When the El Farolito soccer team punched its ticket to the third round of the U.S. Open Cup with a stunning comeback over Monterey Bay, its players didn’t head out for a lavish celebration. They clocked in for work the very next morning, as if nothing extraordinary had happened. Because, for them, it’s just another day in the life of the hardest-working team in American soccer.
A construction worker, an electrical engineer, a delivery driver: These are the roles that define the players of El Farolito. By day, they grind to make ends meet. By night, they flip the switch to compete with the best, beating professional teams in a tournament that traditionally casts them as nothing more than underdogs. El Farolito, the taquería club rooted in San Francisco’s Mission District, is now the lone amateur team left in the U.S. Open Cup.
On Wednesday night, they’ll face yet another professional team, Sacramento Republic, in the third round of the tournament. The match, which will be televised tonight at 7pm on CBS Sports and Paramount+, is a clash of two vastly different soccer worlds. On one side is a full-time professional club with MLS aspirations; on the other a band of semi-pros and working-class warriors.
It’s that very duality that makes El Farolito such a dangerous opponent; its players balance the grind of life with pure love of the game. For the second year in a row, the team’s blend of experience and youthful ambition has made El Farolito’s run all the more dangerous.
Old wounds, new goals
Dembor Bengtson has barely clocked any delivery shifts with Amazon Flex since the beginning of the Cup season. Whenever he finds himself behind the wheel, the Honduran striker still ruminates over last year’s third-round defeat against the Oakland Roots.
“We’re still gutted by that result, by the red card that cost us so much,” he recalls. “I’m still gutted by that missed chance in extra time. Which is why we’re even hungrier this time around.”
The top goalscorer for the yellow and blue in the 2024 campaign, Bengtson spent the second half of the year playing professionally for USL 1’s Central Valley Fuego in Fresno. The team folded at the end of the season, and Bengtson made his way back to his family in Hayward, and his other family at El Farolito.
Often seen dropping packages in people’s doorsteps in San Mateo, he has recalibrated his routine, setting aside financial concerns while revving up for what he hopes is a more successful 2025 Cup run. And, in that sense, he is blessed amongst his peers.
The days are longer for captain Jonathan Mosquera and No. 10 Daniel Buitrago, veterans of the Colombian professional leagues, later journeymen in the Concacaf region, now living double lives as construction workers in the morning and Farolito players wherever they can make it fit.
Mosquera leaves home around 6:30 a.m. driving over an hour from San José to construction sites in Concord, Pinole, or Walnut Creek. His days are filled with back-breaking work — laying pavers, hauling heavy blocks, breaking concrete under the sun — before he shifts into soccer mode and drives straight to evening practice in San Francisco.
“I can’t stop. I have to continue to work,” he insists in Spanish. “And then, in the midst of a demolition, I’m thinking ‘How am I going to counter Sacramento’s forwards?’”
At El Farolito, that seriousness is balanced by camaraderie. Mosquera, 37, who leads by example and by voice, often pulls younger players aside to remind them that every match is a chance — maybe their only one — to get noticed.
This applies to those relegated to the sidelines or the local league games, too. At 34, Buitrago has experienced the full journey from professional stadiums to the humble pitches where El Farolito plays its home games. His move to California entailed a crash course on bathroom tiling. It’s now his specialty in the Santa Cruz region, where he drives every morning before heading to practice in San Francisco and then back home to San José.
He brings a voice of seasoned wisdom to an ensemble full of life and aspirations.
“It is part of our conversation and our prayers: The daily grind, leaving work to come practice, it makes every triumph even sweeter,” he explains. “We may be worried about some issue, some difficulty, but on the pitch, we relax.”
In the universe of jobs and trades held by El Farolito players, 25-year-old Gabriel Arias stands out as one of the most accomplished: He’s an electrical engineer and a creative playmaker. As he tells it, designing data centers for Silicon Valley tech giants demands the same precise planning he applies to each match.
“There’s a parallel in the importance of strategy and attention to detail in both worlds,” he says. “The discipline I’ve learned as an engineer — planning, analyzing, and troubleshooting — carries over into how I prepare for matches. It’s all interconnected in a way that helps me excel in both areas.”
Warm up like El Farolito
Before each game, El Farolito‘s locker room pulses with the vibrant rhythms of salsa. The playlist, curated by a core group of Colombian players, features legends like Héctor Lavoe, Grupo Niche, and Fruko y Sus Tesos. It’s loud, joyful, and full of swing, setting the tone for the team’s energy on the field. It’s also a unifying force that connects the diverse team members through shared heritage and passion.
I love this story! As a kid who spent many weekends watching her working class dad play on the soccer fields of SF, I really enjoyed this piece. Kudos to the athletes balancing work AND soccer!
Does anyone know where in the Mission or elsewhere in SF these games might be streaming?
Sabrina —
The television information is up top in the story. You also could do worse than going to El Farolito Bar. Fingers crossed.
Best,
JE
Mascots of the neighborhood, would love to buy their jerseys to support the team