Saturday night’s Western Conference Semifinals match between San Antonio FC and OKC Energy FC is proving to be a defensive battle, with many thinking one goal will decide who advances to the Conference tittle game.
If this proves to be true, SAFC goalkeeper Diego Restrepo and OKC’s C.J. Cochrane will have their hands full this weekend at Toyota Field.
MORE: Beyond the results: San Antonio FC vs OKC Energy FC
In three regular season meetings, the played to draws. Restrepo only gave up one goal, which came off a scrabble off a missed penalty kick that the goalkeeper could not get to in time. SAFC was literally two minutes away from a win over the Energy, which would have been their first in franchise history.
On the other side for OKC, Cochrane has only faced SAFC one time. That match was on June 10, which was a scoreless draw after 90-plus minutes. The only break SAFC will catch, if you even call it one, is keeper Cody Laurendi is out for the season with an injury.
The goalkeeper match up will be one to keep an eye on and the edge may go to Restrepo. The 29-year-old keeper played in 28-of-32 matches for SAFC, posting a 76.3 percent save rate to go along with 12 clean sheets.
SAFC had the best defense in the league in 2017 and the most clean sheets with 15, but has not had a clean sheet in their last four matches.
Meanwhile CJ Cochrane for OKC played in just eight of 32 matches in 2017. He recorded three clean sheets and had 75 percent save rate.
Restrepo has more experience of the two keepers in games this season and combined with a solid backline, defense, and playing at home could be key between moving on or going home.
