By Diego Arancibia
March 7, 2026
LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Long Beach FC kicked off its 2026 UPSL Premier Spring campaign in the SoCal North conference with several new additions and a strong core of returning players and coaches. Unfortunately, it ended a windy Saturday night with a 1-1 draw against AYSD D1 Academy at Lake Forest Sports Park.
The game featured the debut of Oscar Delgado, Owen Zaldivar, Mauro Rafael and Sean Presley, as well as the return of local veteran goalkeeper, Juan Salazar.
The first half was scoreless as both sides struggled to find the opening goal. Long Beach (0-0-1, 1 point) was reduced to 10 men in the 37th minute when Michael Mckibbin picked up his second yellow card.
LBFC broke the deadlock in the 60th minute as Presley scored his debut goal with a right-footed strike from the edge of the 18-yard box. AYSD (0-0-1, 1 point) tied it 20 minutes later against a tiring defense.
Long Beach felt satisfied with a point playing for so long down a man, although Coach Art Caballero felt the team had more than enough opportunities to win.
“We could have been up by a couple [of goals] at halftime and should have had two more in the second half,” Caballero said. “We expect to battle for the league title and can’t afford to drop points, but the team showed a lot of resilience and we were the better side until we ran out of gas at the end.”
- Lucas Gonzalez was the Legends Sports Bar “Legend of the Match” for helping to lead the attack.
- Watch his postgame interview here.
“Big shoutout to Juan, Gonzales said “If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have been in the game. “I am really proud of the boys for sticking together as a team, seeing it through. I think it’s a good result despite going down one goal, and now we just gotta move forward."
Long Beach FC will host its home opener at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 14 against Montclair Academy at St. Anthony High School Athletic Complex, the team’s new home stadium for the 2026 Spring season.
Purchase a Spring 2026 Shore Pass for all home games or get individual adult and youth game tickets here.
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https://longbeachfootballclub.com