Homefield advantage can thrill even hardened athletes.

Don’t San Diego FC’s players know it.

Vocal support from a full house of 32,500 cheering and chanting fans in Mission Valley, the players said, spurred them in Monday night’s 1-0 playoff victory, while also impressing veterans of Major League Soccer and European leagues.

Alas, homefield disadvantage was a real thing, too.

While no one was to blame for it, I can’t recall any other San Diego sports team dealt a comparable homefield disadvantage in recent decades. At least, not within a major sports league’s postseason.

A pitch made very bumpy by San Diego State’s recent football game became a drag on go-go San Diego FC as it tried to book the Western Conference final that’ll come Saturday night – on a resodded field – in Mission Valley before another full house.

The old saw about “both teams playing on the same field” didn’t negate the reality that, by making the ball roll slower and knocking it off line, the beaten-up San Diego pitch harmed San Diego FC far more than it did Minnesota United.

Pass-happy San Diego is Major League Soccer’s top team in ball possession, per league stats across the season’s 34 games. SDFC has attempted more passes, and completed more passes, than anyone else. Many of those are rollers. A fast, smooth surface accentuates SDFC’s foremost strength.

A slow and bumpy surface?

That’s the last thing SDFC wants, yet that’s exactly what it got Monday night.

Minnesota United sits on the other end of the style spectrum.

In ball possession, it ranks last out of 30 MLS teams. Short on firepower and great footspeed, the Loons play a defense-first style. While no one desires a very bumpy pitch, Minnesota didn’t mind the slower conditions.

Lest you think I’m being a homer here, Minnesota coach Eric Ramsay, while lamenting the “very bumpy” pitch, said the slowing-down effect did SDFC the greater disservice.

“Probably from their perspective, it’s a really disappointing thing because it makes life tougher for them than it necessarily would be for a team that isn’t desperate to dominate the ball and plays with fine margins around the edges of the box and combination play,” he said.

There was no “probably” about SDFC’s dismay over the field’s resistance to flow.

Team captain Jeppe Tverskov, without prompting, told reporters the home field was the worst it had been this year.

“That,” he said, “made it way more difficult for us. The condition and the amount of sand on the pitch made it difficult to get on to the ball and move it quickly — which you need to do against a team like Minnesota.”

Revisiting the topic, Tverskov didn’t hold back.

“The pitch needs to go, there’s no in between,” he said. “Especially from our playing style, it’s horrible for us. (Monday’s game) was one of those games we needed to open it up, and (the slow field) made it way more difficult.”

Tverskov, who praised the grounds crew, was speaking for the whole club. On top of being the team’s captain, the 32-year-old Dane is part of the team’s leadership committee of five players. These players confer with coach Mikey Varas and sporting director Tyler Heaps on larger topics. A subpar field, in a playoff match, certainly qualifies.

Now, let’s consider the alternative scenario.

Say SDFC, the conference’s top seed, had lost to fourth-seeded Minnesota.

Veterans such as Tverskov would’ve been tempted to point out and explain the home-turf disadvantage, while also knowing they’d come off as whiners.

By winning the match, SDFC’s created a better outcome.

Not only for themselves. For MLS as a whole.

The vibrant crowd atmosphere — “We have landed in football city,” Tverskov said — rather than the subpar field was cemented as one of the game’s top two narratives by Anders Dreyer’s clean goal in the 72nd minute and a SDFC shutout featuring right back Ian Pilcher’s goal-line stop and clutch saves by goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega.

Minnesota’s Ramsay, whose team played well, saw that big picture. And it’s one MLS’ power brokers need to consider.

“The environment just shows off the contradictions in MLS,” Ramsay said. “What a brilliant environment from a phenomenal crowd. What (SDFC and fans) have been able to achieve here in a year is almost beyond belief. But, the pitch was obviously questionable at this level, at this stage of a tournament.”

The condition of San Diego State’s resodded field will be fully known Saturday night, when San Diego FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps meet with a spot in the MLS Cup championship match on the line.

There’s reason for optimism. The football Aztecs won’t be playing there this week, nor is rain in the forecast.