San Diego FC plays their first ever regular season MLS home game
San Diego FC played their first ever home MLS regular season game against St. Louis City SC Saturday night.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - San Diego FC drew their first ever regular season home MLS game Saturday night against St. Louis City SC.
However, before the match even started the festivities were already well underway.
The home team celebrations included fire works, a visit from MLS Commissioner Don Garber, and Padres star Manny Machado presenting the team with their symbol.
A soccer ball with 18 blue lines, representing each city within San Diego County.
Before the game, commissioner Garber shared why San Diego is a great fit for the league's newest franchise.
"I think this is a great sports town. It's a beautiful city, soccer has a great history here as many of you know and we wanted to work hard for years and years to get an MLS team here," said Garber.
The community did not disappoint with over 34,500 fans rushing into the stadium for their first ever game.
The match started off with SDFC continuing to apply pressure on the St. Louis defense.
San Diego star Chucky Lozano was a clear focal point for the team as he made runs and crosses inside the box.
However, bad news struck for the home team as Lozano would walk off the pitch injured near the 30th minute mark.
MLS veteran Emmanuel Boateng went on to replace him.
"Chucky's a big player for our team, so losing him that early in the game wasn't good, but I've been preparing and trying to learn our style of play all preseason just like everybody else so I felt ready to come in," said Boateng.
SDFC continued to dominate through the rest of the match with over 70% possession and 15 shots.
Following the match San Diego’s head coach Mikey Varas shared his thoughts on the stadium’s atmosphere and overall team performance.
"I think the stadium was electric. The boys were electric, considering we've been together for six weeks and we're very disappointed with a tie I think shows a lot," said Varas.
However, coach Varas also addressed the homophobic chants that were screamed by some of the fans.
"The chant that was heard tonight is unacceptable. It's outside of our values system. It doesn't represent the players, myself, the club, and it certainly doesn't represent San Diego or Baja California," said Varas.
San Diego will look to continue their undefeated regular season next Saturday against Real Salt Lake in Utah.
