Published for Monterey Bay FC fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ Monterey Bay FC Fans — One Last Night at Cardinale!
The Union’s hardest season ends under the Seaside lights against Las Vegas — with a USMNT star in midfield, a new coach building for 2027, and a fanbase that never stopped showing up. Crisp and Kelp, one more time.
The Club
Monterey Bay Football Club was announced on February 1, 2021, and began play in the USL Championship in 2022 — professional soccer built, quite literally, on the bones of an old army base. The club plays at Cardinale Stadium in Seaside, California, on the campus of California State University, Monterey Bay, where Freeman Stadium once served Fort Ord. The club privately invested millions to rebuild it into a 6,000-capacity, soccer-specific home with a FIFA-approved pitch. It opened on May 7, 2022, against Las Vegas Lights FC — the same opponent, fittingly, who closes the 2026 Monterey Bay FC schedule.
They call themselves the Union — a word carried inside the crest as a reminder that the club represents the union of land and sea, people and place. Fans know them as Crisp and Kelp, from the official colors: Crisp Blue for the coastal waters, Kelp Blue for the deep-sea canyon and kelp forests offshore, with Dune Yellow and White completing a palette drawn straight from the Monterey Peninsula. Majority owner Ray Beshoff leads a club that reset its front office in the autumn of 2025, bringing in CEO Mike Sheehan and Chairman and Chief Soccer Officer Oliver Wyss.
On the bench, 2026 brought change too. Jordan Stewart opened the season, but after a winless first seven games the club turned on April 29 to Alex Covelo — a former San Jose Earthquakes head coach and only the third head coach in club history, after Frank Yallop and Stewart. Searching the Monterey Bay FC roster, the Monterey Bay FC schedule or the playoff picture? This guide has the honest answers — and the reasons this fanbase keeps believing.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#88 Lletget — Monterey Bay FC Style Jersey
$59.99
The biggest signing in club history, in Crisp Blue fading to white. Fan-inspired apparel for the Union faithful who sing through every season.
Last Season (2025): The Guarantee Season
Monterey Bay’s 2025 USL Championship season ended the way the two before it had: 11th in the Western Conference, second-to-last, out of the playoffs. The record was seven wins, eight draws and fifteen defeats from 30 matches — 29 points, just 27 goals scored and 45 conceded. It was the club’s third straight 11th-place finish and its fourth straight season ending second-to-last in the West, a pattern no amount of coastal sunshine could disguise.
What made 2025 different was the promise. Before the season, the club had given season-ticket holders a playoff guarantee — and when the playoffs were missed again, the club honored it with a 20-percent refund. It was an unusual, honest gesture, and it triggered real change: club president Mike DiGiulio announced his resignation, Sheehan arrived as CEO, Wyss took over soccer operations, and only nine players from a 25-man squad were initially retained for 2026. Anton Søjberg and Mayele Malango shared top-scorer honors with five league goals each.
The cup run summed the year up in two acts. On March 19, Monterey Bay hammered Inter San Francisco 4–0 at Cardinale Stadium in the U.S. Open Cup First Round, Xavi Gnaulati scoring twice on his way to three cup goals. Thirteen days later, amateur side El Farolito came to Seaside and won 2–1, one of the upsets of the tournament.
Best Players Right Now
Sebastian Lletget — #88, central / attacking midfielder. The star name and the historic signing. The former USMNT, LA Galaxy, New England and FC Dallas midfielder joined on March 12, 2026, in what the club itself called its biggest signing since it was founded — and finished the run-in as the team’s top scorer with six league goals and three assists, scoring at Rhode Island, from the penalty spot at Orange County, and again at New Mexico in October.
Ilijah Paul — #20, centre-forward. The Union’s most-used player in 2026, logging 28 games and more than 2,300 minutes, with five goals and four assists. Paul scored the 77th-minute equalizer at Oakland Roots in August and the cup goal against Oakland in April — the player the attack runs through.
