It’s not difficult to spot the giddiest soccer fans in America.

The team they’ve been impatiently awaiting these many months — for some, many years — has finally arrived, produced something of a sensation and claimed instant legitimacy over two weekends of relentless, wisely devised soccer.

They’ve been rewarded with an impressive takedown of the defending MLS Cup champions, followed by a mostly dominant showing in a raucous home opener against another strong foe. They are beginning to believe something special might be within reach.

Too early for that, San Diego FC’s passionate and expanding fan base knows, and immaterial at the moment, but it’s hard not to get ahead of oneself when dreams, for real, are coming true.

Major League Soccer’s 30th club is making a big splash at home, where its opening-week, 2-0 upset of an LA Galaxy side that, let’s be clear, is dealing with some issues, triggered a response some were patiently awaiting.

“You know what? It’s a lot bigger than I think what everybody was expecting …,” Miguel Barajas, the president of the San Diego Independent Supporters Union and a proud member of Chavos Frontera Ultras, one of seven supporters groups under the Union’s umbrella, told Soccer America. “I think people [in San Diego] knew about it and were excited about it, but it wasn’t until seeing the amount of supporters that followed [the team to L.A.], and then the result that we did and the way that we did [that it really took off].

“We had 300, 400 new members overnight. Everyone’s like, ‘I want to be a part of this right now.’”

Snapdragon Stadium, predictably, was full for the home opener six nights later — 34,506 the count for a scoreless draw with St. Louis City — and the buzz is deafening with the next home game, following this weekend’s away-from-SoCal debut at Real Salt Lake, coming March 15 against the Columbus Crew.

“It’s been overwhelming this past week,” Barajas said after the home opener. “Everybody’s wanting to get tickets. I can’t tell you how many of the same answers I’ve been providing to everyone: ‘Demand is super high,’ ‘we’re just a small group of volunteers,’ ‘were doing our best.’

“I was talking to [Vanessa Bejarano, the Union vice president], and I was like, ‘Look, we asked for this. We knew what was going to happen. We knew it was going to be like this from day one.’ I don’t think too many people [on the outside] expected that, but we supporters, we knew what we were going to provide, and we knew what this team was going to mean.”

It’s difficult to overestimate that. San Diego is one of the most verdant producers of soccer talent in America — the list begins with Steve Cherundolo, Shannon MacMillan, Frankie Hejduk, Rachel (Buehler) Van Hollebeke, Jovan Kirovski, Catarina Macario and Brandon Vazquez — with a massive audience drawn from 3.3 million in San Diego County and another 1.8 million across the border in Tijuana.

Miguel Barajas, Chavos Frontera Ultras: He’s the president of the San Diego Independent Supporters Union, which unites the seven fan groups.

“We have an awesome tradition of soccer here in San Diego,” Barajas said. “The amount of talent that comes out of San Diego, and it took us [all this time] to get a team? To even get the thought of getting a team out here? It’s about time. What the heck were we waiting for the whole time?”

Some are already thinking MLS Cup title. Only D.C. United, in MLS’s first season, and the Chicago Fire in 1998 have done so in year one.

“I have big expectations as a city right now, with [baseball’s] Padres getting so close to a championship,” said Eddie Lopez, president of 18th Battalion, a supporters group that shares its passion for SDFC with love for the “Star Wars” universe. “Having those postseasons with the Padres and being able to almost taste the championship, I want a championship. If we can get it in year one, even more incredible. Just to out our name in the history books that [another] expansion team got a championship in year one.

“I mean, if we were able to go up to L.A. game one and show out, show the rest of the MLS that we’re here, and we’re not here to compete for the bottom of the table, we’re here to compete for the top. I think it was a good statement.”

Barajas isn’t aiming so high.

“I keep telling people the fact that we have a team is just amazing,” he said. “I do think if we make the playoffs, that’s a win. But you always want to win it all. That would be the dream, to always win the championship, but I’m happy that we have a team. And I think if we were to make the playoffs, that would be a huge success for the club for year one.”

‘Home away from home’

Chavos, one of three mostly Hispanic supporters groups within the Union, came aboard at San Diego FC’s beginning, back in 2022, when Egyptian-born British businessman/politician Mohamed Mansour partnered with the local Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation to bring Major League Soccer to the city. The group originated as fanatics of San Diego Loyal from its USL Championship beginnings in 2020.

