SAN JOSE — Time is running out for Bay FC.
Which is why, as the second-year NWSL club prepared for a game against San Diego Wave FC two weeks ago, it was striking to see the calm, upbeat mood of pregame preparations.
Coach Albertin Montoya meandered around from room to room, even taking some time to kick around a mini pink-and-black soccer ball with Alex Barnold, the 2-year-old son of performance analyst A.J. Barnold.
As staffers and young children alike milled about at Bay FC’s complex at PayPal Park, the Bay Area News Group went behind the scenes with the team on a crucial game day to see what goes into preparing for, playing and recovering from a home game in the NWSL.
The most illuminating takeaway? How different the mood can be before a game and afterward.
Before the game, Montoya told BANG, “The work has been done during the week. If you’re relaxed and in a good frame of mind, it carries over to the players.”
After a hotly contested 2-1 loss, Montoya said, “We don’t have time to put our heads down.”
Getting ready
A lot goes into preparing for a soccer game at the highest level.
Video and data analysts mosey around preparing reports, coaches interact with team managers and players arrive hours before kickoff.
Montoya divides his time between the office – a sanctuary amid the semi-controlled chaos – and the multi-purpose space outside. Players mill about in the lobby, watching Kansas City take on the Orlando Pride.
Forward Racheal Kundananji takes a particular interest. Her fellow countrywoman, Barbra Banda, is a star for both Orlando and the Zambian national team.
Montoya emerges from the office space and cracks open a grapefruit Spindrift, observing the match with keen interest. A former striker himself, he can’t help but react when a forward misses a promising chance – even if a goal would hurt Bay FC’s position in the league standings.
Montoya takes a break from pregame preparation and attempts to convince Alex to become an Everton fan. This is a dubious undertaking, as his father A.J. is a noted fan of rival Liverpool.
At one point, the soccer ball they are playing with knocks over a stack of radios that the coaching staff will need for the game.
There have been external questions about Bay FC’s team culture since Montoya and the club were investigated by the NWSL after allegations of a toxic team environment.
Montoya was cleared by the investigation, but some remain skeptical of Bay FC’s team vibe. Montoya acknowledged that there was room to grow from past failures.
“When you bring everyone together, you don’t necessarily know how it’s gonna work out and who’s gonna work well with whom,” Montoya said. “They’re all very good at what they do, but look, there were some challenges in their first year, and certain individuals didn’t see eye to eye.”
In his second year in charge, Montoya feels he has a better grasp of how to connect with his players, who are themselves much more connected, as well. Another year together with his coaching staff has helped, although Bay FC is not in position to return to the playoffs, where it finished its inaugural season.
He acknowledged that “deep inside” and at home with his wife Erin, the investigation took a toll. But he seemed energized by the cheerful atmosphere that prevailed in the building despite the inquiry.
“As crazy as it may sound, you would not be able to know there was an investigation,” Montoya said.
With the probe now in the past, Bay FC was all smiles in the lead-up to the San Diego game. A brief pregame interview was sequestered inside Montoya’s office because of the jubilant noise outside the door.
Montoya insists that the gains Bay FC has made in the past year, and the overall vibe it has curated, are positive.
“This is real,” he said. “That’s what we try to create and I try to create at every level that I’ve been at, and that’s what we’re known for.”
Taking the field
With about 45 minutes left before kickoff, Bay FC’s players take the field for warmups, led first by the goalkeepers. They run through positional drills and prepare for the match ahead.
Before warmups end, Montoya retreats to the solace of his office to finish preparations for the game. Sometimes, he runs into sporting director Matt Potter, and the two share a few words.
When the players return, Montoya keeps his message straightforward. It’s mostly a restatement of strategies already discussed and known, with one last tip: take advantage of the counterattacking opportunities presented by San Diego’s preferred possession-dominant style.
This proves to be a challenge once the ball kicks off. As predicted, the Wave has roughly 60 percent possession.
More importantly, San Diego scores twice early in the second half, putting Bay FC in a 2-0 hole.
Montoya, who is a frenetic pacer on the sideline, lets out a prodigious whistle to get his players’ attention.
As Bay FC begins to mount a comeback, four substitutes – Jamie Shepherd, Emmie Allen, Maddie Moreau and Catherine Paulson – begin to warm up along the San Diego goal line.
They watch in celebration as teammate Caroline Conti converts a 75th-minute penalty kick to bring Bay FC within a goal. Then in the 88th minute, Bay FC nearly equalizes.
A ball played dangerously into the box nearly finds the feet of Kundananji but is instead harmlessly scooped up by San Diego goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan.
“Wow,” Moreau reacts.
“Inches,” Shepherd says.
Into the night
After the final whistle, Bay FC players greet their teammates and opponents, then huddle for some postgame discussions.
Montoya pulls Kundananji, who has been chasing her second goal of the season in the midst of a number of chances, aside to talk strategy. Whatever impact it has, she breaks her goalless streak the following week in San Francisco against Washington.
A number of Bay FC players come over to meet with family and friends attending the match, as well as sign autographs for fans. Paulson, a Los Altos native, meets with her sister and mother, who look as though they could be triplets.
Eventually, players make their way toward the locker room. There, they are greeted by Potter and other Bay FC staffers milling about.
Potter, who appears to be in otherwise relatively good spirits, offers a concise assessment of the outcome: “It sucks.”
A spread of chicken sandwiches and nuggets from Chick-fil-A beckons to the players, and many partake. Defender Caprice Dydasco hydrates while discussing the match with mental performance coach Agustina De Giovanni, a former Olympic swimmer from Argentina.
De Giovanni noted that not every player wants to talk after a loss like that. But she’s there for the ones who do.
“I don’t talk to them,” she said generally. “Some of them want to talk, some of them don’t. It can be draining. They’ll call me later sometimes, send me a voicemail saying, ‘I’m so upset.’”
The disappointment also carried over from Bay FC’s previous match against Chicago, in which Bay lost an 1-0 early lead to finish in a draw with one of the worst teams in the league.
But Bay FC’s opponents aren’t going to sympathize.
As Bay FC’s players left one by one, they entered an uncertain future. They remained just four points back of the final playoff spots, well within striking distance of eighth-place Gotham FC. (They enter Monday’s game in Los Angeles against Angel City seven points back, with a game in hand over Gotham, but with four teams to leap from 12th place to eighth.)
Yet after the jovial pregame scene, the postgame ambiance was muted and unsettled. As a few San Diego players enjoyed their postgame meals seated on the ground just a few hundred feet away, Bay FC had to confront the stark reality of their results.
Like Montoya, they put on a brave face. But there was no immediate resolution for their concerns, no instant slogan that would solve their struggles.
It would have to come on the field.
