♪♪♪ Maya Trabulsi: Thank you for joining us for this KPBS news special, I'm Maya Trabulsi, and we're here at Snap Dragon Stadium to bring you "Soccer a la Frontera."

It tells the story of soccer's cultural growth over the last five plus decades in the San Diego Tijuana region, from the streets to stadiums.

♪♪♪ Jacob Aere: Soccer in our border region was for decades a sleeping giant.

[speaking in foreign language] Jacob: In recent years, that giant has awoken.

Today, four top tier pro teams all play within 25 miles of one another right here in San Diego and Tijuana.

Maya: And joining me is Jacob Aere.

You reported and produced "Soccer a la Frontera," welcome.

Jacob: Thank you.

Maya: So, can you give us an idea of what inspired you to create this five part series?

Jacob: Well the timing is right.

We now have four top flight teams on both sides of the border, all within 25 miles of one another, especially with the newest edition of San Diego FC.

And that's not common.

On top of that, you have hundreds of thousands of people here in our region who play, watch, or take part in soccer culture.

So, we wanted to dive into that what makes our soccer culture unique in addition to diving into its long history here.

Maya: So, Jacob, for those who don't typically follow professional soccer, why is it worth watching?

Jacob: It's worth watching because it's a lot more than just the stories on the field.

When you look off of the field you see themes of unity, family, community, sometimes even politics and sometimes even religion.

So, whether you like the sport for what it is or whether you wanna see what brings the community together, it's worth following, especially in a border region like we have here.

Maya: Yeah, so, let's talk about the origin story.

Can you take us back to the beginning of soccer in San Diego and Tijuana?

How did it all start?

Jacob: Well we did have a professional team here back in the 60s, but really the passion comes from those who play.

That's been kind of this through line throughout the decades and over the years, whether it's women, men, boys, girls, that's kind of what you've seen.

So, in episode one, what we do is we look into youth soccer culture, pick up culture, and sometimes even issues with accessibility.

San Diego Soccer, Cholos men's and women's, Wave FC and now San Diego FC, the region's first major league soccer team, has arrived.

Manny Valladares: Something that's been an absence, it's having that pro feel in the city of San Diego and having that now it's amazing, we got to go and watch these games.

Jacob: Soccer in the San Diego Tijuana region is having its moment.

Violeta Gracia: Really big soccer fans.

Daniel Gracia: We're a soccer family.

We watch soccer all the time.

We go to the same-- We've been to Snapdragon several times.

Jacob: In the span of the last 15 years, four teams have risen to top tier professional.

Ricardo Martinez: It's for the good of soccer.

It's for the good of the community.

It's for the good of sports because we're not gonna be the only ones.

Jacob: And all play within 25 miles of one another here in San Diego and Tijuana.

Mia Asmus: I watch a bunch of club teams like from the NWSL, MLS.

Jacob: So, how did we get here?

It wasn't by chance.

There's a long and rich soccer culture on both sides of the border.

Manny Valladares: We noticed there was a lot of players that would come out because there was nowhere else to go.

Jacob: This is "Soccer a la Frontera," and we're exploring the origin story of soccer in San Diego and Tijuana.

Manny Valladares: And now we're providing free pick up five days a week all over San Diego.

Jacob: It's not in the stadiums, but in the streets.

And it's a culture that makes our border region special.

Manny Valladares: Yeah, so we're actually at Chicano Park which is right outside downtown San Diego, and we're at a Chicana futsal session.

Jacob: Under the freeways at Barrio Logan's Chicano Park, dozens of people gather to play a street style of soccer called futsal.

Craig Hyde: Yeah, once in a while they'll--I'll do something nice and they'll call me the maestro.

Jacob: It's a fast paced and cost effective way to keep up with the love of the game.

Manny Valladares: Not just San Diego.

I think it's all over the country here.

There's always a pay for play model here and it's really hard to access.

Everybody's welcome.

We see even like some small kids come out and play.

Age group varies between 20, 30, and 40s, between that.

