As San Diego FC prepares for Sunday’s inaugural season opener, it’s time to offer congratulations. And some free advice.
Congratulations go to generations of soccer enthusiasts throughout San Diego County.
They helped make possible the Mission Valley stadium that was built after the Chargers left town. Snapdragon Stadium led to the creation of the San Diego-based teams slotted into the country’s top professional women’s and men’s soccer leagues.
Snapdragon Stadium isn’t the Petco Park of American soccer venues. But, based solely on its grass field, the home of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Wave and Major League Soccer’s San Diego FC gets the nod over the synthetic-surface homes.
Even FIFA understands that soccer belongs on grass. It won’t stage World Cup matches on carpet.
Now, a few words of local advice to San Diego FC’s coach, Mikey Varas, and the lads in chrome and azul as they embark on the 34-game season that begins Sunday in Carson and runs into October.
Put more weight on scoring than defending. Emphasize entertaining over point-collecting.
If you score a legitimate goal but lose a close match, take that as a better outcome than a scoreless tie that nets you a point in the standings.
You are in the entertainment business. Soccer is more entertaining when players display the intricate skills and teamwork needed to create dangerous scoring chances and, at some point, goals.
You’re being graded on a curve because you’re an expansion franchise. Take advantage of it by playing more of an offensive game than most MLS clubs do. No one’s expecting you to challenge for the league title. A playoff berth would be a bonus. If you finish in the league’s mid-tier in goals scored, that alone would make it a successful season.
Am I being overly simplistic here? Yes. Defense matters, and contributes to a team’s offensive success.
But every club seeks to establish a style. San Diego Loyal SC took an offense-first approach and succeeded, ranking among the United Soccer League’s leaders in attendance. The Wave emphasized defense, but knew that global star Alex Morgan would attract fans. In two of their three seasons, the Wave have led the National Women’s Soccer League in attendance.
Luca de la Torre is a native San Diegan who has ed San Diego FC as a midfielder. His club in Spain, Celta Vigo, loaned him to the new team in his hometown.
A former Torrey Pines High School student, de la Torre said professional soccer teams try to strike a balance: be successful at winning and tying matches, but also at entertaining fans.
“Playing good football and losing is pointless,” said de la Torre, 26. “How you win also matters, at the same time. I hope that, here, we can play a style of football that attracts people and win.
“At the end of the day,” he added, “it’s our job as players to fill the stadium, to create those moments that people want to be a part of and to create emotions in people.”
The “if you win, they will come” sports truth doesn’t always apply to San Diegans.
Take San Diego State’s football program under coach Rocky Long and later Brady Hoke. The Aztecs won at a high rate, especially under Long. But, for a variety of reasons — including a defense-first approach and a number of uninspiring offenses — ticket sales weren’t very good. Hoke retired, and was soon replaced by a coach, Sean Lewis, who promised a high-powered ing attack.
Prominent among San Diego FC’s purported selling points is the player development prowess of its coach, Varas.
Fluent in Spanish, the 41-year-old former University of San Francisco soccer player served as an assistant coach with MLS’ Dallas-based club. In his tenure, the team reached the MLS Cup playoffs twice fueled by several homegrown players from the club’s academy.
Later, Varas led the United States’ under-20 men’s national team to its first Olympics berth in 13 years. He took the same program to the top of its group in the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.
Varas described winning soccer and entertaining soccer as two sides of the same coin.
“We want to be a club that can win in a sustainable way that gives an advantage to our players, so when there’s a clear plan and a clear style players are able to play with more instinct, more intensity,” he said.
“But, ultimately, if I had to choose a starting seed, it would always be playing exciting football. We all grew up playing this sport from little kids. And we wanted to have the ball, we wanted to compete, we wanted to win — but we did it because it was enjoyable.”
In planning San Diego FC’s style of play, the coach said he also took into the fabric of his new home city and its residents.
“It’s important that we bring a product to the community here that can be a reflection of them,” he said. “San Diego is a creative place, a vibrant city, a vibrant people — also, a very hard-working people and a very competitive community. Mixing the two of them is what’s really important.”
The beautiful game’s beauty isn’t measured only by goals scored. Nuance and flow are part of the aesthetic. Just don’t lead San Diegans to believe MLS stands for Make Listless Soccer.
