that free kick? Samba FC’s game was on mycujoo and you can relieve the whole game there, I know Samba’s season is getting tough though as I talked to the owner and GM of Samba (John Rexroat) and he is looking forward to prove that they are Road Warriors as they are on a 5 weekend road trip which first starts with a match against FC Waco!
Moving onto someone else in the region but a part of the South Division, San Antonio Corinthians won against another newcomer Texas International FC 2-0 and they face formerly Imperial FC and now Cedar Stars Rush next weekend!
With promotion and relegation moving forward into both divisions, I think its important that every team battle hard on the field to stay above the relegation line. Something the league will discuss by the middle of the season if it will be 1 or 2 teams in each region that will be relegated.
Soy San Antonio Fútbol 