San Antonio FC held their first training session of preseason camp this morning. The players and coaching staff officially began working ahead of the upcoming USL season, and met at the training ground at STAR Soccer Complex for the first time since October.

“It’s really exciting to be back out here and having all the guys together to get back to training,” SAFC goalkeeper Matt Cardone said. “We’re all really excited for the season.”

The session marked the first time that the club’s new signings were integrated with the returning players, and despite having a number of new faces on the roster, the squad is already showing signs of good team chemistry and quality of play with each other.

“[The chemistry] is actually really good,” midfielder Kris Tyrpak said. “With a lot of the older guys being around the league and some of the newer guys having been around the league as well, we’re all in it together and we’re all here for one reason. It’s very good so far.

“Everything was great today. The session was planned really well and the energy from everyone was great -- from the trialists to everybody on the team. It’s going to be a great season and I’m looking forward to it. Everybody looked like they wanted to be here.”

For Head Coach Darren Powell, preparation for the club’s season opener at Rio Grande Valley begins now. He, along with the rest of the technical staff, have developed a plan to get the players fit and familiarized with their style of play as the start of the 2017 campaign approaches.

“We have a six or seven-week plan ahead of preseason heading into the RGV game,” Coach Powell said. “That’s going to be our focus, being prepared for that first game of the season away at RGV.”

According to Coach Powell, the group is already becoming cohesive and is hitting the ground running as they prepare for their first preseason match this weekend.

“We did some work before even coming onto the pitch and the guys took it really well today,” Powell said. “That learning curve was a little bit more advanced than I expected, so that’s fantastic news. The guys picked it up well and were also very competitive. Tomorrow we’ll get to our next piece and keep pulling it together, and hopefully have a good week of training.”

San Antonio FC will take the field for the first time in 2017 this Saturday in a closed-door preseason friendly against the University of Incarnate Word.