El Farolito v FC Davis
Cinco de Mayo 2018 marked my first trip to the historic Boxer Stadium to catch El Farolito take on FC Davis. For those of you who don’t know, Boxer stadium was built in 1953 and is part of the Balboa Park complex. The stadium was built specifically for soccer, and features one concrete stand that has sweeping views of southern San Francisco. I thought that the dug in benches on the touch lines were particularly neat.
El Farolito began play in 1985 in the historic San Francisco Soccer Football League. The club is owned and operated by Salvador Lopez who also owns a chain of taquerias of the same name scattered throughout the city. The club was briefly named San Francisco C.D. Mexico in the early 90’s and won the US Open cup in 1993. Unfortunately, the club was disqualified from the 2018 Open Cup since they joined the NPSL after qualifying for cup play with the SFSFL.
Since Balboa Park is conveniently located next to a Bart Station, I opted to catch a train from El Cerrito. I had never been to one of their restaurants, so I was sure to make a detour on the way to the ground. The chain is a ratings monster on yelp holding a 4.5 Start rating out of 1,610 reviews. I ordered a carne aside super burrito and was sent to pure burrito bliss while I scarfed it down trying to not miss warm ups.
I got to the ground with a few minutes to spare and ended up paying the $5 admission to snag a shirt they were giving away at the gate. I was immediately overtaken by the charm of the old stadium and wished that it was the standard for football grounds around the country.
After Snapping a few shots of the warm ups, the game got going in front of a rather underwhelming crowd of a couple dozen supporters.
Davis was forced into an early substitution after Goalkeeper Kris Shultz took a knee to the back of an oncoming El Faro striker. After the substitution, the game was open with both sides having decent looks at goal. In the 35th minute, El Faro won a free kick just outside of the penalty area. Diego Franco stepped up, and tucked away a well taken free kick to put the host up 1-0. FC Davis felt that the initial foul was soft and after the goal played with more conviction. Only 5 minutes later, Davis had their chance to equalize. An El Farolito defender was judged to have committed a handball that resulted in a penalty. Miguel Acevedo made no mistake and brought the game back to level terms. The game went into half time tied at 1.
During the break, I met up with Tommy Hodul. Tommy has been instrumental in helping me get my bearings in the world of Non-League football. He has cyclopedic knowledge of the history and the culture of all things related to Bay Area football. He contributes to Midfield Press, which is the premier source of news for football being played at this level in the United States.
The second half started just as open as the first did. The main point of contention in the match happened in the 65th minute when an El Farolito player went to Luis Suarezian levels to keep the match tied:
After a corner kick in the El Faro half, both teams scrambled to the ball which fell nicely to Miguel Acevedo’s foot. He took a shot that looked destined for the back of the net. But just before the ball crossed the line, an El Farolito player seemed to have swatted the ball away. It looked like a clear penalty and sending off to everyone except the referee, who waived away the pleas from the incensed FC Davis players.
Davis seemed the better side for the remainder of the match, but couldn’t find the decisive moment to seal the 3 points. After an El Faro shot rattled the post, the game petered out to a 1-1 draw.
Throughout the controversial second half, FC Davis coach Andrew Baily made his feelings clear that they were being robbed by inconsistent officiating. Davis were the better side and only got a point to show for it.
The point means FC Davis drops level with Sonoma and Academica who both won later that night. The dropped points also mean that El Farolito is now second behind CD Aguiluchos. Both teams remain undefeated in the Golden Gate Conference.
As I was leaving the ground, the San Francisco Glens were getting ready to play their inaugural match in the USL PDL. They must have been expecting quite the crowd since the cases of beer kept piling up. Tommy confirmed this suspicion as according to him, the Glens sold 800 season tickets. While it made me happy to hear that, it also bummed me out that a team with such fascinating history like El Farolito could barely draw 100 people. The contrast of the two teams is a zeitgeist of the state of soccer in the country: two teams with rich history literally sharing a ground, play in competing leagues in our survival of the fittest system. There is definitely a nuance to why a team would choose one league over another, but it’s that division that seems detrimental to the greater good of moving football forward in this country.
Most Commented Posts