The Austin FC Academy hosted San Antonio FC for three matches this weekend at St. David’s Performance Center. The encounters were filled with plenty of competitiveness as two of the professional Central Texas clubs had another chance to test their mettle against one another.
Ultimately each club came away with wins as Austin’s U-15’s fell 3-2 against San Antonio, with the U-14’s notching a big 3-0 win against the visitors. The U-13’s drew 0-0.
“San Antonio is very close to us in proximity… It’s an area we have a lot of respect for and also want to help us as a leader in youth soccer,” said Austin Academy GM Tyson Wahl on Monday. “We want to help lead in Central Texas. We recruit from San Antonio so we are scouting there and we do look for talented players in that area, and there’s a lot of them.”
San Antonio FC compete in the USL Championship and have produced highly-touted prospects out of their academy, including 2020 USL Championship Young Player of the Year finalist Jose Gallegos. They have provided quality competition since the Austin FC Academy launched, and should continue to do in the years to come.
Wahl described the U-13’s 0-0 draw as the best performance of the weekend among the Club’s three teams. The team just failed to create enough quality chances to break the tie, despite controlling the vast majority of the possession.
The U-14’s match started out as what could be described as ‘chippy’, but Austin were able to control the game with possession, creating quality scoring chances. Two of Austin’s three goals were the result of crosses.
“That’s something we’ve been emphasizing,” Wahl said when talking about the ability to create chances in wide areas. “We ended up scoring really attractive goals and the kids did well.”
The U-15’s took a 2-0 lead into halftime but let it slip away after San Antonio scored early in the second half. They will be looking to respond better in the future when dealt with setbacks.
