USD hosts No. 1 UCLA in men’s soccer (2024)

When USD started a men’s soccer team in 1980, it played games at what is now known as the Valley Field. There were a few rows of bleachers on one sideline.

“We had maybe 100 people at our games,” Seamus McFadden said. “If that.”

He would know. He was the coach back then, too, the only men’s soccer coach the Toreros have ever known.

So in some respects, what might happen Friday night up the hill at Torero Stadium is a crowning achievement for McFadden and his 35-year-old program. USD hosts No. 1 UCLA at 7 p.m., and while a victory would certainly be welcome to his 2-2-4 team it would not be unprecedented; McFadden has knocked off No. 1 teams three times in his career, most recently at Cal last season.

The other story tonight won’t be on the field, but in the stands. USD likely will break the attendance record for a men’s soccer game in San Diego.

Of course, to break a record you actually have to know what it is. USD played several games with home crowds listed as “4,000 SRO,” but those were in the 1990s, before Torero Stadium was expanded to 6,000-plus seats by the San Diego Spirit of the defunct WUSA and became one of the nation’s premier college soccer venues.

They now know the original seating area on the stadium’s north side holds less than 3,000, and that they had to open the new seating areas for the first time against San Diego State in 2010. That crowd, announced at 3,143, is considered the largest. Anything over 4,126 would make it the largest for any sport at USD in 2014, football and men’s basketball included.

McFadden said more than 3,000 tickets have already been sold behind the impetus of assistant coach Brian Quinn, mostly to area youth clubs that have produced many of the players on the field Friday night. USD has 12 local players on its roster, and six start. UCLA features San Pasqual High alum Brian Iloski and goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr, the son of UCSD athletic director Earl Edwards Sr.

“We’ve got so many (youth) teams in San Diego, but there’s also so much to do on a Friday night,” McFadden said. “You’d think it’d be easy pickings to get a big crowd, but it’s not. San Diego fans are finicky. I’d love to see a full venue.”

On paper, the top-ranked Bruins (4-1-2) win this game easily with a roster of star foreign prospects and members of U.S. youth national teams. Edwards, a redshirt senior, was the starting goalkeeper in the 2009 under-17 World Cup and has gone the last 369 minutes this season without allowing a goal.

But the Bruins’ opponent is USD, which changes things. The Toreros have a 4-3 advantage when they’ve met in the NCAA Tournament – including a 5-2 decision at UCLA in the second round two years ago. The Toreros have 10 all-time wins against teams ranked in the top six, four of them against UCLA. Last year’s regular-season meeting went to overtime before UCLA prevailed 3-2 on what McFadden calls a “dubious goal.”

“We’ve handed them some pain over the years,” said McFadden, whose only two losses this season are against No. 4 UC Irvine and No. 5 New Mexico. “I feel we can compete with anyone on the day. We beat the No. 1 team last year and we’re a much better team now than we were a year ago. We have a habit of playing big in big games. So we’ll see.”

They’re also playing at Torero Stadium and not the Valley Field, where the Toreros were winless in their inaugural season.

McFadden tells the story from a few years back, when Portland came to Torero Stadium needing just not to lose by more than two goals to claim the West Coast Conference title. USD won 3-0, and when the late Clive Charles, Portland’s coach, met him at midfield for the post-game handshake he said: “AC Milan couldn’t beat you on this field.”