While San Diego’s love affair with Major League Soccer and the San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League appears to be just beginning, the region will be sadly saying goodbye to another love, the San Diego Loyal of the USL Championship.
The Loyal recently announced it will be ceasing operations at the conclusion of this season. With the arrival of MLS and other mitigating circumstances surrounding the future viability of the franchise, it’s not surprising nor unexpected.
The Loyal had sought a permanent playing and training site as well as a home for its soccer academy.
With Snapdragon Stadium seemingly locked up between the Wave, the as-yet-unnamed MLS franchise, SDSU football, the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby and an expanding list of concert dates, the Loyal found pickings rather lean for a new home for its product.
The USL Championship team had been playing its home games at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego for the past four seasons. The seating capacity at Torero Stadium is about 6,000 while that at Snapdragon Stadium is about 35,000.
The Loyal felt it needed room to grow. Despite a long search, the club came up empty. Hence the decision to disband the franchise.
“Four years ago, Landon Donovan (club co-founder, former head coach and current executive vice president of soccer operations), myself, and our group of investors started on a journey to bring professional soccer back to San Diego,” club chairman Andrew Vassiliadis said in an emotional video message. “I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished in the first three seasons.
“Over the last six months, myself, (president) Ricardo Campos and a small part of my team have been looking at all viable options up and down the coast for us to find solutions for (the) academy, for training facilities, for (a) stadium.
“From Oceanside down to the border, we’ve looked at everything and left no stone unturned. Unfortunately, after looking at all of that, I’ve come to the conclusion that this will be the last season for San Diego Loyal.”
USL Deputy CEO Justin Papadakis said in a league statement that having “a modern, commercially viable stadium solution is vital to our clubs’ long-term success and is a pillar of the USL’s growth strategy.”
“Despite collectively pursuing multiple potential options with SD Loyal’s leadership in the San Diego area, an appropriate stadium solution has not materialized,” Papadakis said.
With MLS still a dream, local soccer fans adopted the Loyal from the start. Games were noisy and filled Torero Stadium. The Loyal also began to make noise at the league level, earning its first playoff berth in its second season and a home playoff game the last two seasons.
The Loyal still has some noise to make before it’s officially declared dead.
The San Diego Loyal will attempt to push its existence as far as it can in the upcoming USL Championship playoffs. Photos/SD Loyal/USL Championship
The Loyal will host the Phoenix Rising FC in a Western Conference quarterfinal playoff match on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m.(telecast on The CW San Diego). If the third-seeded Loyal wins, it remains alive for the next round. A Loyal loss, however, would end the club’s existence.
It appears fans aren’t ready for that to happen. A sellout crowd greeted the team for its final regular season match in club history on Oct. 7 against the Oakland Roots SC. The Loyal won, 4-2, behind two goals by Ronaldo Damus, two assists from Blake Bodily and single goals by Joe Corona and Adrien Perez.
Damus scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season while the goal was Corona’s fourth of the season. Perez scored his ninth goal of the season. Bodily set a new single-season club record with his eighth and ninth assists.
The team had one road match left on its regular season schedule and took care of business with a 2-0 victory at the Las Vegas Lights on Oct. 14. Tumi Moshobane and Perez each scored goals. The tallies were the eighth of the season for Moshobane and the 10th for Perez, who earned a berth on the USL Championship Team of the Week.
Perez became the 12th Loyal player to be named to the USL Championship Team of the Week in 2023.
The Loyal finished regular season play with a record of 16 wins, nine losses and nine ties.
Corona, a Sweetwater High School alumnus, earned two berths on the league’s team of the week this season while Mater Dei Catholic alum Alejandro Guido, practically a mainstay in the lineup over the past few seasons, earned one selection.
Perez and Evan Conway rank second in team scoring behind Damus with 10 goals apiece while Moshobane ranks fourth with eight goals.
The Loyal wants to go as deep into the playoffs as possible. It will take its first step against a Phoenix team (12-10-12) that hasn’t won in its last five matches (three ties, two losses).
Anything is possible. Winning a league championship — or at least, advancing to the final — would be a fitting parting gift.
Ladies first
The San Diego Spirit of the Women’s United Soccer Association, or WUSA as it was popularly known, took the game of women’s pro soccer to new heights while filling up Torero Stadium starting in 2000 following the United States’ triumph in the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
But there was no social media then or streaming services to promote the product to the masses and the women’s pro game struggled for recognition and sponsorship. The Spirit and the league folded after just three seasons in 2003.