Omari Glasgow — #17, right midfielder / forward. The Chicago Fire loanee is level among the club’s chief creators with four assists, and he scored his first goal of the run checked in style: a 44th-minute header from a Fidel Barajas cross in the 1–1 home draw with Sacramento Republic. Quick, direct and fearless.
Riley Bidois — #9, forward. Included for pure impact: four league goals and an assist in just six league appearances — a goal every 82.5 minutes — including a brace against Loudoun and the opener in the club’s first win of the season against Birmingham. He left on September 1 on a season-long loan to Wellington Phoenix for the A-League season.
Wesley Leggett — #11, centre-forward. Three goals across a full season of hard running, including the 11th-minute strike in the 4–1 win over Loudoun and the 84th-minute equalizer at Sacramento in March that rescued a point.
Zack Farnsworth — #32, centre-back. A regular starting defender who turned match-winner in the run-in: the fifth-minute opener at home to Lexington in September, then the 65th-minute winner at Orange County in October, assisted by Lletget.
Star Spotlight
The night the Union scored four. May 30, 2026, Cardinale Stadium: Monterey Bay 4, Loudoun United 1 — the first time the club had scored four goals in a USL Championship game since June 2023. Riley Bidois scored twice, in the 5th minute and from a 62nd-minute penalty he won himself; Leggett added one in between and Chris-Kévin Nadje finished it late. A week earlier, Bidois and Eduardo Blancas had scored the second-half goals in a 2–0 win over Birmingham Legion — the club’s first win of the entire 2026 campaign and the first of Alex Covelo’s tenure.
Lletget takes Irvine. October 3, 2026: Monterey Bay trailed Orange County to a fifth-minute penalty and were helped by a red card just before halftime — then Lletget took the game personally. He equalized from the penalty spot on 61 minutes and, four minutes later, assisted Farnsworth’s winner. A 2–1 road win over a playoff side, authored by the biggest signing in club history. He scored again a week later at New Mexico.
The night that still defines the club. April 25, 2023, U.S. Open Cup Third Round: Monterey Bay 1, San Jose Earthquakes 0. Christian Volesky lifted the ball over the Quakes’ goalkeeper in the 26th minute for the club’s first-ever win over an MLS opponent — in its first-ever game against one. Every Monterey Bay season is still chasing a night that big.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
Paul and Glasgow — the engine room of the Union attack, in Crisp and Kelp.
This Season (2026): The Hardest Year Yet
There is no dressing it up: Monterey Bay sit 12th in the Western Conference with one game to play — five wins, six draws and eighteen defeats from 29 matches, 21 points, 30 goals scored and 51 conceded — and they are eliminated from the USL Championship playoffs. The season opened winless in seven under Jordan Stewart, and the coaching change to Alex Covelo on April 29 steadied the side without ever fully turning it. A mid-summer stretch brought wins and belief, including the four-goal night against Loudoun, but a run-in of defeats — broken only by that Lletget-inspired win at Orange County — confirmed a fifth straight season without playoff football.
The cups offered no rescue. The Union did not qualify for the 2026 U.S. Open Cup, and the Prinx Tires USL Cup ended in the group stage: a 1–1 draw with Oakland, a wild 4–3 defeat at Athletic Club Boise, a 1–1 draw at Sacramento, and a 3–2 home loss to Las Vegas after leading 2–0 — a result that summed up the entire year in ninety minutes. And yet: the club signed a USMNT midfielder, blooded a 16-year-old academy player in Arjang Pakbaz, and kept its core — Lletget, Paul, captain Nico Gordon, and Watsonville’s own Adrian Rebollar, the longest-tenured Union player, re-signed through 2027.
