SAN ANTONIO, Texas – For the first time in club history, San Antonio FC opened the season with a home game at Toyota Field, earning a 3-3 draw against the defending Western Conference Champion Phoenix FC.
The home team opened the scoring just nine minutes into the match -- Lance Laing found Ever Guzman in front of the net to give SAFC an early 1-0 lead. With the match level in the 40th minute, ex-Phoenix FC midfielder Billy Forbes burned his former team, drilling a shot from the top of the box to give San Antonio a 2-1 advantage. It's Forbes' 11th goal all-time with the club.
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"I wanted to score because that’s my former team," Forbes explained. "I wanted to make a statement."
With the match tied again 2-2 in the second half, an own goal in the 80th minute appeared to put SAFC ahead for good, but the visitors equalized in stoppage time thanks to a header from former SAFC forward Jason Johnson.
“You saw the intensity of that game throughout the 90 minutes," said San Antonio FC head coach Darren Powell. "The players lived that tonight and played a good game against tough opposition. It was great to start at home and I think our fans certainly help us. I think everyone enjoyed tonight and will leave here feeling positive.”
"We felt we deserved to win the game, but it’s the first one of the season and we’re going to learn from it and move on,” Forbes said.
“It was electric tonight," said San Antonio FC defender Kai Greene. "The fans gave it all for us. It was disappointing to end that game with a draw. We felt we should’ve won that game, but we had a lot of mental errors that we were punished for. Good teams will do that to us. Overall we felt positive. We’re going to clean up those mistakes and score two or three goals on opponents, which will turn into wins once we clean up our mistakes in the back.”
San Antonio FC will now prepare to host the Portland Timbers 2 next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.