As El Farolito Soccer Club prepared for the semifinals of the Hank Steinbrecher Cup — the trophy that crowns the best amateur soccer team in the United States — head coach Santiago López paused to consider a blunt question:
“We were the best amateur team in this year’s U.S. Open Cup,” López said of the annual tournament featuring lower-level pro clubs and upstart amateur teams like his own.
López’s side is a contender to win the semi-pro National Premier Soccer League for a second year in a row, and could advance further in the U.S. Open Cup. But, barring a significant change in the promotion system of U.S. Soccer, “this is pretty much as far as we can go.”
That invisible ceiling hangs over every aspect of El Farolito’s story. The club, rooted in San Francisco’s Mission District and staffed almost entirely by Latinx immigrants, does not lack ambition. What it lacks is a ladder.
And yet, this weekend in Manchester, New Hampshire, none of that matters.
El Farolito SC will take the field Saturday, June 7 at 9 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Pacific) at the synthetic turf of Manchester Memorial High School [STREAM HERE].
Their semifinal opponent is West Chester United SC from Pennsylvania. The other semifinal pits Seacoast United Phantoms against Houston Regals. The winners will face off Sunday at 1 p.m. (10 a.m. Pacific) to claim the Steinbrecher Cup.
A dream, briefly lived
The team flew across the country Tuesday morning, from SFO to Boston, Massachusetts, then rode 90 minutes by bus to the small New England town. Since arriving, they’ve barely trained. Just enough to stay loose, 30-minute activation sessions here and there. The real priorities have been hydration, rest, and shared meals.
“For a lot of us, this is the life we’d like to have,” López said. “You wake up for breakfast with the group. You nap. You’re focused. No work. No commutes. I’ve actually had time to watch tape and build the game plan instead of doing it while driving around.”
That quiet luxury is rare for this team. In San Francisco players juggle construction shifts, kitchen jobs, delivery routes, or full-time college. Right now in New Hampshire, they’re full-time footballers, if only for a few days.
Defender Andrés Zuluaga,once a pro in the Colombian leagues, summed it up simply: “I missed this,” he said, describing the now-rare luxury of a routine focused only on eating, playing, and sleeping.
Yet even as the team relaxes, the stakes remain high.
“We still want to win everything,” he said.
The 20-player squad in New Hampshire also includes key reinforcements from Farolito’s last tourney run.
Midfielder Allan Juárez, 20, joined in May and already played two NPSL matches. He’s entering his senior year at the University of California, Berkeley, and has eyes on declaring for the MLS draft.
Then there is forward Sebastián Yabur, striker Dembor Bengtson’s partner in crime and one of the team’s top scorers in 2024, back after a stint with Deportes Quindío in Colombia.
“Sebastián was great for the group last year, and everyone knows him,” said López. “We’re making sure he feels good being back.”
Their opponent in the semifinal, West Chester United SC from Pennsylvania, is a more traditionally structured club: Young, deep, and part of a four-division system that feeds talent upward.
“They defend well and hit on the counter,” López said. “They’re bigger than us. More players, more infrastructure.”
But El Farolito isn’t just playing to win.
“We’re here to represent La Misión,” López said. “That’s serious to us.”
Chasing a closed door
The spirit remains intact, even as the team navigates limits far beyond the field. There was anxiety before the flight; quiet fears about immigration checks.
“You hear stories: People getting arrested going to green card appointments,” López said. “But we were lucky. Everything went smoothly. We brought our documents. Now we can just focus.”
That underlying tension is part of daily life for many players, a background hum that fades only during tournaments like this one.
So does another kind of frustration: The inability to grow.
El Farolito is one of the most successful amateur clubs in the country. But in the absence of promotion and relegation, winning again and again still leads nowhere.
“We’d love to move up,” López said. “If they opened promotion, maybe we could enter a higher division with this same model: Find some sponsors, stay community-based. But as things are, this is the top.”
Even something as simple as selling jerseys is off the table. The club shares its name and logo with the original Taquería El Farolito. And because the owners dream of opening more restaurants, ideally in historic districts like Haight-Ashbury or Chinatown, they’ve decided not to sell merch.
“Selling gear could make us look like a franchise,” López explained. “And if you’re seen as a franchise, you can’t open in certain places. So we don’t take the risk.”
Despite all of that, López is confident about what the team has achieved — and what it stands for.
“On the field, we’re the best team in San Francisco,” he said. “We’ve represented the city better than anyone, in both league and cup.”
Honored at City Hall just three weeks ago, and now with a day named after the taquería and the team — May 22, mark your calendars — El Farolito has been slow to update the trophy wall at the bar at Mission and 24th streets.
“We need to fix that,” López laughed.
A new trophy may be coming back with them on Monday. And maybe that is all there is. But for one long weekend in June, El Farolito SC will live like the club it dreams of being, and that might be enough.
Addendum: El Farolito SC advanced to the Steinbrecher Cup final with a commanding 3–0 win over West Chester United FC on Saturday morning in Manchester, New Hampshire. The team will face Seacoast United in the championship match on Sunday, June 7, at 1 p.m. local time (10 a.m. Pacific). One more game stands between Farolito and the national amateur crown.
Keel playing hard! If a pro team thinks you are good enough to pay you a salary, they will draft you. Cream rises to the top!