The blue and gold is about to hit the road again. Not the Golden State Warriors, now enjoying a late-season boost, but the Mission’s own 2024 fútbol sweethearts El Farolito SC. Arguably the best soccer team in the city of San Francisco, the beloved taquería’s amateur squad plays its first-round U.S. Open Cup match against the Real Monarchs, an affiliate of the Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake, on March 19. The game will be in the Salt Lake City suburb of Herriman, Utah.
And this is just how the story began last year, too.
In March 2024, El Farolito made international news: The team named after a restaurant and featuring a roster of players with day jobs opened up the U.S. Open Cup by defeating the Portland Timbers 2, a feeder club for Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers. What’s more, this victory came in Portland, in the Timbers’ stadium.
El Farolito followed up that win with a victory in Merced over Central Valley Fuego, a now-extinct professional team that competed in the third-tier U.S. League 1. The run finally ended with a 2-1 loss in extra time against yet another professional side, the Oakland Roots of the USL Championship (equivalent to a second division in U.S. Soccer’s relegation-free league system).
Following up on its 15 minutes of fame as international soccer’s darling, El Farolito in August won the semi-pro National Premier Soccer League after beating New Jersey’s Motown FC, 2-1, in the final. Local media were charmed by the “Burrito Boys.” International fans were asking for merch. Then-Mayor London Breed even visited the team’s final practice before the regional National Premier Soccer League finals.
They rode the wave. And then the wave passed.
Nineteen players remain from the squad that briefly caught the world’s attention last year. Along with 10 newcomers, they’ve been training for the coming season since January. But they’re hard to find: One afternoon, they can be spotted at Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center in Oceanview. On another evening, you’ll find them practicing under the lights at the big turf field in Silver Terrace. Last weekend, they played a friendly game in San Lorenzo, and the weekend before that, they were in San José. In fact, the team may be running up your nearest hill at this very moment.
“It’s hard to work so many detailed concepts without a home field, and we have to adapt,” said team head coach and taquería GM Santiago López, whose father, Salvador López, founded the beloved local chain in the early 1980s. “But we’re happy being the ugly duckling of the Open Cup for the time being.”
And, other than the privileged few living off their savings, the roster is still heavy in footballers with day jobs as construction workers, ride-hail drivers, soccer coaches and other trades. (The taquería covers field rentals, uniforms, transportation and food during travel.)
A Wednesday afternoon in early March finds the squad at the soccer-industrial complex of the Crocker-Amazon playfields, across from a toddler P.E. workshop, a couple of youth soccer academies and an Ultimate Frisbee class for children. Tall and dressed in their black and blue training uniforms, ripped scrimmage vests on top, the Spanish-speaking Farolito crew is the most serious-looking of the 3 p.m. slot, but not enough to command onlookers’ attention. An old lady crossing the adjacent field with a walker is almost hit by an errant ball in the warm-up routine. “Caaaaasiiiiiiiii,” the group sighs in relief. The woman never found out.
The players may remain somewhat anonymous to their fellow San Franciscans, but not to each other, an advantage coach López is counting on for the coming season. Most of last year’s roster core is back, and what they lost in experience — Sebastián Yabur, one of last season’s top scorers, is now a team captain in the Colombian second division — they gained in fresh legs and new soccer dreams.
“There are a lot more young people this time around, which may make us a bit more conservative and less aggressive than we were last year,” López said. “But they come with such an attitude; it adds a lot of dynamism to our team.”
The new crop includes local prospects like Jason Leiva, a 19-year-old Lowell High School graduate, and international journeymen like Andrés Zuluaga, a central defender 10 years Leiva’s senior with time served in Colombian pro leagues. He’s hoping the “Burrito Team” will be his launching pad back to the pros.
Zuluaga, a fullback who last played for Orsomarso FC in Colombia’s second division, is only in his second month in the United States.
“I came here recommended by Yabur, just to stay in shape, play hard and to ratify what El Farolito did last year. And hoping a professional side takes interest in my game,” said Zuluaga, a native of Medellín.
El Farolito’s 2024 run at the U.S. Open Cup reopened the conversation about the pay-to-play nature of football in the States. Participation in youth academies can be expensive, hindering access and development opportunities for talented players from lower-income communities. Latinx people, who do not learn to play the game but rather acquire it practically from birth, have been historically underrepresented in U.S. professional leagues and national teams, a restriction of the talent pool that makes itself evident when the amateurs and the professionals meet. That is the little window of exposure that Farolito players are shooting for.
In his fifth season with El Farolito, 25-year-old offensive midfielder Gabriel Arias, an electrical engineer by day, trusts that the team’s ambition and zealous preparation can take the squad to the fourth round of the Open Cup, when the Major League Soccer teams finally enter the knock-out tournament.
“The most important thing we learned from last year’s campaign is the importance of us, the team, of staying together, on and off the field,” Arias said, “because that is what created bonds and a special chemistry.”
The significance of being a mostly Latinx and heavily immigrant squad in this particular moment is not lost on the Farolito team members.
“It is an honor and a privilege to represent not only San Francisco, but our Mission roots: The arts, the culture, Carnaval, the taquerías, and an entire community that backs the players and the team,” López said.
That pride runs deep. In 1993, the club,playing as C.D. Mexico, won the U.S. Open Cup, a feat now close to impossible for amateur teams. The trophy still sits inside the bar on 24th and Mission, a physical reminder of what’s possible for a team built from and for its community.
“It feels incredible to be able to represent the Latino community on such an important stage, because it gives us something to play for, for our families at home, and for everyone who follows us throughout the year,” added Arias. “We use this to our advantage more than people realize.”
Frantically looking for tape to study before the trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, coach López is still considering game plans for March 19. On the business side, the Farolito bar at 24th and Mission streets will play the game on its screens starting at 5:30 p.m. that Thursday.
He will admit, though, that the ball is not completely on his side.
“The players are the talent here,” says the coach. “I am just fortunate to have a group like this one.”
Bravo on:
“ A Wednesday afternoon in early March finds the squad at the soccer-industrial complex of the Crocker-Amazon playfields, across from a toddler P.E. workshop, a couple of youth soccer academies and an Ultimate Frisbee class for children.”
🤣
Just don’t wear your expensive cleats in the bathroom.
But seriously, a well written piece.
Go Burritos!