San Diego Fusion

Email this article

Two San Diego soccer clubs battle for city bragging rights

By Larry Knowles

May 1,  2006

San Diego--Set to pulsating bongo drums and cheers in English and Spanish, two San Diego semi-professional soccer teams met for a home and home series this past weekend and established a rivalry that’s as much cultural as it is sports-related.

San Diego Pumitas, a predominantly Latin American team, and San Diego Fusion, an Anglo managed team, play in the same city, league, and division—a rarity in national sports leagues today. The weekend action painted a portrait of two teams of different origins, playing for dissimilar fans, coming together for 180 minutes to play a singular style of futbol.

The old stadium, home to the Chargers from 1961-1966, came to life as a hundred or so raucous Pumitas fans whistled, jeered, chanted, above the din of jets on their approach to Lindbergh and a sound system that played sporadic puma growls and up tempo Hispanic music.

A couple of Pumitas fans brought instruments, and throughout the match, bongo drums pulsated and horns blared for the home team. The P.A. announcer, a gentleman named Ishmael, entertained the crowd with disciplined game commentary, in Spanish, that meandered in the second half to personal dialogue with Pumitas supporters and an imitation of a braying burro.

The match was the first meeting of the two teams, and it took a while for the sides to feel each other out. Once they realized that they were both playing the same brand of physical, offense-minded soccer, the goals began to come.

Shea Travis of the Fusion opened up the scoring in the 33^rd minute on a blistering shot from fifteen yards out.

Pumitas equalized in the second half on a restart when Balildes Almeida deftly trapped the ball inside the eighteen and placed a shot into the right side of the net. Riley Swift had stepped off his line to get the cross, and had no chance at Almeida’s shot.

The home team pulled ahead at 30:00 when Cristobal Rosas ran onto a botched back pass and blasted a rising shot into the top of the net. Unfortunately for Pumitas, the scoring wasn’t finished. Two minutes later, Nate Hetherington scored off a penalty kick deflection, and the game finished at a 2-2 tie.

Pumitas coach Papo Santos lamented not being able to put away the expansion Fusion. “We need to work on our finishing,” he said. “We’re a young team and we got kind of scared out there in front of the crowd.”

The teams met the next night at Helix High School, home of the Fusion, in a more tranquil setting. Gone was the sound system, landing jets, and P.A. announcer. Instead, noises of the game drifted into the stands.

The crowd was smaller than that of the previous night, but no less enthusiastic. Pumitas fans, identified by the bongos and Spanish cheering, sat in the stands behind their team’s bench and brought the same party-like atmosphere to staid La Mesa. Fusion fans, meanwhile, saved their noise-making for scoring opportunities, goals, and questionable calls.

The contest was a spectacular one with both teams featuring their offenses while holding their breath on defense. The game produced nine goals in a 5-4 Pumitas victory, with the winner coming on a dramatic header thirty seconds into injury time in the second half.

Fusion found itself with a comfortable 3-1 lead toward the end of the first half on goals by Robert Simovski, Paul Wright, and Tony Kessuanne. Pumitas, however, answered with three goals from Edu Almeida, Juan Peres, and Crecencio Ramos to take a 4-3 lead.

When the Fusion struck early in the second half to even the score at 4-4, a few fans actually cheered for a tie. After all, a pair of ties between the two San Diego teams would ensure harmony—neither would have bragging rights to the city—until the two teams met again on June 30^th.

But Pumitas disrupted the balance when Moises Ojeda snuck in behind a Fusion defender and sent a header over keeper Riley Swift just as the final whistle was to sound. Seconds later the game was over, and while pandemonium broke out in front of the Pumitas bench, resignation swept through the Fusion side.

“Who said there are no goals in soccer?” Fusion coach Waad Hirme said after the match. “We made it entertaining for the fans. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a defensive game.”

Pumitas can narrowly lay claim to city bragging rights. But with the teams pulling from separate fan bases, and offering different experiences for San Diego soccer fans, neither club is likely to undercut the popularity of the other. Harmony may be in tact after all.

The Fusion’s next home game is Friday, May 12 at 7:30 at Helix High School. Pumitas’ next home game is also Friday, May 12 at 7:30, at Balboa Stadium.