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Mark Your Calendar
Saturday, October 24, 2026 — vs Las Vegas Lights FC, Cardinale Stadium (7:00 p.m. PT). One last time at Cardinale this season. The regular-season finale pairs Monterey Bay with the opponent from its first-ever home game — Las Vegas won the first league meeting 1–0 in March and the USL Cup meeting 3–2 in July, so the Union owe them one to close the year.
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — USL Championship Conference Quarterfinals. The top eight in each conference open the single-elimination playoffs. Monterey Bay are eliminated and will not take part — but the West’s road to the final starts here.
November 6–8, 2026 — Conference Semifinals. The final four in each conference, hosted by the higher seeds.
November 13–15, 2026 — Conference Finals. One win from the national championship game for the survivors in the East and West.
Saturday, November 21, 2026 — USL Championship Final, 12 p.m. ET on CBS. The 2026 USL Championship season ends live on the CBS Television Network — the stage Monterey Bay’s rebuild is aiming at for 2027.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Oakland Roots SC — the NorCal derby. The club’s own reports call Oakland exactly what they are: rivals. The two USL Championship sides in the Monterey Bay–Bay Area corridor have met every season since 2022 with a perfectly even league series, and 2026 delivered three meetings and no winner: Oakland took the season opener 1–0 at Cardinale in March, the USL Cup game finished 1–1 in April with Paul scoring for the Union, and the August league meeting in Oakland ended 1–1 after Paul’s 77th-minute equalizer. Geographic, even, and genuinely felt — this is the fixture Union fans circle first.
2. Sacramento Republic FC — the other NorCal war. Three meetings in 2026, three competitions’ worth of frustration, and three identical scorelines: 1–1, 1–1, 1–1. Leggett equalized late in Sacramento in March, Bidois scored in the USL Cup draw in June, and Glasgow headed the opener in the August league draw at Cardinale before Sacramento leveled late.
3. San Jose Earthquakes — the Cupset. Not a league rival, but the name that still raises heart rates in Seaside. On April 25, 2023, in the U.S. Open Cup, Monterey Bay beat the Bay Area’s MLS club 1–0 at Cardinale Stadium — Volesky’s 26th-minute goal delivering the club’s first win over a first-division side, under former Quakes boss Frank Yallop, a week before a record home crowd hosted LAFC in the next round. Until the Union win a playoff game, that night remains the biggest in club history — and the standard every future team is measured against.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do Monterey Bay FC play?
At Cardinale Stadium in Seaside, California — a 6,000-capacity, soccer-specific stadium on the campus of California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). The club privately funded its renovation from the old Freeman Stadium; it opened on May 7, 2022, and uses a FIFA-approved AstroTurf pitch.
Who is Monterey Bay FC’s best player right now?
Sebastian Lletget (No. 88), the former USMNT, LA Galaxy and FC Dallas midfielder who signed on March 12, 2026 in what the club called its biggest signing since it was founded — and who finished the run-in as the club’s top scorer in 2026 with 6 league goals.
Have Monterey Bay FC ever won a trophy?
Not yet — the Union are still chasing a first playoff berth and a first trophy. The club has never qualified for the USL Championship Playoffs in its five seasons to date (2022–2026), and its best U.S. Open Cup runs are Round-of-32 finishes in 2023, after beating MLS side San Jose Earthquakes, and 2024.
How can I get tickets and watch Monterey Bay FC?
Tickets are sold through the club’s official site at montereybayfc.com/tickets, with season memberships at montereybayfc.com/season-tickets. USL Championship matches air across the CBS Television Network, CBS Sports Network, CBS Sports Golazo Network, ESPN networks / ESPN+ and TUDN under the league’s broadcast deal.
⚽ Monterey Bay FC Fan Shop
The full Union trio — Lletget, Paul and Glasgow in Crisp and Kelp, fan-inspired apparel for Seaside.
Sources & official links: Monterey Bay FC official site · USL Championship official site · Monterey Bay FC tickets
Land and sea, people and place — the Union endures, and Seaside will sing again in 2027.