And it's just all about having fun.

Jacob: These pickup matches offer a playing surface that utilizes the most of what's available.

Manny Valladares: You know, it goes back to when we grew up, we didn't have these kind of free pickups.

So, it's nice to bring it to the community and have everybody enjoy the beautiful game.

Jacob: Just a stone's throw away across the border in Tijuana, a similar but unique passion for the game has deep roots.

Ricardo Martinez: We've been playing soccer in Mexico a long time ago.

I mean, if there's not a soccer ball with a bottle of water like pushing and with the feet and it--soccer like part of our life.

Jacob: On a massive soccer complex called Centro de Inicación Xoloitzcuintles or CIX, hundreds of youth from across Mexico and parts of San Diego County play the beautiful game.

Ricardo Martinez: They from Tijuana or nearby from Rosarito, from Playa de Tijuana, even Ensenada, basically it's like a soccer school for kids from 3 years to 17.

Jacob: It's part of the academy soccer system which feeds into professional teams in the area, the Cholos.

Here, if kids aren't playing pickup in the streets or with their school, it's usually in a club or academy environment like this one.

Ricardo Martinez: Basically it's like a soccer school for kids from 3 years to 17.

Jacob: And like many things in our border region, that passion flows into San Diego.

Daniel Gracia: Well, I grew up in Mexico.

So, it's a very common part of the culture over there, and then you kind of transmit that to your kids.

Violeta Gracia: I started in rec because like I really wanted to play soccer because I played it a lot in school and I thought it was really fun.

Jacob: In Mira Mesa, a group of young girls and boys practice on a field for their AYSO United teams, including co-captains Sanaz Tabibi and Mia Asmus.

Sanaz Tabibi: And I also decided to play soccer because all my family was like--just like playing soccer, my dad, my sister.

Mia Asmus: I really like leaning toward like becoming a really professional soccer player.

Jacob: They're playing for the club side of one of the largest youth soccer organizations in the United States and it keeps growing.

Jennifer Tomasulo: The amount that it's blown up over the last, I don't know, ten years has just been insane.

You go everywhere now and people talk about soccer.

Like they know about soccer now.

Jacob: Mix that with the shared identity of San Diego and Tijuana, and you have a flavor of soccer that you won't find elsewhere.

Daniel Gracia: Soccer is so popular in so many other countries.

So, you know, being part of that sort of culture here, you know, it lets you connect with other countries as well.

And that's not as obvious or easy with other sports.

Maya: The field behind me is covered up right now to protect it for game day, but long before Snapdragon Stadium was built, this was the site of Jack Murphy Stadium.

And Jacob, there's a little bit of soccer history connected to the Murph, tell us about it.

Jacob: That's right, whether you remember it as San Diego Stadium, the Murph, or even Qualcomm Stadium, this was a place that was home to more than just baseball and soccer.

Of course now it's Snapdragon, but back in the day this was actually the home to the first ever soccer team in San Diego that really laid its roots here, San Diego Soccers.

We explore their legacy as well as some of the other early soccer teams in San Diego region in episode two.

Juli Veee: Those days, are you kidding me?

I had to juggle the ball in a gas station because nobody knew what soccer was.

Jacob: This is "Soccer a la Frontera," and we're diving into the growth of soccer culture in San Diego and Tijuana, from the streets to the stadiums.

Today, soccer is everywhere in the San Diego, Tijuana border region.

We have four top level professional teams, plenty of adult recreational leagues, and year-round youth programs.

male: I've got the wave, I've got the new team here, San Diego FC here.

That's one of them on the front.

And there's the other one on the back.

Jacob: But to really understand where we're at and how far we've come, we need to rewind the clock by over half a century.

Joe Tuntino: When I was a kid, I was one of the kids that was screaming and yelling at the stadium and banging on the chairs and--.

Jacob: The year was 1968, and San Diego had its first professional team.

They were called the San Diego Toros, and they played at Old Balboa Stadium.

It was short-lived bliss.

