Fans of Club América showed up in droves for Saturday night’s friendly against San Diego FC at Snapdragon Stadium.
Too bad Club América didn’t.
This wasn’t the Mexican giant’s first team. Or second. Third or fourth? Maybe.
That much was evident when Club América came out for warmups. All but four of the two dozen players on its roster wore triple-digit jerseys.
The starting lineup included players wearing numbers like 185, 186, 237 and 303. It wasn’t because most of the lower numbers were retired, like with the New York Yankees. Nope.
Most of the team’s starters were either away for international play or resting up for the Liga MX season that begins next month.
“I don’t know if these guys have even played together,” one press box observer said at halftime after Club América barely crossed midfield and failed to even get a shot.
SDFC, which also was missing several starters to international call-ups, kept Club América goalkeeper Rodolfo Cota busy throughout the match on the way to a 3-0 victory in a friendly played before an announced crowd of 30,916.
“I know it’s called a friendly,” SDFC coach Mikey Varas said. “There’s no such thing as a friendly. If you’re going to put your boots on, you want to win the game. We feel like that even in training sessions. Club América is a historically massive club. They come here, it doesn’t matter, we want to win the game. It’s our home and we want to win in front of our fans and play exciting football.”
Two hours before the match, a vendor waved yellow Club América flags as he walked back and forth between cars waiting out a red light for the main gate at Snapdragon. The vendor’s time would have been better spent inside the parking lot, where a significant number of Club América fans tailgated before the game.
An hour before kickoff, Club América ers were led to the southeast corner of the stadium, where they occupied two sections walled off by three dozen security guards were lined up from top to bottom in the upper deck through the match.
Fans in yellow Club América jerseys were sprinkled throughout Snapdragon, eager to get a glimpse of Mexico’s most accomplished team.
They were given few chances to cheer.
SDFC fans were in full throat, however, as they watched forward Milan Iloski, making his first start of the season, score twice and teammate Tomás Ángel added a third goal.
SDFC peppered Cota with 10 first-half shots (five on goal). After a handful of near misses in the early minutes, Iloski scored in the 37th minute, taking a from midfielder Jasper Loffelsend that he curved past Cota into the left corner of the net.
It provided SDFC with a 1-0 halftime lead.
Iloski added another goal in the 64th minute, taking a from defender Oscar Verhoeven that he booted just inside the crossbar.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Iloski, an Escondido native on loan from sister club FC Nordsjaelland. “A night like tonight where we’re missing a lot of players. I know it’s a friendly but for me it’s an opportunity to play some minutes and prove to the staff that I can be trusted for more minutes.
“I know I don’t have long left here on my loan, but I want to show while I’m here. … It’s an opportunity for me to play games and show what I bring to the team.”
Ángel scored on a free kick in the 77th minute, bending a ball into the goal’s upper right corner.
It was not much of a challenge for SDFC, which also had several reserves in the starting lineup with half a dozen of its regulars receiving international call-ups.
“We should be able to lose a bunch of guys and put a bunch of new guys in and we should still look like San Diego FC,” Varas said. “Obviously, the result was really good, but the more important thing for me it was like a smashing success in of individual guys stepping up and playing really well. It doesn’t matter who’s in there, we keep playing the way that we’re playing.
“They made some really exciting plays. It shows also that we’ve been developing everybody in the squad and we give ourselves a chance of having a bigger squad as the season goes.”
SDFC goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega, making his first start this season, had half the field to himself most of the match.
Club América finally took a shot in the 74th minute. Sisniega finally made a save five minutes later.
Notable
Mexican great Hugo Sanchez, who starred for the outdoor San Diego Sockers in 1979-80, delivered the ceremonial silver soccer ball before the match.
• SDFC resumes Major League Soccer play next Saturday at Minnesota.
