3 Goals in 8 Minutes: El Farolito beat FC Motown 2-1, win NPSL title

Two undefeated teams entered Drew University’s Ranger Stadium in Madison, NJ on Saturday for the 2024 National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) Final. One was the product of a retooled squad looking to reclaim national glory, while the other was riding the momentum of a surprisingly deep run in a controversy-filled US Open Cup.

FC Motown, the semi-pro super team from Morristown, New Jersey, was not able to complete its season with a second national championship. After a grueling night filled with multiple weather delays and close to a dozen cards, El Farolito of San Francisco earned their first-ever NPSL championship with a 2-1 win.

Farolito, which also won the 1993 US Open Cup under their previous name CD Mexico, became the darling of the country’s soccer scene earlier this year when they went on a run in the US Open Cup and beat two professional teams from higher leagues.

“We're going in the right direction for the club to grow in the future, hoping that the landscape and US Soccer, it's gonnaimprove, which I truly hope so and I believe it will. It's a good title to put on our, on our crest,” said El Farolito head coach Santiago Lopez. The son of Salvador Lopez, who led the team to the USOC title decades ago, he now has a national title to call his own. “My father did it in '93 at a national stage. Now we're here more than (30 years later). It's amazing.”

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Physical and Passionate: “We like to press”

Initially set for a 7 pm ET kickoff, the game was delayed over two hours due to severe weather rolling through the area. This included a tease at 8:15 pm ET, when the national anthem was played and the president of Drew University presided over the coin toss. Just as fans had returned to their seats, a streak of lightning flashed in the sky behind the players. That forced another 30-minute stoppage.

It generated different reactions from the head coaches. Lopez and his group aren’t used to storm delays like this one back in California. However, after the match, he explained that because the starting lineups were announced it allowed his group to identify how Motown was going to play. He credits this as a reason why the first half ended scoreless. 

On the other bench, Motown head coach Dilly Duka was worried. “We were worried about the delays and if (the player’s) muscles would be tight and how they're gonna look coming out of a delay,” said the former Major League Soccer midfielder whose career includes stops with the Columbus Crew, Chicago Fire, and New York Red Bulls.

But if anything, Motown looked loose and fast coming off the opening whistle once the game got underway just after 9 pm ET.

It took Morristown just 30 seconds to get their first chance on goal when former Houston Dynamo forward Joe Holland headed a shot point-blank at El Faro goalkeeper Johan Lizarralde. Then, in the sixth minute, a long pass by midfielder Papa Sow found forward Maudwindo Germain on a run running down the middle of the field. He was cleanly challenged from behind, hurting his connection to the shot. The ball got past Lizarralde, but slowly rolled into the right post and back into play. Then a corner kick in the ninth minute saw the ball headed near the goal line where a bicycle kick from El Faro’s Herlbert Soto cleared the ball.

Surviving that early flurry gave El Faro the confidence to start pressing higher.

In the 13th minute, an El Faro cross from the right side saw defender and former pro Zach Perez slide to block, sending the ball toward the right post. Motown keeper Joshua Schaffer only just avoided disaster when he dove to block the ball to keep the game scoreless.

The visitors then had consecutive freekicks. A foul just outside the penalty area, which the West Region champions unsuccessfully argued was a penalty to referee Patrick Manga, saw a shot and rebound by defender Gabriel Arias hit off a well-made wall. Two minutes later in the 17th, another shot from about 24 yards out on the right side hit the wall again.

However, that’s where the good offense ended and various messy assaults began. From the 30th minute up until the end of the half, the teams saw three yellow cards each. In truth, the physical style of El Faro had begun earlier in the half, but Managa had let things play out. He and his team started to lose control of the game, and neither team looked consistent in their attacks.

Coach Lopez of El Faro defended his team’s tactics, noting the group’s unfamiliarity with their opponent and confidence slowly building over time.

“We don't know the team and we're a very, very physical team, very passionate, we're very aggressive without the ball. We like to press,” said Lopez. “So there's gonna be a lot of balls that are gonna be 50/50. And with the conditions of the field (wet, turf), it was very quick. The first ten minutes we saw them coming in very, very strong, but you could tell that their intensity lowered when we got more confidence with the ball with the field.”

“In the beginning, we were winning the second balls, but later on, we adapted to those matchups and we took advantage of that,” Lopez added. “We played a lot of the counterattack and we used the wide plays as well.”

Two minutes into first-half added time, El Farolito had their best chance of the half. The California side got the ball on a counter and ran down the right side before crossing into a charging Soto. His shot was saved by Schaffer but remained in play. Kipre Sacre lunged to kick the ball just as Schaffer reached it, resulting in a follow-through that knocked the Ramapo University alumni in the head.

Bleeding, Schaffer was temporarily replaced by Ryu Mckinney for the remainder of the half. However, the starter returned for the second 45 minutes in a different jersey and wearing a head bandage with a visible blood spot.

For Schaffer, this was his first year as the starting goalkeeper for FC Motown after serving as a backup for former professional David Greczek for three years. On a personal note, he’s the type of keeper who will take a shot to the jaw in practice, walk it off for a few minutes, and then calmly say he needs to go to urgent care to get the bone popped back in. Schaffer had already solidified himself as Motown’s starter this year, and his resolve in that moment was a testament to that.