The club folded after just one season, but the foundation was laid.

Joe: That was happening in the sport of soccer.

Not only during that time, but even all the way into the early 80s.

I mean, teams were popping up and teams were disappearing.

Jacob: It took more than a half decade until 1976 for another professional team to make the scene.

They called themselves the Jaws.

Yet again, after one season, the Jaws suffered the same fate as the Toros.

But the next attempt will be the one that's stuck.

Juli: Here.

Sitting in the same room with Belair and Bobby Moore, Mike England, he's a Welsh--Giorgio Kiaglo the Italian from Roma, male: And this is you.

Juli: And that's me, yeah.

Jacob: In 1978, the San Diego Sockers were born.

And unlike their predecessors, they had a charismatic star, Juli Veee.

male commentator: He was a veritable scoring machine.

Jacob: Starting as an outdoor team, playing games at Jack Murphy Stadium, the first few years for the Sockers were rough.

But a move indoors in the 80s to San Diego sports arena changed everything for the franchise and for professional soccer in our region.

Brain Quinn: When professional soccer went away outdoors, the only league to play was indoor, great level of play.

It was like soccer inside, captured in a bottle.

Jacob: They were a self-proclaimed blue collar team, full of international players including Veee and several others who had defected from Soviet bloc countries.

Joe: And the Sockers were drawing eight and ten thousand, 11,000, 15,000 at some point.

And so, they were starting to outdraw the Padres.

Jacob: With art aficionado Veee as their Picasso, they were full of creativity, flair, and excitement.

Joe: Now don't forget that the early Sockers had Hugo Sanchez and Leo Cuellar are both Cuellar, the captain of the Mexican national team and Hugo Sanchez probably arguably still today, the greatest Mexican player of all time.

Jacob: They dominated the multiple nationwide indoor soccer leagues, winning ten league titles in 11 years.

Sean Bowers: Growing up, you know, living in Mira Mesa, there was only the San Diego Sockers.

There was nothing else.

Jacob: In a town of otherwise championless sports teams, the Sockers stood out and helped to spread the culture of the sport.

Joe: The Sockers were winners, and this city was all about supporting winning teams.

Jacob: And even went on to have the longest winning streak in US professional soccer history.

48 consecutive wins from 2010 to 2013.

[speaking in foreign language] Jacob: Even after all the decades, they've kept up their winning ways and laid the groundwork for a massive movement in professional soccer on both sides of the San Diego, Tijuana border.

Sean: The fan base for soccer now in San Diego is huge.

It's continuously growing.

You think we're at a big level now?

Wait for five more years when SDFC.

Imagine SDFC winning the championship or the wave of winning the championship and what that brings to the city.

Jacob: While keeping true to their international working class origins.

[speaking in foreign language] ♪♪♪ Maya: It's been exciting to watch women's sports growing in popularity.

Jacob, Wave FC has been a big part of that.

Jacob: They have been.

Wave FC is definitely the face of women's soccer in our region, but they're far from the only one.

Whether it's Club Tijuana Femenil, San Diego Spirit, or even San Diego Sea Lions, what we do is we explore the decades-long revolution in women's soccer in episode three.

Maria Sanchez: Growing up I always knew I was going to hit some part of the revolution, but maybe not like completely.

Jacob: This is "Soccer a la Frontera," and we're exploring soccer culture in the San Diego, Tijuana region, from the streets to the stadiums.

Professional soccer has come a long way since its early days here.

Today, women's soccer in the San Diego, Tijuana region is synonymous with success.

Professional teams on both sides of the border, passionate fans, and a hub for top talent.

Melanie Barcenas: Not many people get the opportunity to represent your home team.

So, when you do it, you take full pride in something super special.

And, you know, I just have a different connection to this club, this team, the city.

Mayra Pelayo-Bernal: Soccer is something that really brings people together and how we say here in TJ and Cholos, there's no borders, so, we're all one.

Jacob: The explosion here is part of a much larger trend.

Across the world, the women's game has never been more popular.

