After losing their two games in the Spring Season against Miami FC 10-1, the Deltas came into their match Wednesday night with a mission to prove they could compete against the league leaders.

Early on it looked like more of the same when Miami’s Vincenzo Rennella collected the reflection on a free kick to slot home the ball in the 10th minute. But shortly after San Francisco’s fortunes changed when the Deltas’ Pablo Dyego was brought down in the box by Miami defender Rhett Bernstein. He converted the ensuing penalty kick to tie up the game.

Both teams had a handful of chances throughout the remainder of the match, but the Deltas effectively killed off the potent Miami attack to earn the 1-1 draw.

The result kept San Francisco in second place in the NASL combined standings, four points above North Carolina, seven points ahead of the New York Cosmos and nine points in front of fifth-place Jacksonville.

Here are three things we learned from the game:

1) San Francisco proved they can compete against Miami FC

After Miami scored an early goal against San Francisco it looked like game three between the top two teams in the combined standings would once again be the same storyline: the Deltas can’t compete against the offensive power of Miami.

But then, as sudden as the tropical outburst that struck Riccardo Silva Stadium, the Deltas’ fortunes changed. Pablo Dyego made a darting run into the top of the box and was taken down. He converted his penalty kick, and both teams were back even.

San Francisco than grinded out the ensuing seventy minutes and earned another impressive road result. The draw also ended Miami’s apparent domination of the plucky, determined team from San Francisco.

“This is a very important point in our run towards the playoffs,” said Deltas head coach Marc Dos Santos.

2) The Deltas stymied the league’s most dangerous attack

In their previous game in South Florida, Miami scoring three goals in the first fifteen minutes and eventually defeated San Francisco 7-0.

In that game, Miami carved apart the Deltas’ 4-back line. They consistently took advantage of any space and delivered passes splitting the defenders that lead to clean shots on target.

The match showed the Deltas that if they were going to be successful against Miami, they were going to have to shake thing up.

Since that match, Dos Santos has primarily abandoned a four back formation for his team and instituted a 3-5-2 formation. The setup has allowed Dos Santos to take the strengths of his team, namely its ability to stay compact, organized, and to counterattack through the wings, and use them to improve his team’s performance.

“Miami is a dangerous team playing between the lines and our level of concentration needed to be very high,” explained Dos Santos.

It also is a formation that effectively clogs up the midfield and forces the pressure up-field against a team that loves to attack forward like Miami.

From the opening whistle, San Francisco aggressively defended Miami and stayed organized with their positioning. Midfielder wingers Kenny Teijsse and Bryan Burke relentlessly pressured the wings and bounded forward at every offensive opportunity.

The central midfielders Greg Jordan, Maxim Tissot, and Tyler Gibson filled in all the holes and didn’t allow Miami a free moment on the ball to slot decisive through pass.

“We knew, coming here, that we had to stay organized during the full 90 minutes,” Dos Santos added.

After a complete game effort, San Francisco provided a possible blueprint on how to stymie and possibly defeat Miami FC.

It is only the first act for two additional games the teams will be playing against each other in the regular season. It will be interesting to see how Miami responds when the teams play again on Saturday night.

3) Hopefully, Pablo Dyego’s leg injury is not serious

For Deltas fans it was difficult to see Pablo Dyego go down with an apparent hamstring injury in the second half. The Brazillian has grown with the team during the season to become the SF’s most dangerous attacking option.

At the beginning of the year Dyego played mostly as a winger, but since late August he has featured as a forward. His speed and pace have forced opposing defenses to have to respect him.

In early September he scored both goals in a 2-0 away victory against Indy Eleven. Against FC Edmonton he had several clear chances on goal as well but was unable to finish in either game against the Canadian side.

On Wednesday night Dyego drew a penalty in the box and scored the goal that changed the course of the match. He also had a dangerous shot early in the second half that curled just wide of the goal. Unfortunately, around the 65th minute, Dyego dropped to the ground and limped off the field with an apparent hamstring injury.

Hopefully, for the Deltas, his injury is only a minor strain, and he can come back soon.