El Farolito is an amateur

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. It currently plays in the

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's association football, soccer league. The league is officially affiliated to the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) and has automatic qualification for the U.S. Open Cup. ...

(NPSL), generally considered the fourth tier of U.S. Soccer, within the Golden Gate Conference. The team is best known for its

1993 U.S. Open Cup The 1993 U.S. Open Cup was the 80th edition of the soccer tournament to crown the national champion of the United States. San Francisco's San Francisco C.D. Mexico, Club Deportivo Mexico (SFSFL) won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Open Cup by defea ...

championship under its previous name, Club Deportivo (CD) Mexico.

History

The club was founded in 1985 and was first known as El Farolito, named after the owner's chain of restaurants. They played at

Boxer Stadium Boxer Stadium (also known as Matthew J. Boxer Stadium) is a soccer stadium in San Francisco, California. Located in Balboa Park, the stadium has a capacity of 3,500. It is owned and operated by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department and ...

and were a new force in the

San Francisco Soccer Football League The San Francisco Soccer Football League or SFSFL, established in 1902, is "the oldest American soccer league in continuous existence." The SFSFL is a men's semi-professional and amateur soccer league consisting of teams from San Francisco, Cali ...

(SFSFL), where they started in the lower divisions. El Faro fielded teams with immigrant players, including former professionals, and employees of the restaurant chain. The team earned successive promotions to the top division of the SFSFL within five years. By the 1991–92 season, the club had won the SFSFL championship and had reached the final of the

National Amateur Cup The National Amateur Cup, also known as the USASA Amateur Cup, is an American knockout soccer competition open to all amateur teams affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation through United States Adult Soccer Association The Unite ...

. The following season, El Faro retained the title as 'Club Deportivo Mexico'. In 1993, San Francisco C.D. Mexico won the U.S. Open Cup, an American soccer competition open to all

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of soccer in the United States. It is a full member of FIFA and governs American soccer ...

(USSF) affiliated teams. The team pulled off wins against the defending tournament champion San Jose Oaks,

Milwaukee Bavarian SC Bavarian United SC is an American soccer team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Bavarian Majors of the Bavarian Soccer Club compete in the USL League 2. The team plays its home games in the athletic stadium at the Heartland Value F ...

, before defeating United German Hungarians in the final. As U.S. Open Cup champions, C.D. Mexico qualified for the

1994 CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup The 1994 CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup was the third edition of this defunct tournament contended between 1991 and 1998. Preliminary round Caribbean Zone ---- First round Lambada SC qualified for Next Round Second round Olympic qualified for N ...

and played

Club Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Club Necaxa, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Aguascalientes (city), Aguascalientes. It competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican ...

of the Mexican First Division in the quarterfinals. They lost 5–1 in San Jose. When the California Premier Soccer Association (CPSA) was formed in 1993, CD Mexico was one of the SFSFL representatives along with Greek-American A.C., SF United, and Concordia. The CPSA was developed as a 'super league' composed of teams from the SFSFL, Peninsula Soccer League, and the San Joaquin Valley Soccer League. The team, returning to their original name El Farolito, won multiple titles over the next two and a half decades. On November 20, 2017, El Farolito announced it would field a team in the

for the 2018 season. On March 22, 2023, El Farolito defeated Inter San Francisco 3–0 in the first round of the 2023 U.S. Open Cup, scoring all three goals in extra time. The team lost in the second round to fellow

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

team

Oakland Roots SC Oakland Roots Sports Club is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Oakland, California. The club competes in the USL Championship (USLC) as a member of the Western Conference (USL Championship), Western Conference. F ...

of the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

. El Farolito once again qualified for the Open Cup and defeated

MLS Next Pro MLS Next Pro (MLSNP) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada that is affiliated with Major League Soccer (MLS). It launched in 2022 with 21 teams and now comprises 27 reserve sides of MLS clu ...

side

Portland Timbers 2 Portland Timbers 2 is an American professional soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. The team, often referred to as "T2", serves as the reserve squad for the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer (MLS). The team was a member of the USL Champ ...

in the first round on March 19, 2024. The reserve team was representing their parent team, the

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Timbers have p ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

, after the league had withdrawn from the U.S. Open Cup. El Farolito defeated Central Valley Fuego FC, another third-division team, but were eliminated in the third round by the Oakland Roots for the second consecutive year. El Farolito won their first NPSL championship in 2024 by defeating

FC Motown FC Motown is an American soccer club based in Morristown, New Jersey. Founded in 2012, the team currently fields teams in both the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and USL League Two. In 2020, the team formed a U23 side that competes in t ...

, a four-time finalist, 2–1. El Farolito have once again exceeded the expectations in the 2025 US Open Cup, beating

Real Monarchs Real Monarchs is a professional soccer club playing in the MLS Next Pro, a third division league of American soccer. The team is an affiliate of the Major League Soccer (MLS) club Real Salt Lake. Real Monarchs are based in the Real Salt Lake ...

3-1 in the first round and

Monterey Bay FC Monterey Bay Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in Monterey County, California. The club was established on February 21, 2021, and is a member of the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer league syst ...

2-1 in the second. And then their US Open Cup season came to a close, as they were defeated to

side Sacramento Republic in the third round on April 16th, 1-0.

Year-by-year

Honors

* Division 1 Champions (11): 1991–92, 1992–93, 1995–96, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2017 * Playoff Champions (6): 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017

* National Championship (1):

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

* Golden Gate Conference Champions (3):

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

U.S. Open Cup * Champions (1)

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

* Participants (5):

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup The CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup was an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its secondary continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It was held from 1991 to 1998, althou ...

* Participants (1):

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Hank Steinbrecher Cup * Champions (1): 2025

Notes

References

External links

*
SFSFL Team page
{{California sports Soccer clubs in San Francisco 1985 establishments in California U.S. clubs in CONCACAF Cup Winners' Cup

Farolito Luminaria is a term used in different parts of the world to describe various types of holiday lights, usually displayed during Christmas. In English, the term most commonly refers to a specific type of simple paper lantern made by placing a ...

Works soccer clubs in the United States