But it's been a long and bumpy ride.

Shannon Mac Millan: We were fighting to put women's soccer on the map.

We wanted to have a professional league in the US.

Jacob: Fighting decades of inadequate opportunities, unequal pay, and blatant sexism.

Shannon: At that point, I didn't even know we had a US women's national team.

So, for me, I didn't even see it as a vehicle to get me to college.

I was just playing cause I loved it and it was my time, my release.

Jacob: It started with the nationwide passing of Title IX in 1972 which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs, including athletics.

That paved the way for young women across the US to play soccer in school.

By the late 1980s, the revolution in San Diego had begun.

Tali Lerner: San Diego throughout the years have had a really big community of women's soccer from the professional and semi-professional teams that we saw here in earlier years to the rec leagues.

Jacob: First came the San Diego WFC Sea Lions, an amateur team featuring women who played in college.

Shannon: The Sea Lions allowed women that loved and just had an absolute passion for the game, but maybe didn't have the opportunity.

The timing was wrong, but it allowed them to continue to play.

Jacob: A decade later, they became a founding member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, still the longest running active women's soccer league in the United States.

Then came 1999, a watershed year for women's soccer in San Diego and beyond.

Shannon: We wanted to be able to say, "This is the next step," and that came after the 1999 World Cup.

Jacob: Finally, after the historic World Cup win, the Women's United Soccer Association formed as the first paid professional league.

In 2001 at Torero Stadium, the San Diego Spirit took the field.

Shannon: To now think we're on a stadium and there's little girls and little boys in the crowd that are wearing our jerseys and cheering for us is like, if you see it, you can believe it.

Jacob: The league only lasted a few years, but it broke some major barriers.

Melanie: I want girls to know like that it is possible cause before it wasn't possible.

Jacob: Fast forward to 2012 and the National Women's Soccer League was born.

This time, it was a women's professional league that was here to stay.

Maria: I think every single player can afford to have soccer be their career if they have a contract in the NWSL.

I think in Mexico that's still growing.

Jacob: Mexico followed five years later with the founding of Liga MX Femenil.

It's a women's league that's here thanks in large part to relentless advocacy in Tijuana.

Mayra: As the Mexican national team for the women's has grown, I think young girls are literally saying, "No I wanna play soccer.

No I wanna do this.

I wanna be like her."

Jacob: In 2021, San Diego Wave FC landed north of the border and has become one of the NWSL's marquee franchises.

They have a devoted following that's helped to break attendance records.

Tali: The San Diego wave is something--represents something that we all wanted to have when we were younger, you know, women who are able to play professionally, to be treated professionally.

Jacob: Until her recent retirement, their star was World Cup champion Alex Morgan, an idol for many.

Melanie: I remember asking her for her jersey at Qualcomm Stadium.

So to even be able to get the opportunity to share the field with someone you like have a jersey of was just incredible and I don't think it would have happened as fast if we didn't have people like her like supporting and like fighting for us.

Shannon: To be a part of the first ever professional women's league, let alone in my hometown, it's powerful because I grew up chasing my older brother.

Jacob: With thousands of fans cheering on their home teams on both sides of the border, the women's game has plenty of room to run.

Shannon: There's little girls running around the fields of San Diego right now that now have something tangible they can go support and be a part of and dream and go after it, and it's incredible.

Maya: We cannot talk about soccer in San Diego without mentioning the special connection to Mexico's football culture.

So Jacob, what did you find in your reporting?

Jacob: So much really.

I mean, San Diego's soccer culture really wouldn't be what it is without our connection to our sister city to the south, Tijuana.

Whether it's looking at how it can be a form of identity or even an extension of family life, soccer means everything to many people across Mexico.

So what we do in episode four is we look at how growing up on both sides of the border can impact our soccer scene as well as how a top flight team really started there.

Joe Corona: Soccer is a vibe.

Yeah, because you see it on both sides of the border.

