San Diego FC: First training session checks off "unbelievable" milestone

MLS's newest club took a historic step from concept to reality on Monday as San Diego FC held their inaugural training session, the expansion side welcoming players and staff for the opening day of their first-ever preseason.

That provided some simple, sensory joys for the chief architects of the fledgling organization to savor.

“There's nothing like smelling the grass,” CEO Tom Penn told reporters with a smile. “When you're in a conference room, or when you're in the initial phases of conceptualizing this, when you can get out and smell the grass, the real grass, and be on it with players – that's a shifting into a new gear.

“Having the players here for the first time, seeing what we got, and hearing the action and witnessing this whole thing being born, it's pretty special.”

For SDFC head coach Mikey Varas, who is at the helm of a professional first team for the first time, it was the sight and sound of star winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and his new teammates pinging a ball across a manicured grass pitch at the Sharp HealthCare Performance Center, the club’s 125,000-square-foot training ground and residential campus.

“Football is our passion,” Varas said of his most visceral opening-day sensations, “so just to hear the football rolling, and then being around the energy of players, seeing them do their thing, seeing them get to know each other.

“It's kind of unbelievable, right? Like, it's a ‘pinch yourself every single day’ moment, it’s an incredible honor.”

Roster takes shape

While Varas and his staff shift their focus to on-field matters, sporting director and general manager Tyler Heaps continues to build out the roster ahead of San Diego’s MLS debut, a visit to near-neighbors and defending MLS Cup presented by Audi champions LA Galaxy on Feb. 23 (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).

Two additions, Onni Valakari and Alejandro Alvarado Jr., were already announced this week, and more are expected imminently, with Heaps pointing to a few key areas in need of reinforcement.

“I think there's still three to five players that we’ll bring in,” said Heaps, whose club was linked to a move for US international and San Diego native Luca de la Torre in Tuesday media reports.

“There are still a few pieces. We're still probably missing a right winger, still probably missing another midfielder, another right back, and probably another center back. So those are kind of our key priorities right now, but we'd like to see the team [first]. So maybe it’s not going to come in the next couple of days, but over the coming weeks I think you’ll see a few more announcements.”

Academy vision

Much like the roster, the training facility – located in the eastern suburb of El Cajon on land belonging to SDFC co-owners the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, the tribe dubbed “San Diego’s ancestral family” with over 12,000 years of heritage in the region – is a work in progress.

While the first-team spaces are operational, construction continues elsewhere on-site in preparation for the academy, which will include residential and educational facilities, to launch in late summer.

In the long run, that side of operations will be a keystone to the club’s identity, with a focus on talent identification and youth development. That’s in keeping with SDFC’s affiliation with Right to Dream, the groundbreaking international academy network with outposts across Denmark, Ghana and Egypt, whose development model will center San Diego’s approach.

“In terms of how quickly, I was here for groundbreaking 14 months ago – everything that needs to be done is done. The cafeteria, the locker room, the players are in the gym at the moment, the fields are looking immaculate,” explained Heaps. “So there's still a few minor things, they’re working still on the academy offices and some of the academy locker rooms. But as you guys can see, it’s pretty well along and the players are obviously excited to be here.”

The scale and ambition of SDFC’s investment along those lines has everyone involved thinking big.

“We want this to be the epicenter of football excellence and innovation in North America. That's our vision for the whole club,” said Penn. “This region has so much talent, a long history of that. Can we be the magnet that brings the best talent here, that brings more talent from beyond our region, and that puts out the best players possible for the US national team, for the Mexican national team. Both? And then we'll win a lot of games and trophies along the way.

“There's been a sense, a real commitment to youth development generally [in MLS],” he added. “There's been momentum around that in the United States, and this idea of growing the team the right way. We're taking that to the next level with this kind of investment. Nobody's invested this much capital into a youth development-focused club.”