San Antonio FC was unable to sustain the momentum from scoring an early goal, as the Las Vegas Lights FC stormed back in the second half for a 2-1 win Saturday at Toyota Field.
SAFC controlled the tempo early in the match as defender Emil Cuello found the net in the 6th minute, giving the home team a quick 1-0 lead, which held up at intermission.
But the match slipped away for SAFC (6-3-7, 25 points) after halftime, as Las Vegas (5-7-3, 18 points) scored two second half goals to come out on top.
SAFC coach Carlos Llamosa didn’t hold back on how he felt his team performed in the match, particularly in the second half.
“We played a bad game tonight. Terrible game,” Llamosa said. “For moments, early in the first half, we were switching the ball. We were finding the player on the opposite side, but then we stopped doing that. You have to give credit to Las Vegas. They forced us to play short passes. So, just keep working and do better next time, next game.”
San Antonio was the aggressor in the first half, outshooting the Lights 8-5 in the frame with Cuello scoring after launching a shot from the center of the box into the upper left corner of the goal – set up by a pass from the left side from midfielder Jorge Hernandez.
Las Vegas turned the game around early in the second half, as Lights forward Johnny Rodriguez — one of the top scorers in the USL Championship league — tapped in the equalizer on a crosser from teammate Oalex Anderson in the 47th minute.
Las Vegas came up with the decisive goal in the 79th minute when Abraham Okyere scored off a deflection from SAFC goalkeeper Joey Batrouni on a corner kick.
In the second half, the Lights outshot SAFC 7-3, with San Antonio getting only one shot on target.
Llamosa said his club may have felt too comfortable at intermission after the early first half goal.
“At the end of the first half, we looked flat, we looked relaxed,” Llamosa said.
Defender Tiago Suarez said SAFC allowed Las Vegas to control the game in the second half.
“We started out great,” Suarez said. “We got that early goal and led into the half, which is always good at home. And the focus coming out was to keep the shutout to win the game. Throughout the second half, we allowed them to dictate the game and have a little too much possession and at the end of the day, they punished us with those two goals.”
Despite sitting second in the USL Western Conference table, SAFC again put its struggles against clubs in the bottom of the standings this season on display. Las Vegas moved up to the tenth spot in Western Conference with the win over San Antonio.
Late in the match, forward Santiago Patino was ejected with a red card. It was the second straight USL regular season match that a SAFC player has been ejected, as defender Mitchell Taintor and Batrouni were ejected two weeks ago in a 0-0 draw against Monterey Bay, although Batrouni’s suspension was overturned last week by the league on appeal. Because of his suspension, Taintor didn’t play against Las Vegas.