SAFC convincingly claims first USL Championship title over LouCity

Almost eight years after first bringing second-division silverware to San Antonio, head coach Alen Marcina did it again Sunday night as San Antonio FC claimed its first USL Championship title with a 3-1 win over Louisville City FC in front of 8,534 people at Toyota Field.

Despite a strong start, SAFC couldn't put the ball in the back of the net until just before halftime, but it did well to stifle Louisville throughout the match and was able to cement its lead in the second half. Santiago Patiño led the way with two goals for SAFC, bringing his tally to five in this three-game playoff run.

SAFC had been creeping closer to the title in recent years since Marcina took over as head coach ahead of the 2020 season, falling in the conference quarterfinals that year and the conference final in 2021. Before SAFC even existed, he led the San Antonio Scorpions to the North American Soccer League title in the same stadium on Nov. 15, 2014.

Here’s what happened

• The referee awarded SAFC a penalty kick in just the second minute, giving it a golden early chance to take the lead, but Mitchell Taintor let that chance slip away as he fired the ball wide right.

• SAFC remained on the front foot and saw another great chance go begging in the 16th minute as Sam Adeniran dribbled on the left side of the box and fired a shot which bounced back off the right post.

• SAFC was given another penalty in first-half stoppage time, and this time Patiño stepped up and put it past Danny Faundez to give SAFC a deserved lead right before halftime. The goal meant Patiño has scored in all five playoff games at home in his two years with SAFC.

• After Louisville started the second half with more urgency but couldn’t capitalize, SAFC doubled its lead in the 64th minute as Sam Adeniran’s header from the center of the box floated into the top right corner past Faundez after Mitchell Taintor headed a lofted free kick back across from the left. The goal was Adeniran’s second of this playoff run and a team-leading 12th for SAFC overall this year.

• Patiño put SAFC comfortably ahead 3-0 in the 70th minute as he brought down a Mohammed Abu cross from the left and poked it past Faundez after a mazy dribble from Cristian Parano to create the chance. Patiño has come up big with eight goals in six matches over the course of his two years with SAFC.

• Louisville managed to score a consolation goal in the 78th minute as SAFC goalkeeper Jordan Farr came up for a high ball but could neither catch it nor punch it far enough away, allowing Brian Ownby to volley it first-time just under the crossbar. It was the first and only goal SAFC conceded in this postseason, breaking a run of 339 minutes without doing so in the playoffs dating back to 2021.

What it means

The SAFC community will be buzzing about winning its first championship to cap off a year when it also claimed the regular season title as well as the Copa Tejas and Copa Tejas Shield. That will put a target on its back for 2023, but that’s a challenge SAFC will feel privileged to have and doesn’t have to worry about yet.

Louisville, the most consistent and decorated club in the league, will be disappointed after getting back to the final for the first time since 2019 but losing for the second time in a row. The Eastern Confernece has now lost in the last three finals which have been contested, even though it hosted two.

What they said

Taintor on SAFC recovering from its strong but fruitless start: "The game didn’t start how I wanted it to with the worst penalty kick I’ve ever taken in my life, but that’s part of being a mentality monster, it’s getting back up when you’re down. You need to not ride the highs and the lows and be even-keeled."

SAFC midfielder and acting captain Connor Maloney on years of the right moves culminating in this win: "Alen started in 2020 and he recruits great people and great players, and with that comes success. You see that on the pitch tonight, you’ve seen it over the past three years, it’s no coincidence. This is success and that’s what they breed here and they set us up for it, we have all the tools to do it, we have to go out there and execute and that’s what we did tonight.

Louisville midfielder and captain Paolo DePiccolo on where his team went wrong: "I said before the game that we were going to need to impose our style to win the game, and I don’t think we did that at all. We played their style of soccer and not ours, and when that happens, that’s what they do, they’re going to come out on top."

Adeniran on SAFC's confidence: "We knew we were the best team, from the regular season up until now, so to be able to actually get that USL Cup, it’s amazing. From the first day, we knew that we were going to be champions."