Francisco Picos stood in a restaurant parking lot a few blocks from Puget Sound, stomping his feet against the Sunday morning chill while simultaneously trying to stamp down optimism for the soccer team he had flown 1,000 miles to watch play.
"My expectations aren't sky high," he said. "I want to be reasonable. If we score a goal today, I'll be happy."
Six hours later he was more than happy, he was ecstatic. Not only had the Los Angeles Football Club and Diego Rossi needed just 11 minutes to make good on the modest goal Picos had set, but the expansion MLS team went on to exceed those expectations with goalkeeper Tyler Miller's seven saves making Rossi's first-half goal stand up for a 1-0 win over the Seattle Sounders and the first victory in franchise history.