It’s a different world 25 years later. Attendance figures attest to that. The Wave topped the 12-team league with an average of 19,785 fans per match and a season high of 30, 854.
All the 15-year-old girls who fiercely attended Sprit matches now have children of their own, and they’ve made sure soccer is a family affair.
The second-year Wave enters the NWSL playoffs with a record of 11 wins, seven losses and four ties and a league-best 37 standings points. The Portland Thorns, who eliminated the Wave in the semifinals of last year’s playoffs, finished runner-up in the standings with 35 points with a 10-7-5 record.
Both the top-seeded Wave and second-seeded Thorns earned byes to the semifinals while the next four teams (third-seeded North Carolina Courage, fourth-seeded OL Reign, fifth-seeded Angel City and sixth-seeded Gotham FC) will engage in quarterfinal knock-out round.
The Wave enters its semifinal match on Nov. 5 with three wins, one loss and one tie in its last five matches. The NWSL championship game is scheduled Nov. 11 at Snapdragon Stadium, meaning the Wave could be advancing right at home.
Portland’s Sophia Smith led the league in scoring with 11 goals while the Wave’s Alex Morgan ranked in a tie for fifth in the league with seven goals. Morgan also dished out five assists to rank among the league’s points leaders. Other Wave leaders included Jaedyn Shaw with six goals (tied for eighth) and Christen Westphal with four assists (tied for fourth).
Portland’s Sam Coffey led the league with eight assists.
On the defensive front, the Waves’ Kailen Sheridan and North Carolina’s Casey Murphy topped league goalkeepers with nine shutouts each.
Face-off
The San Diego Gulls face off the home portion of their 2023-24 American Hockey League schedule Friday against the Ontario Reign. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. at Pechanga Arena.
The Gulls enter Friday’s contest against the arch-rival Reign with a surprising 2-0 record following a weekend sweep in Ontario. The Gulls faced off the new season with a 4-1 win last Friday and followed with a clutch 6-4 win Sunday afternoon.
Left wing Pavol Regenda finished the weekend with three goals while right wing Jacob Perreault matched the 23-year-old Slovak native with three points on two goals, one assist. Defensemen Trevor Carrick and Olen Zellweger both collected three assists for a four-way tie for the team scoring lead.
San Diego netminders Alex Stalock and Calle Clang each won their season debuts between the pipes.
Stalock earned first star honors with 40 saves on 41 shots in last Friday’s victory while Regenda, chipped in with two goals to earn second star honors.
The 40 saves were the most by a Gulls goaltender to start a season in club history. Stalock, who appeared in 27 NHL games with the Chicago Blackhawks last season, sports a glistening 1.00 goals-against average and 0.976 save percentage (second in the league) entering this weekend.
The Gulls rewarded new head coach Matt McIlvane with a win in his first game behind the bench with his new team as they hit for the cycle with a power play goal, shorthanded goal, even-strength goal and empty net goal in last Friday’s opener.
Clang stopped 35 of 39 shots in Sunday’s game while center Josh Lopina scored into an empty net with one second to play to seal the team’s second consecutive win. Jacob Perreault earned first star honors with a goal and assist while Regenda, Ben King, Andrew Agozzino, Judd Caulfield also chipped in with timely goals as the visitors were out-shot 39-27 in the game (17-5 in the third period).
The Gulls finished with the AHL’s worst record last season.
“We got a lot of respect for this team over here (the Reign),” McIlvane said in summing up the weekend sweep. “I thought that they (Ontario) were better (on Sunday). They clearly made some adjustments and had a good plan. You know, and they’ve got a really potent, dangerous power play, and we got to practice a lot of penalty killing this weekend.
“With that being said, there’s so much that you can find that’s good from a team perspective. And, you know, I think that’s where we got to keep our mind right now and keep celebrating that. (The) story has to (have) something to do with (Gulls goaltender) Calle Clang. I thought he was really strong and net for his first game of the season.
“We’ve got two goals here: to develop and win. We know that if we don’t develop, we don’t have a chance, and there were two or three of our first-year players that I thought had their best game that I’ve seen from them so far, including the rookie tournament, including main camp, including the start of the season, and it’s fun. You know, it’s good to see those guys have some success, because they’re going to carry a lot of the ball for us.”
McIlvane was encouraged in the Gulls coming back to fill the gap from a 6-2 preseason loss the prior Sunday, also in Ontario.
“I’m just happy for the guys,” the Gulls bench boss said. “You know that Ontario gave us a pretty big gap to fill from five days ago to now. Obviously, getting the guys into the lineup, that helps. Our special teams were great (in the season opener on Friday) You know, get on the board with the power play and then getting the shorthand goal with a fortunate bounce. I thought our team showed good character, strong defense, high competitiveness, and I think we got a lot better this week.