“Josh is a brave player. He withstood the challenge to the head, and obviously, he was bleeding and he had to get his head taped,” said coach Duka, with it later confirmed Schaffer needed to receive staples after the game. “Not only is he brave, he's talented and he did enough this year to be our number one and keep that spot all year.”

3 Goals in 8 Minutes

Referee Manga spoke to both sidelines during the halftime intermission as the crowd at Ranger Stadium processed everything. The small but loud contingent of El Farolito fans, including the passionate Burrito Brava, were a rallying cry to their team throughout the night. Meanwhile, the majority of the Motown crowd looked to have felt the nerves. The team’s offense had been disrupted and needed to find a pathway towards a goal.

Both groups, which made up a crowd that officially counted as 1,300, but that was closer to a couple of hundred after so many delays, still believed their teams could win.

The momentum swung to the visitors in the 52nd minute when El Faro’s Sacre brought the ball into the left side of the box and looked to cross low towards the middle. Former New York Red Bulls II defender Joe Fala redirected the ball upwards, with it hitting the back of his elbow while in a running motion. 

The referee pointed to the spot and Jhohann Yabur, who scored earlier in the year in the team’s USOC cupeset of Portland Timbers 2, sunk a hard strike into the left corner and passed a diving Schaffer in the 54th minute.

The celebration for the visitors was short-lived as Motown responded with a goal in under 30 seconds after the restart. Germain brought the ball into the final third under pressure on the left side. He crossed into the box and found open space, where former Greenville Triumph SC midfielder Christopher Bermudez connected on a shot from the top of the box that hit off the right post and into the net to tie the game in the 56th minute.

El Farolito responded to the physicality in the Motown end and earned another yellow card. The strategy worked, and El Faro were able to retake the lead in the 62nd minute. A cross from the left side saw Erik Arias have a shot blocked, before getting on his own rebound. Schaffer bent his knees and got a touch to it, but a bounce saw the ball get past him to make it 2-1.

The visitors slowed the game down and tried to hold Morristown back. That backfired in the 68th when defender Jonatan Valdivia was shown a second yellow after a takedown of Zach Perez, earning a red card and ejection for which he protested heavily. He refused to leave the field, and it required members of the NPSL front office to walk across the field when he remained near the sideline.

Coach Lopez said after the game he had flashbacks to his team’s USOC loss to USL Championship side Oakland Roots SC in the Third Round, where his team played hard but a red card derailed everything on route to elimination.

The West Region Champions did all they could to withstand FC Motown’s late rally. Two shots over the crossbar and a great shot by Germain in the 81st were some of the best attempts. El Faro for its part did what it could to waste time, including having bench players crowd around Motown corner kicks on the far side and the usual deadball tactics. Some of these resulted in two more yellow cards in the final 10 minutes of the match.

It was enough however and the San Francisco side held until the final whistle to earn their first-ever NPSL National Championship. Their final record for the year, including their US Open Cup run, is an impressive 16W-3D-1L. 

As for Motown, they were handed their first defeat in the NPSL. They finished the 2024 season with a record of 12W-1D-1L.

What’s next for the Burrito Brava, and Motown

For El Faro and their local support in San Francisco, Saturday’s result is a culmination of their efforts. The team which went from winning numerous San Francisco Soccer Football League titles in the 2000s and 2010s had struggled to get out of its region since joining the NPSL in 2018.

The team based out of a burrito restaurant are now back at the pinnacle, and Lopez is honored to be part of it.

“Imagining there was a promotion, relegation pyramid in US soccer, we basically conquered promotion. It means a lot,” said Lopez. “It's good, great confidence, especially for the youngsters we started working with three or four years ago that are from the Bay Area. I hope they get more confidence with this and they can build for their careers in the future.”

He did note that many of the players want to celebrate the title win in Las Vegas next weekend, so tentative plans are in place for that.

For Motown, this season and championship match was noteworthy for a number of reasons. In the team’s six seasons of play in the NPSL, they have been to the national final game three times. Only two other teams have been to more finals: Chattanooga FC (which now play in MLS NEXT Pro), and Sonoma County Sol.

Duka considers everything his group did in the summer as a success.

“I look at what the players have done throughout the summer and we've beaten some very good teams to get to this point,” said Duka. “I thought we outplayed (El Farolito) in the final and we definitely had chances to win this game. So I think it's a success for these players. I think they put in a lot of hard work. They played well and they showcased their abilities in a great way.”

The group will spend the next few months preparing for a near-guaranteed spot in the 2025 Open Cup. Many in the organization, especially Duka, remember the team’s first competitive match of the year.

The 3-0 loss to New York City FC II in the USOC First Round last March showed changes needed to be made. What followed was a roster that integrated more youth, especially college players, with a rotating lineup of talent that could play multiple positions. Duka and his coaching staff want to continue this into next March, whether his group plays another professional side or a fellow amateur team in the Open Cup.

“We're gonna try to rebuild and I think what we need going into the Open Cup is to be fit. Last Open Cup we struggled because of our fitness. So we're gonna take a look at the college season, try to recruit some guys and then we're gonna try to prepare as best as possible for Open Cup.

“We gotta see who's available and then who's actually graduating from college this spring where we could maybe get them a bit earlier in March for the Open Cup.”

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