Two Goals from Forward Santiago Patino Help Earn the Victory for SAFC
SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 20, 2022) – San Antonio FC topped Houston Dynamo 2 this afternoon 2-1, with both goals coming off of Santiago Patino’s right foot.
“I’m proud of the players’ commitment to developing our team identity,” said SAFC Head Coach Alen Marcina. “We’ve said it from day one – preseason serves the purpose of developing the team identity. Results at this moment are irrelevant to us, it’s about applying our game model principles, which the players did today.”
Patino opened up the action in the sixth minute, finding the back of the net after a deflection gave him the ball in space just inside the box.
The finish gave SAFC an early lead, which held through the rest of the first half after a strong defensive effort limited Houston’s scoring opportunities. The effort led to multiple chances on the counter-attack, with Patino and Justin Dillon serving as the most frequent beneficiaries.
The SAFC attack came out firing in the second half. After a chance in front of the goal, Patino scored his second goal of the afternoon to make it 2-0. The goal started after David Loera took the ball up the left side, moving quick on a counter. Loera crossed the ball in from just wide of the box, and Patino put it away to extend the lead in the 47th minute.
Houston scored in the 86th minute to cut the lead to 2-1, but the SAFC defense held firm for the final minutes to secure the victory.
SAFC will be back in action next weekend, welcoming FC Tulsa to Toyota Field in the club’s first open-to-the-public friendly of the 2022 preseason. Ticket’s for Saturday’s 1:00pm CT kickoff are available online at SanAntonioFC.com/tickets/.
