March 1st, 2025
San Diego finally got awarded an MLS team back in 2023, and at the time I told Keli that I would like to be a season ticket holder. I know soccer is big in this city, not only because of all the youth club teams, but being by Mexico and the really high viewership of international games, it was a no brainer. I think they would have received a team a lot earlier except we didn’t have a state of the art stadium. Qualcomm was falling apart for years and there was no way the MLS would play at USD or something similar. When San Diego State was able to finally put together the deal to build SnapDragon stadium a few years back that was the final hurdle. So when the team sent out deposits requests for seats, I immediately put my name down (I honestly think it was only $10 or $20). And about a year ago I looked at the available spots around the stadium, opting to stay away from the $20k section but still got really good seats in the 100s. In fact three weeks before the game the team had a kick off party where we got to see our seats, picked up our Season Ticket and Founding Member gifts, even went to the team store to grab a few cool team sweater/jackets. We were all set for the inaugural match.
Game day, and I was excited that Keli just recently bought an electric pedal assist bike which we took to the stadium. Snapdragon is only 9 miles away and being able to skip the trolly lines as well as parking lot, we got there in about 35 minutes. Now that we have the lay of the land a bit, we parked the bikes by our section, finished our drinks and grabbed our free team scarfs as we entered the stadium. After buying some food and beer, it was off to our seats to meet our neighbors for the year. They are a family of three with a little boy. Seemed like a nice crew, and hopefully everything goes well the rest of the year.
Before the game the team played some cool videos of the city, announced the team, and had a nice firework show which always excites the crowd. I honestly thought they may do a bit more like a flyover, people parachuting in, something else…but that ok. Once the smoke cleared the team took the field and we were on our way. The play on the field was fun to watch. Our team seemed to have gelled well over the past few weeks and in fact they beat the LA Galaxy who won the league last year 2-0, so there was high expectations in the stadium. We had a few good shots on goal, and had possession most of the game, but star Chucky Lozzano was taken out of the game early as he pulled a hamstring so that didn’t bode well since we still have well over half the game left. The positive as Gaucho fans, Emmanuel “Ema” Boateng entered the game, one of two UCSB players on the team. He’s great, 5’6” and a ball of lightning on the pitch. It’s funny seeing him next to the defenders who are easily a foot taller.
I wish I had more to say specifically about scoring during the game, but neither team had a ton of shots on goal and what eventually hit the target wasn’t extremely dangerous. At time, it was a 0-0 tie which was a bit of a let down for the nearly 35,000 people in the stands celebrating the 30th team to be added to the league. The most disappointing aspect of the game were the Mexican fans chanting homophobic slurs when the opponents put the ball in play during goal kicks. It’s a disgusting and embarrassing thing the idiots started to chant. I really hope the team, security, and stadium start to kick offenders out of the stadium. That’s the only way to shut them up.
Kel and I jumped back on our bikes, turned on the headlamps, and were home probably before we would have got on the first trolly unless we left the game early. Another benefit of having a bike, Next game is in two weeks!