“I was a Chavo de Loyal,” Barajas said. “Since there was very little chance that [the Loyal and San Diego FC] could meet at some point, we could actually support both Loyal and MLS. At that point, I wanted to be part of this MLS team, from the beginning.”

Barra 18, which draws from both sides of the Mexican border, and Daygo Boys, who started out supporting original NISA club San Diego 1904 FC, also are primarily Hispanic. The Locals were Loyalists first. USG 18 (One-Eight) caters to service members and first responders. Riptides has a strong from-elsewhere contingent.

“We have a lot of the born-and-raised-in-San Diego groups, and they’re wonderful. They really have the flair of growing up in the area,” said Bejarano, a Bay Area transplant and Riptides member. “Riptides is for everyone but especially made me feel at home because a lot of people in Riptides come from other cities, grew up in the supporter culture of that city, the sports fan base of that city, decided to make San Diego their home, and wanted to grow [their fandom in their adopted home].”

Bejarano grew up playing soccer, did so through high school, and as a diehard Oakland Raiders and San Francisco Giants fan, loyalties she, of course, still carries. “It was something I was born into and I will forever love,” she said. “The teams here, the teams I support in San Diego, those are my-choice teams, the ones I love, the ones that I will have unwavering support for. …

“I live here now. San Diego has really become my home. And just having something [here] to be mine, Riptides is that home away from home.”

Vanessa Bejarano, Riptides: She’s the vice president of the Union, pictured with Hirving “Chucky” Lozano.

Bejarano and her husband, Warner Godinez, became involved with SDFC after attending the logo/crest/name reveal in October 2023.

“It was buzzing,” she said. “Everybody just kind of waiting, and the moment the announcement came out, the [established supporters groups] gave a show. They were chanting. They were singing. They gave you a feel for it. It was in that moment that you could feel, like, this is what they’ve been waiting for. …

“Even if you had no idea what supporter culture was, you got a taste of it then. And random people just started jumping in, jumping around with them, maybe not knowing the lyrics right then and there, but just going with the vibe of what these SGs were giving off.”

Barajas was among them. He grew up a big San Diego Chargers fan — a constant among SDFC supporters — and the NFL team’s relocation to Los Angeles “kind of killed me,” he said. He keeps Padres season tickets and follows the NWSL’s San Diego Wave but “haven’t had a chance to go out too much to games.” (“I’m married, I need to spend time at home.”)

He was for a long time a soccer fan without a local team — his father passed down Chivas Guadalajara fandom, and both cheered on Mexico’s national team — until the Loyal kicked off in 2020. He was smitten “pretty much day one.”

“It was something I went to every weekend,” he said. “I hardly ever missed a home game.” When the Loyal folded, after SDFC’s MLS bid was approved, he was all-in. Watching it blow up now, in the wake of beating the champs and packing Snapdragon, is a thrill. And a lot of work.

“It’s insane,” Barajas said. “I thought it was going to be, like, a fun little part-time thing, right? I feel like I’m running a small company with 2,000-plus employees and 501(c)(7) tax [implications], board meetings and stuff like that. I’m pretty sure I could put this in my résumé.”

‘We’re brand new, and they hate us’

San Diego FC had been working together a little more than a month before its inaugural game, a Sunday showcase pitting, at home, Major League Soccer’s defending champion (its signature piece sidelined, other biggies ailing or sacrificed to the salary cap) against its 30th franchise (the proverbial lamb, on the shallowest of surfaces).

It could not have gone better for San Diego’s faithful. Their team was tidy and compact, aggressive on every line, repeatedly penned the Galaxy inside its half, and kept about 70 percent possession before going ahead seven minutes into the second half — Hirving “Chucky” Lozano feeding fellow DP Anders Dreyer — after forcing a turnover in the box from a goal kick. Dreyer netted the second, too, in stoppage, to complete a terrific counterattack with Tomas Angel.

“We watched how we controlled that game, and then came halftime, and I told my sons, ‘Galaxy makes one mistake, and we’re scoring,” said Angel Diaz, a drummer with Barra 18. “And that’s what happened. Mistake, we scored, we’re up, 1-0, and then we went wild.

“We were already singing and chanting and having a good time, but after we scored one, everybody’s adrenaline just went so high that it was wild the whole rest of the game. After the second [goal], we lost our voice.”