San Diego Loyal kicked off its 2023 USL Championship regular season with a 1-0 victory over Detroit City FC in front of a sold-out Torero Stadium on Saturday night. The match was a gritty and hard-fought affair with San Diego Loyal breaking the deadlock in the 42nd minute after a deflected shot from defender Kyle Adams found the waiting right-foot of forward Jackson Simba who placed the shot by the outstretched arm of goalkeeper Nate Steinwascher.

Detroit City had limited chances to score throughout the match thanks to the suffocating defense implemented from the opening whistle by SD Loyal. The visitors could not take advantage of its one real scoring opportunity in the 53rd minute from inside the box that goalkeeper Koke Vegas was able to deflect out of danger with his right hand.

“It’s what our focus has been, we know we need to be a much more solid defensive team,” said San Diego Loyal head coach Nate Miller. “We want to be the best defensive team and that’s our goal, but to do it while we’re the entertaining attacking team that everyone knows we are.”

San Diego Loyal gave up 55 goals in 2022, which was ninth best out of the 13 teams in the western conference, but also had the second-best scoring offense in the entire league with 68 goals. This helped the team finish as the second seed in the conference only behind the eventual champion San Antonio FC. San Diego Loyal now gets ready to take on its rival Phoenix Rising on March 19 at Torero Stadium with San Diego having won both games against Phoenix last season.

ADG FC

The defending So Cal South Premier champion Arenal de Gomez FC will start its conference title defense on March 26 by visiting Escondido FC at San Pasqual High School followed by its first home game on April 2 at San Diego Mesa College versus Southwest SC.

The team, led by head coach Ray Gutierrez, will feature the return of forward Cesar Romero who led the league in scoring last season with 25 goals. Romero played for Chivas USA the Major League Soccer from 2012 to 2014 and spent time in NISA playing for 1904 FC in 2021 also scoring in the round of 32 playoff match versus the eventual UPSL champion Olympians.

ADG FC will play 10 games this spring split evenly between home and away that will include rematches against local rivals Rebels SC, San Diego Internacional FC and Nomads SC, which was the only team to beat Arenal de Gomez during 2022 fall regular season.

San Diego Sockers

The San Diego Sockers became the first MASL team to clinch a postseason birth thanks to its dramatic 8-7 overtime victory against the Empire Strykers at Toyota Stadium on March 9. The Sockers (16-2) split the scoring duties versus the Strykers led by the two goals from midfielder Felipe Gonzalez with the game-winner coming courtesy of midfielder Christian Gutierrez.

The San Diego Sockers have six games remaining in the regular season with five of those at Pechanga Arena San Diego as the team goes for its third-straight Ron Newman Cup and 17th championship overall. The Sockers next match is at home on March 17 versus the Monterrey Flash with San Diego coming out on top 6-3 in their first head-to-head on Feb. 26 at Monterrey Arena in Mexico.

Photos courtesy of San Diego Loyal, Luzrayito Reynoso, and Eddie Trujillo.