SAN JOSE, Calif. — It was collusion, clear as day. A conspiratorial collection of events aimed at hijacking this moment. A vibe heist at PayPal Park.
The weather was antagonistic: a brisk cold complemented by ominously gray clouds, teases of rain landing like threats as the storm loomed on the horizon. Then the head referee was on one. Eventually, the Houston Dash joined in the hatin’ festivities.
Advertisement
But all failed. The home opener for Bay FC, the glamorous new expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League, would not be denied its jubilation. The significance and spirit of the evening was too strong for the attempts of disruption. This was too long in the making, too expensive to waste, too meaningful to be missed.
Saturday night belonged to Bay FC. To American women’s soccer and the area so vital to its history and growth. The occasion infused by the legacy of World Cups past, by the mojo of former CyberRays glory, for the sheer Gold Pride of the region.
“When you think about that, you have to think of the Founding Four,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said, evoking the gravitas of Bay FC’s faces, Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner.
“This was really their vision. Their vision of bringing women’s professional soccer to the Bay Area, knowing the connectivity — not just with girls’ soccer but in colleges around here — and how incredibly supportive they knew the community would be. … I think it’s clear that women’s professional soccer belongs in the Bay Area.”
Weather wasn’t stopping this shine. It only added motivation to rack up on Bay FC’s hoodies and scarves. An early yellow card, even a penalty kick awarded after VAR review, only galvanized the Bay Area’s newest legion of fanatics.
Even Houston’s second-half surge that handed Bay FC a 3-2 defeat — capped with Havana Solaun’s tauntingly perfect ball into the lower left corner, the game-winner in the 10th minute of extra time — wasn’t enough to kill the high of the evening.
The ticket windows at the stadium entrance were closed, boasting “SOLD OUT” signs. Thousands lined up before the gates opened at 5 p.m., and thousands more waited even longer for food and merch.
By the 7 p.m. kickoff, the capacity crowd of 18,000 was on tilt. It’s the largest crowd for a women’s professional club soccer game in Bay Area history, surpassing the 16,174 at Spartan Stadium on July 16, 2001, when the Bay Area CyberRays hosted Mia Hamm’s Washington Freedom. Everyone understood the assignment.
Advertisement
Many in the building this night remember the days of the Women’s United Soccer Association, and the 2001 inaugural home opener at for the CyberRays, a team featuring Chastain as the star along with LaKeysia Beene and Brazilians Katia and Sissi. Some, no doubt, were among the five thousand or so at Pioneer Stadium in Hayward, when the FC Gold Pride — featuring Marta, then the best in the world, and Team USA’s Shannon Boxx — went out with a bang, winning the 2010 Women’s Professional Soccer title and entering that squad into the conversation of greatest women’s teams ever.
This felt like Take Three of women’s professional soccer in the Bay. It felt like this special night was stacked on past special nights. An unspoken but understood defiance could be felt. This passion seemed, at least in part, a declaration that this time would be different. A roaring refusal to let this team’s fate end up like the last two.
That silent pact was crystallized when Bay FC forward Asisat Oshoala’s 19th-minute blast in the box was blocked right to the feet of midfielder Deyna Castellanos, and she ripped it off the top left corner of the post and into the net for the first home goal of this new era. The roar was loud enough to keep the storm back.
A moment the Bay will always remember. 🏹 @deynac18 scores her first @NWSL goal for #BayFC at the 19th minute of our Inaugural Season Home Opener.#BAYvHOU #BLegendary #WeCameToPlay pic.twitter.com/A9xMAMpOpx
— Bay Football Club (@wearebayfc) March 31, 2024
“So it felt like a win before the game, during the game, because the fans,” Bay FC coach Albertin Montoya told reporters after the match. He seemed to get a little choked up. It makes sense the swell of love embedding his team would be touching to him. He was on the coaching staff for the CyberRays in 2003 and was the head coach of that championship Gold Pride squad. And he’s been an assistant coach at Santa Clara and Stanford, both epicenters of Bay Area women’s soccer.
“Eighteen-thousand plus — we haven’t seen that in the Bay Area. Ever,” Montoya said. “The last time we had a team here and I was coaching, we probably had 2,000, 3,000 max. It’s surreal. The energy. The excitement. All the young players watching these stars.”
Advertisement
That was the symbolic victory of the night. This movement didn’t need a win. Because it’s not banking on some fortuitous cosmic alignment. This is a $125 million investment in a surging entity with a quarter century of data and history. This isn’t the desperate attempt to start a wave, as it was in 2000, but the Bay’s rightful turn to surf what’s been steadily escalating.
The Bay Area didn’t start this particular pitch party, as it did in the past, but it’s fa sho’ turning it up.
Bay FC is serving as a ceiling-raiser for the NWSL, which has survived its fair share of adversity to reach this point of promise. The $53 million expansion fee Bay FC paid — courtesy of its chief backer, Sixth Street Partners, a global investment firm in San Francisco — is a game-changer for the still-expanding league (and even the WNBA). Nine months after Bay FC’s deal was announced, the Portland Thorns sold for $63 million. Two months later, the San Diego Wave sold for $120 million.
Bay FC set a world record when it paid nearly $800,000 for the transfer fee of Madrid CFF forward Racheal Kundananji. It was just the latest gesture in the all-out commitment to making this work. From the stellar merch to board members stocked with elite experience, this is a choreographed assault.
Bay FC only had some eight months to get off the ground. But this was after decades of fermentation. The sweetness of now-ancient glories, seasoned with the bitterness of failures, stewed in the conviction of what’s possible here.
“They obviously had a relatively short runway to get up and running,” said Berman, the commissioner, “but they’ve resourced the team appropriately and really galvanized the community in the right ways. … I think there’s an incredible future here.
“What you’re seeing happen,” Berman continued, “is a collective recognition that investing in women’s soccer is an investable proposition. … Women’s sports has reached that inflection point. That turning point has happened. It definitely isn’t an isolated moment. This is a movement that is happening across our industry.”
Advertisement
That was ever so clear when Kundananji punctuated the night. Pushing down the right side, she crossed back towards the middle. With space to do her thing, she planted and struck an immaculate ball with her left foot. It had enough air under it to elude the defenders in the box, and still enough pace and bend to get around the keeper. It nestled beautifully inside the left post, tying the game at 2 in the third minute of extra time.
Will always remember the day @KKundananji made her @NWSL and #BayFC debut with a goal 💥#BLegendary #WeCameToPlay
— Bay Football Club (@wearebayfc) March 31, 2024
Kundananji went and grabbed a Zambian flag from the sideline and ran back onto the pitch, extending the fervor in the stadium.
It was a display of scoring excellence from women’s soccer’s most expensive player. It was also a down payment on a guarantee of future brilliance, funded by the investment in Bay Area’s communal fervor for soccer, for women, for innovation, for community.
Never mind the goal the defense would give up in seven minutes. Professional women’s soccer is back in the Bay. Nothing was going to kill these vibes.
(Photo of Bay FC celebrating Deyna Castellanos’ first-half goal Saturday: Lyndsay Radnedge / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
