Tag: San Diego Loyal

USL Championship side San Diego Loyal will fold after 2023 season

The USL franchise was under threat after MLS awarded San Diego an expansion team for the 2025 season

The San Diego Loyal will cease operations after the 2023 USL Championship season, the club has announced.

In a statement, USL said that the decision was made because a “viable near- and long-term stadium solution in the market did not materialize.” The club has been playing at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that this will be the last season for San Diego Loyal,” the club’s owner Andrew Vassiliadis said in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“For those of you who got to know me, spent some time talking to me, you know how much this hurts for me to say. I love our city, I was born and raised here, and I will always be loyal to San Diego.

“I don’t see myself taking this project anywhere else, and I refuse to put an inferior product in front of you.”

The long-term viability of the Loyal was put into doubt this May, when MLS awarded San Diego an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2025.

At the time, Vassiliadis issued a statement declaring his intent to continue on, concluding: “Our plan is simple. We aren’t going anywhere.”

Vassiliadis started the franchise in 2020 alongside co-owner and U.S. soccer legend Landon Donovan, who served as the team’s head coach for three seasons. After the 2022 season, Donovan stepped down as coach and took a role as executive VP of soccer operations.

The USL said the Loyal’s franchise rights will be transfered to a new ownership group.

“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,” said USL Deputy CEO Justin Papadakis. “Despite collectively pursuing multiple potential options with SD Loyal’s leadership in the San Diego area, an appropriate stadium solution has not materialized.”

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Seattle Sounders, San Diego Loyal produce unfathomable nine-goal U.S. Open Cup thriller

#USOpenCupAfterDark produced a stone-cold classic

Look out #MLSAfterDark and #NWSLAfterDark, #USOpenCupAfterDark is here to provide the kind of bonkers soccer that for whatever reason can only happen after 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Plenty of Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup games came with tension, but nothing was in the neighborhood of the Seattle Sounders’ 5-4 extra time win over San Diego Loyal. Nothing was even in the same planet, if we’re being honest.

The game, played at the same Starfire Soccer Stadium that once saw Clint Dempsey tear up a referee’s notebook on a night where Seattle finished with seven men, started in such ordinary fashion…at least on paper. Fredy Montero in the 15th minute? Yeah that sounds right when it comes to a MLS team with cup history hosting USL Championship opposition.

But the goal was bizarre in a way that hinted at what was to come: Montero notched his goal after San Diego froze expecting a possible penalty kick call against them.

Seattle made it 2-0 through Ethan Dobbelaere in the 26th minute, and it seemed like the Sounders were readying for a romp. While the Loyal were able to steady themselves and get to halftime, 2-0 away against the Sounders? That’s a loss for just about anyone.

Head coach Nate Miller made four halftime substitutions, and that might have sparked something. Former USMNT midfielder Joe Corona’s 53rd minute penalty got San Diego back in it, but two minutes later Seattle cancelled that goal out, with Paul Rothrock sneaking a shot past Koke Vegas.

Again, it sounded like typical stuff, the big dog squelching any hope for the plucky upstart. That is, until Corona decided to score a wonder goal, burying a 25-yard direct free kick.

More than anything else, this stirred something. Seattle wobbled, and San Diego went looking for a miracle.

Still, it looked like the Sounders were going to escape. With only three minutes of stoppage time given in a half that saw three goals scored, two injury stoppages, a penalty kick given, three bookings, and three substitutions, San Diego just didn’t have enough time to get that one golden look.

But who needs a golden look when you have Kyle Adams apparently readying a cannon to score a stoppage-time equalizer from 27 yards?

Hurled into extra time and possibly into some other dimension by that goal, the Sounders got right back to work. Reed Baker-Whiting, apparently inspired by San Diego’s bangers, decided to offer up one of his own, dribbling in from the right before using his left foot to flash a shot from outside the box into the top corner.

The Loyal had already gone deep into their bag of tricks, but had one more moment of magic to call on. San Diego brought Jackson Simba in as a 115th minute substitute, and with literally his first touch of the ball, the 20-year-old headed home Corona’s near-post free kick.

If that were it, we’d be talking about Open Cup Madness, but somehow the final few minutes promised more. Seattle pumped in one last long ball, and both Simba and Travian Sousa pursued it. The Starfire turf sent the ball bouncing up high, and as the two jostled, Simba ended up turning and tripping Sousa up.

Penalty kick two minutes into stoppage time of extra time? You know it! Eight Loyal players argued against the call. Corona wandered in trying to put Montero off, then left the box, only to return to stall even further under the guise of giving his goalkeeper Vegas a kind word. Even when the box cleared, Vegas’ hopping up to slap the crossbar drew one more stoppage as referee Cristian Campo Hernández told him to stop shaking the goal frame.

Over two and a half minutes after the call was made, Montero just barely squeezed his shot past Vegas, giving Seattle what is almost certainly the wildest win of this year’s U.S. Open Cup.

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