Jacob: This is "Soccer a la Frontera," and we're exploring soccer culture in the San Diego, Tijuana region, from the streets to the stadiums.

South of the border, soccer in many ways can be an extension of family life and source of identity.

Joe: I played here until I was like nine, just playing in the streets with my friends, cousins.

Alejandro Guido: I started playing since I was born.

My dad was a soccer player and my uncle, it runs in the family.

Jacob: Family trees with many branches.

Darren Smith: Soccer is a connector, you know?

Soccer is, you know, it's its own language.

Jacob: For decades seeds from this deep rooted love of the game have blown from south of the border.

Alejandro: I would divide my time throughout the week, train a couple of days in Mexico, train a couple of days in San Diego, and then play on the weekends in both countries.

Jacob: Across the port of entry to fertile ground in San Diego.

Maria: I think that just being around the culture, the Mexican culture and soccer, I started loving it and ever since then I haven't stopped.

Mayra: I am a huge fan of Chucky Lozano.

I'm trying to watch his games.

Maria: The pride that people take in representing their soccer teams here is different for sure.

Jacob: A catalyst for this cultural blossoming came in 2007 when Club Tijuana was founded.

Joe: San Diego and Tijuana, they're both my hometowns.

It's kinda, I mean, hard to understand, but when you grow up in the border, that's just how it is.

You're always going back and forth.

Jacob: And back and forth we went as the Tijuana Cholos men's team quickly climbed the ranks of Mexico's soccer circuit, so did Cholo fandom in San Diego.

Alejandro: We've seen a bunch of Mexicans come into the US and be able to bring their culture of soccer, but also a lot of Americans go to Mexico because of the Club Tijuana Cholos.

Jacob: And in the early 2010s, something never done before here.

Promotion into Mexico's first division league.

Darren: Coming out of the region was gonna be Club America and Chivas Guadalajara and you know, Monterrey and all these like big Mexican clubs like some of the biggest clubs in North America were gonna be coming to this region right?

so like it was exciting in a way that had never really happened before.

Joe: For me, I think it's very special.

I mean, I was just another kid that wanted to reach his dream, you know, and play in the first division.

Jacob: Just one year later, Club Tijuana shocked everyone and became champions across all of Mexico, throwing the city into a frenzy.

Joe: It was amazing just how the whole impact that we made to the city was incredible.

Jacob: It was a milestone, a proof of concept and a breaking down of barriers.

Darren: I think what it did, you know, is it also fan the flames for people to want to see the highest level of club soccer on the San Diego side of the border as well.

Jacob: Over the past decade, San Diego and Tijuana's soccer scene has swelled to four professional top flight teams on the men's and women's sides.

Alejandro: It was a sleeping giant, and I still feel like it is.

Jacob: The giant is awakening.

Alejandro: And there's so much talent here.

It's unbelievable.

Like I remember I wasn't the best player in my like local youth clubs, I wasn't.

I was good, but I wasn't the best.

Jacob: With the explosion of our borderless soccer culture.

Joe: Now you can see it you're having more like fronterisos getting to that pro level and I think that's very cool, you know?

Jacob: It's fueling a younger generation.

Alejandro: I do feel like we're gonna be a mecca because we're going to have so much talent and people are going to notice.

♪♪♪ Maya: On match days, these stadium seats are full of fans.

When the Chargers left San Diego, it left a lot of fans brokenhearted, but Jacob, it also created an opportunity that soccer seized upon.

Tell us about that.

Jacob: It did, and from Club Tijuana's success, you really started to see other soccer organizations start to take notice.

It started with a few lower division teams that turned into the women's game, and then from there now you have Major League Soccer San Diego FC.

In episode five, we look into the new team as well as a revolutionary training center that they're bringing to the region.

[speaking in foreign language] Jacob: This is "Soccer a la Frontera," and we're exploring soccer culture in the San Diego, Tijuana region.

It took a long while, and many failed attempts to get to this point.

But over the past decade, soccer culture has carved out its own place in our border culture.

Ivan Orozco: There's always been soccer fans here.