“We’re not sitting here looking at this like we played the world’s greatest hockey game. We know that we’ve got a lot of room to improve, and that’s the exciting part. However, you know, the big step that we took this week was noticeable. And, you know, we’re just staying on that mission to keep getting better.”
King and Caulfield both scored their first AHL goals in Sunday’s game while Clang set a new AHL career high for saves in one game. Perreault scored the game-winning goal at 11:28 of the third period, his second goal in as many games.
The Gulls and Reign combined for four power play goals in the weekend ender, two by each team. San Diego held the Reign 2-for-13 on the power play in the two games (0-for-6 on Friday and 2-for-7 on Sunday). The Gulls finished the weekend 3-for-5 with the man-advantage.
The Gulls tuned up for Friday‘s game by hosting a community street hockey clinic Wednesday at the Border View YMCA.
The event included a full street hockey rink and equipment, Gulls giveaways, slapshot booth and Gulls players and coaches in attendance to provide coaching.
The participants learned the fundamentals of hockey from San Diego Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane and players Nathan Gaucher, Pavol Regenda and Calle Clang. The event ended with a special surprise, as McIlvane invited the participants and their families to attend San Diego’s home opener presented by Cal Coast Credit Union on Friday at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
GULLS HAND NEW COACH WIN IN FIRST GAME, 4-1 OVER ARCH-RIVAL REIGN ON OPENING NIGHT
Friday the 13th proved to be the lucky night for the San Diego Gulls as they faced off the 2023-24 American Hockey League season with a 4-1 win over the arch-rival Ontario Reign at Toyota Arena to hand new San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane a coveted win in his first game behind the bench with his new team.
McIlvane saw the Gulls score a power play goal (Pavol Regenda), a shorthanded goal (Regenda) and empty net goal (Glenn Gawdin) while being out-shot 41-32 (21-15 in the third period) in front of 7,469 fans.
Goaltender Alex Stalock made the victory possible by stopping 40 of 41 shots to earn first star of the game honors. Regenda was the game’s second star with two goals. Ontario’s Mikhail Maltsev received third star billing with the Reign’s only goal of the night.
David Rittich stopped 28 of 31 shots in the loss.
Friday’s game was special all around for the Gulls and McIlvane as San Diego killed off all six Ontario power plays in the game while scoring on one of its two man-power opportunities.
San Diego scored the only goal in the opening period as Regenda netted the Gulls’ first goal of the season at 11:20 on the power play. Sahsa Patsujov and Olen Zellweger drew the assists on the game’s jump goal.
Shots favored the visitors 10-8 in the first period, though the Reign pushed the attack in the scoreless second period with a 12-7 edge in shots.
The Gulls’ fortunes turned just 48 seconds into the third period as Regenda netted his second goal of the game while shorthanded to double the San Diego lead. Trevor Carrick and Andrew Agozzino received credit for the assists.
Jacob Perreault scored an even-strength goal at 4:57 to push the San Diego lead to 3-0. Colton White and Zellweger assisted.
Gawdin finally took pressure off the Gulls with an unassisted goal into an empty net with 1:30 to play.
The Gulls received goals from three players and assists from five players in the well-rounded victory to start the new season.
The teams rematch Sunday in Ontario and next Friday in the Gulls’ home opener at Pechanga Arena.
McIlvane congratulated his team on the victory in the locker room following the game, noting the team worked hard over the preceding five days to close a four-goal gap between the teams following the Reign’s 6-2 preseason win on Sunday at the same site.
“The team improved over the last five days, a lot of work went into that week,” the San Diego coach told his team.
The Gulls share first place in the Pacific Division standings with the Abbotsford Canucks, Calgary Wranglers, Bakersfield Condors, Henderson Silver Knights and Tucson Roadrunners, all of which also secured wins on opening night. Ontario, San Jose, Coachella Valley and Colorado and all came up short in their season openers.
Membership remains at 10 teams in the division for 2023-24 and at 32 overall for the league.
Of note, Gilroy native Dustin Wolf, the AHL’s reigning MVP and two-time goaltender of the year award winner, stopped 28 of 30 shots in Calgary’s 4-2 in in Winnipeg over the Manitoba Moose.
Wolf finished on top of nearly every goaltending statistical category in 2022-23 in helping lead the Wranglers to the regular season division title. Coachella Valley eventually defeated Calgary in the Pacific Division Finals en route to a berth in the Calder Cup Finals.
