Dreams of a sports championship are still alive in San Diego this year thanks to professional soccer.
Major League Soccer’s San Diego FC and the National Women’s Soccer League’s San Diego Wave FC are both headed to the playoffs in the next few weeks.
“I think everyone is in a frenzy. And I mean that in the most exciting way because there are many people who follow or attend both games, like myself,” said 32-year-old Vanessa Bejarano.
She’s vice president of Frontera SD — the supporters' group for SDFC. She said there are thousands of San Diegans in the group.
“We have people who are big European soccer fans and they've got a way of doing things. We’ve got big Mexican league soccer fans and the fans have a way of doing their own thing. And we here, for San Diego, for MLS, for us — it's meshing those,” Bejarano said.
This year marks the third time Wave FC are headed to the playoffs since the team first formed in 2021.
SDFC made history by making the playoffs in their inaugural season. The team placed first in the Western Conference, which is made up of 15 teams. They also now hold the record for the most wins and points by an expansion team in MLS history.
“I am immensely proud of them, I am excited to be part of this from when it started to now and watching the growth. Not only watching the team build, but our supporter section,” Bejarano said.
SDFC plays their first-ever postseason game this Sunday evening at Snapdragon Stadium against the Portland Timbers. It's the first match in a best-of-three series against that team.
As for Wave FC, the NWSL playoffs are scheduled to begin in early November.
Fans of both teams are expecting lively atmospheres for playoff home games.
“We have people chanting all game long, we have drummers like myself, we have people waving flags, we have people blowing bubbles, we have people in costumes,” said 39-year-old Alex Godinez.
He’s a member of Wave supporters' group called the San Diego Sirens. Godinez also happens to be Bejarano’s husband, and said they're quite the soccer family.
He said having two top-level soccer teams in town has brought the community together.
“San Diego was a soccer city even before we had teams. The fact that we have two professional teams in this city has been amazing and people are just so excited to attend these games and see these superstars perform in front of us,” Godinez said.
San Diego FC hopes to become the first expansion club to win the MLS Cup since the Chicago Fire did so in 1998.
San Diego Wave FC is shooting for their first NWSL Championship.
