El Farolito Taqueria's amateur team defeated a team affiliated with a Major League Soccer franchise, perhaps the first in both restaurant and soccer fields.
El Farolito's amateur team came from behind to defeat the Portland Timbers II, a feeder club for Major League Soccer's Portland Timbers, on Tuesday night in the opening game of the U.S. Open Cup.
The 110-year-old national soccer competition is arguably the oldest in the country, but it is no stranger to major upsets in the first round. But the strangeness of the burrito restaurant's eponymous team beating an MLS reserve team at Providence Park, home of the Timbers, was as widespread across the country as the taqueria's famous yellow sign. twenty fourth And the mission.
Santiago López, head coach of the Farolito team and son of the late Salvador López, founder of the team and restaurant chain, said, “We worked for years to beat professional teams and qualify for the U.S. Open Cup. I've done it,” he said. He's also the general manager of El Farolito's dozen or so taquerias up and down the Bay Area.
This will be El Farolito's fifth appearance in a cup competition (a tournament similar to England's FA Cup or Spain's Copa del Rey), but match fans and taqueria regulars will agree that the club's history goes back much further. I know that it goes back to. Salvador López founded the eponymous team in 1985, just two years after opening the Taqueria. El Farolito soon became a regular at the top of the San Francisco Soccer League.
In the early 1990s, the club briefly adopted the name CD Mexico and the colors of the Mexican flag. In 1993, they qualified for the U.S. Open Cup for the first time, defeating Pennsylvania's United German Hungarys 5-0 in the final. This was a time before the birth of Major League Soccer, and the game was dominated by teams named after imported countries (Brooklyn Italians, Greek-American AC, Milwaukee Bayerns) and professional and amateur aces living overseas. There was a local league.
At that time, the Latin teams were dominant. The evidence lies in the dark interiors of Mission and El Farolito on the 24th, on a shelf above the liquor bottles and television, mostly lost among the trophy collection: on a wooden pedestal. A rusty alloy ball. The plate reads “US National Open Cup – 1993 Champion.”
papi football
Contrary to popular belief, the ties between the El Farolito team and the taqueria that bears its name are with management, not with the workers. The Blue and Gold team has hired few restaurant workers during Santiago López's 14-year tenure, instead recruiting through private tryouts and informal scouting at pickup games. Once known as the “Papi Team” (“Papa Team”) due to the maturity of its players, it has reemerged in recent years as the average age of the team has declined. They joined the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in his 2017 and quickly returned to the US Open Cup.
This season's roster includes construction workers, ride-hailing drivers, soccer coaches and other day laborers between the ages of 18 and 36, but the average player is in his late 20s.
Following a decades-long trend, the current squad is primarily from Latin America (Colombia, Mexico and Central American countries are strongly represented), but this season's roster also includes four players from Ivory Coast. (about 6 of the 30 players on the roster were born in the United States). Some play professionally, while others stopped playing a long time ago. All of them continued to love the game. That's one quality Coach Lopez is looking forward to in 2024, given his limited time with the team.
“We can only practice twice a week from 8pm to 9:30pm at different fields around the city because everyone is done working at that time,” he says. . Some of his players work seven to five jobs, commute to practice and back to multiple locations in the Bay Area, and still do the homework of staying in shape. . He considers it a sacrifice made with deep admiration.
“Sometimes practices don't go as planned because we have to share the field. We're working on different things, but everyone in the group is very respectful of the situation. We is working smartly,” he added.
The dedication and hardship early on was evident in the game against Timbers 2, an under-23 team made up of fresh full-time players eager to play in MLS. Fast and clean, El Farolito conserved energy by running the ball. The wise old Foxes put high pressure on the MLS Next team without forcing themselves too much. They trailed 0-1 before halftime after goaltender Johan Lizaralde's failed challenge gave the ball to a young Timbers player. Fortunately for the visitors, Portland showed its greenness and lack of tactical acumen with successive set-pieces, but Colombian João Yabru and Honduran Denbor Benson sent perfect headers into the back of the goal. decided.
The comeback was complete, but El Farolito's bench began throwing extra balls into the field in the final minutes of the game, just in case. Wasting time never hurts a winner.
El Farolito should find out who their second-round rival will be later this week, with that match scheduled to take place in the first week of April. A decision will be made Friday whether the game will be held here in San Francisco or elsewhere. For now, he will return to Boxer Stadium in Balboa Park for the team's NPSL regular season opener against the Sacramento Gold on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“Some people call us the Burrito Team, and while some people may find that offensive, it's great for us to be connected to Burrito Spot,” from Portland International Airport Lopez said proudly on the phone. “We want people to discover that we have a team with a name within the Mission that is known for food, low prices, fair portions, and staying open late for people.”
Loyal patrons and hipsters alike are sadly unable to find their jerseys at any of the taqueria's 12 locations. “It's too difficult to manufacture,” Lopez explained.
Fortunately, they share a blue and gold color scheme with other local teams looking to punch above their weight this season. Hey, it's a dual-purpose toy.
