BOISE — The time has finally come for Athletic Club Boise to introduce itself on home turf.

After playing its first two games of the USL League One season on the road, AC Boise will make its much-anticipated home debut this Saturday in front of 7,000-plus fans. From the 6,500 season tickets already sold, to the formation of an official supporters group, there’s been plenty of buzz surrounding the team since it was announced professional soccer would be coming to Boise in October of 2024.

It promises to be an exciting evening, not only for those in attendance, but for the players and coaches, to finally showcase their skills in front of the home crowd for the first time.

“We’ve been talking about this since January when we first came in,” AC Boise midfielder Blake Bodily said. “We knew it would take a bit to get here, but now that we’re finally here, we’re all super excited. We can’t wait to see the fans. We can’t wait to meet them. It’s gonna be a great game, and we can’t wait to show the fans what we’re all about live.”

Fans got a taste of what the game day atmosphere will be like at Fan Fest last Saturday, where season ticket holders got to watch a brief practice session and were able to take in AC Boise’s new stadium at Expo Idaho.

But now it’s time for the real deal. AC Boise heads into its third game of the season looking to bounce back from a loss to Union Omaha on March 22. It was an eventful 3-2 loss two weeks ago, with AC Boise falling behind in the first half from an own goal, just to tie it up six minutes later on a penalty kick from forward Luan Figueiroa Brito.

Omaha jumped ahead again late in the second half, only for AC Boise to tie the game once again on a long range strike from midfielder Philip Mayaka. But the final goal came from Omaha’s Diego Gutierrez — his second of the game — to put Omaha ahead 3-2 in the 84th minute, sealing the win.

Both of AC Boise’s games have been decided by one goal, with the season opening 1-0 win at Sarasota Paradise on March 7 the highlight of the season so far. There’s still much to learn about how AC Boise handles the grind of a long season, but through the first two games of the season, they’ve been dropped into high intensity matches.

“We have a lot of fighters on our team,” AC Boise defender Jake Dengler said. “We all have the same goal and that’s what we’re learning from. We’re all seeing how frustrated we were with the last game. We got to see the high of the Sarasota game, even though that wasn’t our best performance. I don’t think as a team we’ve seen what our potential is yet. We know that we can be much better than the Omaha game, but we haven’t reached it yet. We’re hoping Saturday’s another step towards that.”

Cleaning up defensive mistakes has been a priority since the loss to Omaha. Head coach Nate Miller has kept things the same in terms of a lineup, making only one change between the first two games. Midfielder Tumi Moshobane was swapped out for Omar Yehya against Omaha due to injury.

A 3-4-1-2 formation has suited Miller well in his past and is what he had in mind when crafting his roster in the preseason.

“It’s guys I trust and guys that can play multiple positions,” Miller said. “You can see a consistent performing group, and as young guys come along, and step in, I think there’s three or four guys that are performing well…the way you build a roster should make sense, and you should already know who your high performers are. If not, I don’t think I really did my job in the roster build.”

With an extra week of rest between games, a similar lineup to the first two can be expected with Spokane Velocity FC coming to town Saturday. Spokane has had a busy start to its season, already competing in five competitive games — three in the league and two in the U.S. Open Cup.

Spokane won its first three games of the season before losing to Charlotte Independence in league play and then losing on penalty kicks to Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC in the U.S. Open Cup this past Wednesday.

Spokane is in its third season competing in USL League One and has made the league championship game in each of the last two seasons.

“They’re a team that’s very experienced and they’re really good at defending and being patient and staying compact,” Miller said of Spokane. “They’re an experienced group that knows how to manage their way through games. I like our opportunities to attack against them. I like our plan and how we’re going to be able to break their lines. Offensively, I think they do a good job mixing it up. They can be a really direct team when they need to and they can also control a game if you let them. We’re certainly not gonna let them do that.”

Rivalries are a staple across sports. Saturday’s game has been dubbed a rivalry between the two Pacific Northwest clubs. The first edition of the Pacific Northwest rivalry will mark the debut of Idaho’s first professional soccer team in front of a sold out crowd.