A sellout crowd of 40,091 fans packed Oracle Park on Saturday to watch Bay FC make its San Francisco debut.
The crowd was the largest in U.S. women’s professional soccer history and, for 96 minutes, it carried the expansion club through a comeback attempt that fell just short in a 3-2 loss to the Washington Spirit.
The Spirit spoiled the result, but not quite the whole afternoon. Bay FC’s first match in San Francisco was a landmark, and a test of whether the city would embrace a team that has spent its first two seasons based in San Jose.
San Francisco, at last
For Chris Egan and Libby Lee, who brought their 9- and 7-year-old daughters from Berkeley, the difference was simple: geography.
“This is way easier to get up to than San Jose,” Egan said. “We would definitely go to more games if it was closer.” Lee, who admitted she isn’t much of a sports fan, was struck by the sight of “so many other little girls here. It felt like something we could actually do.”
That refrain — San Jose is too far, San Francisco feels possible — echoed through the stands.
Others came because this was finally in reach.
“I’m actually more of a soccer fan,” said Mission Bay resident Eush Tayco, wearing a Valkyries hat, “but I’m not going all the way down to San Jose. If anybody’s coming here, I’m going to watch them.”
Where Valkyries basketball games have become queer, purple-soaked parties, Bay FC’s Oracle Park debut looked more like global soccer transplanted into the city: Jerseys from Mexico, El Salvador, Korea, Barcelona, and Washington Spirit neon scattered among the home side’s teal.
Even Oakland’s Too $hort turned up at halftime for a too-short cameo, a reminder this was as much Bay party as soccer showcase.
The second half had its own soundtrack: high-pitched voices of children who kept at it relentlessly. “Bay-F-C! Bay-F-C!” they shouted, never tiring as the home team tried to claw back.
A fight on the field
On the pitch, Bay FC showed both flaws and fight. Washington’s Leicy Santos was dominant on the wing, and the Spirit were up 3-0 on the cusp of halftime, with the third goal coming courtesy of Bay FC, with a misplayed clearance from defender Kelli Hubly ricocheting into her own net.
Racheal Kundananji’s header pulled one back right before the break, and minutes into the second half, Hubly redeemed herself with another header at the right end. The comeback was on.
By stoppage time, Bay FC was throwing everyone forward, goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz included. She sprinted into the box for a last-gasp corner, the stadium rising with her. The ball dropped, the roar rose, and for a heartbeat, the game seemed destined for a storybook tie. Instead, the whistle.
Coach Albertin Montoya focused on what the fight revealed. “When you’re down three goals you can give up, but the players never stopped trying,” he said. “We were so close. If we keep getting games like this, we believe we’re still in the fight.” Fans who have followed Bay FC since its very first game have heard that before, though.
A verdict still pending
For Washington’s offensive midfielder, Croix Bethune, the afternoon was about balancing spectacle with performance. “It’s an honor, but this is our job and we had a game to play,” she said. “We’re here to take over — respectfully. We make history not just by playing here, but winning.”
Spirit coach Adrián González, whose team had just returned from a Concacaf match in El Salvador, called the moment “unbelievable.”
“We’re kind of used to 20,000 at Audi Field [in Washington, D.C.], but 40,000 here? It’s unbelievable,” he said. “This is not a coincidence — the players deserve this. Ten, 15 years ago it didn’t happen like this. Look at what you are achieving.”
Montoya admitted the scale of Oracle Park was different: “Once the game starts, we’re focused, but you can’t hear a thing here, and that’s special. Forty thousand is a lot more than 17,000.” He smiled at the idea that fans wanted more games in the city. “I love to hear that. It means they became fans.”
By full-time, thousands rushed to trains and buses like they might after a Giants or Warriors game: Sharing the moment, this time in defeat.
Bay FC leaves with a loss and a landmark: The biggest crowd women’s pro soccer has ever seen in this country, and a taste of belonging in San Francisco. Whether that connection holds when the team returns to San Jose remains the question hanging in the air.