There's always been a lot of, you know, fans of teams from Europe, national team fans, but there wasn't really anything local that they can hook up to.

Jacob: During that time, four top flight teams, two on each side of the border, have laid down roots at Snapdragon Stadium and Estadio Caliente.

It started with the ascent of Liga MX's Club Tijuana men's team in the early 2010s.

Ivan: Because once the team got promoted to first division, that changed the whole landscape in-- soccer landscape in San Diego-- If you think about it, at the time there was no major league team in town.

Jacob: But when that ball got rolling, Darren: We started noticing, you know, there was a club here that would pop up, a lower division club that would pop up, and then there was another one.

Then there was two happening simultaneously.

Jacob: At the same time, the National Football League's Chargers left town, leaving a huge opportunity.

Darren: Coinciding about when the Chargers would leave.

You just started hearing more and more about Major League Soccer, pro soccer leagues in the United States on the men's side started taking San Diego as one of its target areas.

Then came the rise of Liga MX Femenils Club Tijuana, and the National Women's Soccer League's San Diego Wave FC.

And one other team joined the scene as a prime example of a community first soccer club led by US soccer legend Landon Donovan, San Diego Loyal.

Darren: But more than anything else, we just wanted a club.

We wanted a place where we can go, where people could bang the drums, where people can drink beer, where we could cheer, where we could celebrate, where we can come together with the local soccer community.

Ivan: Future players, athletes, they had an avenue now where they can play and try to become, you know, not just a professional, but have somewhere to go and learn from great coaching, philosophers of the game.

Jacob: But the main event was still to come.

After a decades long wait, Major League Soccer's San Diego FC has now landed.

[speaking in foreign language] Jacob: This intentionally binational team has the potential to create something truly unique.

Darren: That seems to be a big push for San Diego Football Club, right?

Is that they want to represent not just the city and the county of San Diego, but they've been open about the fact that they want players from Tijuana.

They want players from Baja California.

Tyler Heaps: I think it's the field of dreams, right?

I mean, you look at this valley where we are, the mountain backdrop.

Jacob: They have big plans for SDFC's state of the art training facilities on the Sycuan reservation.

Tyler: We want to be a staple here.

We want this to not only be a place for us, but a home for national teams to come and visit whenever they're here.

We want to show this place off.

Jacob: Coming soon is the first North American location of "Right to Dream," a free football academy for the most talented young boys and girls in the San Diego, Tijuana region.

SDFC's Emmanuel Boatang graduated from the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana.

Emmanuel Boatang: Having Right to Dream right next door, that would be good, you know, seeing the guys every day.

I try to mentor them as much as I can and try to learn from them too.

Jacob: It will provide a direct connection from our border region's abundance of young soccer talent to professional leagues.

Emmanuel: They're in here and they'll get the best quality education competing against each other.

That's always an emphasis and really building character.

Jacob: And help bring a long standing passion to play the beautiful game full circle.

More than 50 years after our first professional team touched down.

Ivan: It's a unifying culture because once you step on the pitch and you're kicking the ball around, it doesn't matter where you're from.

Jacob: The timing is right with the 2026 men's World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada, just around the corner.

Ivan: Hoping that this will be a place where people want to come because of soccer.

And I think it will be.

Jacob: Come for the passion of the San Diego, Tijuana style of football, from the streets to the stadiums.

[speaking in foreign language] Maya: We have come to the end of this beautifully reported series, Jacob, but at least for now, what's next?

Jacob: Not really sure, but, you know, this story that we were covering here, it's not fully comprehensive.

There's more parts of soccer that we haven't gotten to, so I'm hoping that there'll be more soccer coverage to come for me and the rest of KPBS.

And, you know, the soccer scene is still growing and changing.

So, when that grows and changes, hopefully we'll be there to report on it.

Maya: Thank you so much.

And you can find more at kpbs.org/socceralafrontera, and that is where you're gonna find shareable Instagram versions of all of these amazing stories.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi, good night.

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