It isn’t often that a non-conference game not even at the halfway point of the season is of such high importance that it can be considered a must-win, particularly when your team is sitting in third place in the conference standings. That appears to be the case for San Diego Loyal as it enters its next match at 7 p.m. Saturday at Torero Stadium versus Indy Eleven, a team that is also in the playoff hunt in the eastern conference.

“As we reach the halfway point of the season every match and every point matter inside and outside of our conference,” said San Diego Loyal president Ricardo Campos. 

San Diego is coming off a gut-wrenching loss at home to Las Vegas Lights in its previous match largely due to the opponent’s goalkeeper, Tomas Romero, putting on a superhero cape, particularly in the second half, and blocking pretty much everything thrown his way.

Despite SD Loyal being among the top-three teams in the western conference, they are currently tied with three other teams in points (New Mexico, Sacramento, and El Paso) all with 25. The disadvantage that San Diego Loyal has is that they have played two more matches than New Mexico and one more than Sacramento, which has won its last four games including a win over LA Galaxy on June 21 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals.

San Diego knows it has to start separating itself from this bottleneck of teams vying to make the playoffs starting on Saturday with a victory over Indy since the following two matches are against the league champion Orange County SC and conference leader Colorado Switchbacks.

“The league is very competitive and we see that by how close the table is. We are excited to host new opponents like Indy and old foes like OC in the next two matches,” Campos added. 

Hopefully, the team does not come up against goalkeepers that you can only score on if the goal makes the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 for the foreseeable future. 

Photo courtesy: San Diego Loyal