San Diego Derby: SD Loyal and 1904 Meet In Preseason Game
San Diego is a passionate soccer city with fans willing to cross the border into Mexico to watch a great match. The upcoming San Diego Derby is a sure fire success as these two competitive clubs challenge each other with club and league pride on the line.
San Diego Loyal SC and 1904 FC have confirmed their first game for next Saturday, March 27, at the Chula Vista Athlete Training Center.
The two teams, currently in preparation for their regular season in in USL Championship and NISA respectively, had hoped hoped to face each other sometime in 2020, but were unable to do so due to the pandemic.
Alex Gontran, head coach and technical director of 1904 FC, and Landon Donovan, who begins his second season leading San Diego Loyal, look forward to the San Diego Soccer Derby.
“The two professional football teams in San Diego can scrimmage together … it’s great to make this happen!!”
Alex Gontran, Head Coach 1904 FC
“This will be the beginning of the best friendly rivalry in San Diego,” said Gontran. “We are competing in a different leagues and we should work together to make the football community of San Diego proud of their teams. And, I will be personally glad to meet Landon Donovan.”
As one of the most accomplished American players of all time, Donovan’s exceptional performance as a professional soccer player are now being overshadowed by his leadership as a coach. Last year, Donovan and his team refused to look the other way when prejudice hit the soccer pitch and stood up for LGBTQ+ rights and Black Lives Matter.
San Diego Loyal recently participated in two 60-minute sessions against the LA Galaxy in Carson on Saturday with the home team taking the opener 1-0 thanks to a goal by midfielder Jonathan Pérez in the 53rd minute.
San Diego Loyal was able to regroup for the second half, which ended in a 1-1 draw thanks to a spectacular leg shot from outside the area by midfielder Calvin Jay Fodrey. Fodrey, who played as a youth San Diego’s Nomads SC for eight years before moving to the LA Galaxy Academy, has now joined the San Diego Loyal and is competing to be part of the lineup in his first game of the regular season.
“Today was very good for me, we played against a very good team,” said head coach Landon Donovan. “The effort was great and I thought they got a lot out of it. Seeing where our team is after two weeks of this year compared to the first two weeks of last year, it’s not even close, we are way ahead of schedule.”
The next preseason game for San Diego Loyal is this Saturday, March 27 in Chula Vista with the opponent yet to be announced and followed by a game against New Mexico United on Saturday, April 3 also in Chula Vista.
As for 1904 FC, the team is also preparing for the upcoming season. Last Saturday, 1904 was in Temecula facing Temecula FC of the NPSL in three sessions of 35 minutes falling in the first by a score of 2-1, winning the second by a score of 3-2 and with the third finishing in favor of 1904 FC by a score of 6-3.
