Monterey Bay v San Antonio — prediction, stats and goal analysis

USL Championship · Sunday, 5 April 2026. Final score 0–0 (half-time 0–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 47% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals47%53%Under
Over 3.5 goals24%76%no pick
Both teams to score50%50%No

The result model puts Monterey Bay at 30%, the draw at 29% and San Antonio at 41%, from expected goals of 1.02 and 1.25.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. USL Championship has produced over 2.5 goals in 50% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Monterey Bay have 1 in 4 this season (1 of 2 at home), San Antonio 1 in 4 (0 of 1 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 47% and 47%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 4 and 4 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 50% and 48%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 49%.

Head to head. These sides have met 5 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 20%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 48%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 39%, from expected goals of 1.02 for Monterey Bay and 1.25 for San Antonio. Folding in 30% of that view gives 45%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 47%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Monterey Bay425%0%25%
San Antonio425%0%25%

Head to head

24 Aug 25Monterey Bay 0–0 San AntonioU2.5
9 Mar 25San Antonio 1–0 Monterey BayU2.5
8 Sept 24Monterey Bay 0–1 San AntonioU2.5
1 Apr 24San Antonio 2–1 Monterey BayO2.5
20 Aug 23San Antonio 0–0 Monterey BayU2.5
2 Apr 23Monterey Bay 1–2 San AntonioO2.5

More: Monterey Bay season stats · San Antonio season stats · USL Championship table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.