San Diego FC appears to be no pushover in start to inaugural season

Training has obviously gone well for San Diego FC’s new entry in Major League Soc­cer at its Sharp HealthCare Performance Center on tribal land of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in El Cajon as evidenced by the team’s un­defeated start in its opening three matches.

San Diego FC shocked the defending MLS Cup champion L.A. Galaxy, 2-0, in its MLS debut on Feb. 23 and followed that with a scoreless draw in front of a record crowd of 34,506 fans in its home field debut March 1 at Snapdragon Stadium.

The parade of franchise mile­stones continued with last Sat­urday’s 3-1 win at Real Salt Lake and a starting record of two wins and one tie in the Western Conference standings — good for second place behind the Vancouver Whitecaps FC (3-0-0) in the 15-team table.

In the beginning

San Diego FC is the new­est expansion team in MLS, which is now 30 teams strong and continuing to build on its footprint originally established from its inaugural 1996 sea­son. MLS comprises 27 teams in the United States and three in Canada and constitutes the highest level of play in North America.

MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States’ successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

The league — and the sport — has come a long way since then, though expansion into the San Diego market took an excessively long time while the region supported lower tier mi­nor league and amateur teams.

But the long wait may be worth it.

Following the club name and crest reveal, construction on the club’s 125,000 square-foot campus and Right to Dream academy, initial player sign­ings, and staff announcements (sporting director Tyler Heaps and head coach Mikey Varas), it was time to finally unveil a tangible on-field product.

San Diego FC opened pre­season play with closed door matches against USL clubs Phoenix Rising (Jan. 25) and Sacramento Republic (Feb. 1) before competing in the 2025 Coachella Valley Invitational Feb. 8-15 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.

The Coachella Valley Invi­tational is a preseason event for MLS and National Women’s Soccer League clubs that fea­tures preseason matches and training. Fourteen MLS clubs participated in this year’s event, including San Diego FC.

It is the largest professional preseason exhibition tourna­ment in North America.

Competing MLS teams in­cluded Austin FC, Charlotte FC, Chicago Fire FC, LA Gal­axy, LAFC, Minnesota United FC, New York City FC, New York Red Bulls, Portland Tim­bers, Real Salt Lake, San Di­ego FC, San Jose Earthquakes, St. Louis City SC and Sporting Kansas City.

San Diego FC kicked off play in the preseason tournament with a 3-1 loss to New York City FC on Feb. 8. Former Manches­ter United player Paddy Mc­Nair scored the lone San Diego goal on a point-blank head shot off a nifty pass from Chucky Lozano.

The San Diego team drew blanks in an ensuing 3-0 loss to the Portland Timbers on Feb. 12 and it appeared the newest MLS side might be experienc­ing a prolonged stint of growing pains.

But that train of thought quickly evaporated on Feb. 15 with a 6-0 thrashing of the New York Red Bulls, finalist in the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs.

The season kicked off the next week against the six-time MLS Cup champion Galaxy.

About 1,000 San Diego FC supporters make the trek to Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson to watch their team’s MLS debut and, following a rather uneventful first half, had a chance to out-cheer the home team.

Dane Anders Dreyer scored the opening two goals in San Diego FC history, tallying the history-making first goal in the 52nd minute off a timely pass from Lozano and tacking on an insurance goal three minutes into injury time.

The visitors compiled a 9-7 advantage in shots and 87 per­cent pass accuracy to go with 52 percent of possession, 14 fouls and two yellow cards.

It was not a timid debut.

The long-anticipated home debut attracted the largest crowd in history to watch a sporting event at Snapdragon Stadium. Fans came decked out in San Diego FC apparel, chanted and even sang during the emotionally-charged event.

While the match against St. Louis City SC finished score­less, there was no doubt who the winning team was as San Diego FC remained unbeaten in its second consecutive trip to the pitch.

The hosts dominated with a 15-2 advantage in shots, 72 percent possession ratio, 89 percent pass accuracy, 14 fouls and nine cornerkicks. San Di­ego FC did just about every­thing except bulge twine.

San Diego FC continued to raise eyebrows with last Sat­urday’s win in Utah. The home side scored first, Ariath Pinol in the 17th minute, but the visitors did not collapse. Argen­tine Franco Negri scored the equalizer in the 43rd minute for San Diego FC, assisted by Tomas Angel, who had the as­sist on the second goal scored in the season opener.

The Southern California visi­tors scored with two goals in injury time. Dreyer scored his third goal in three matches to become just the second player on an expansion team to do so in MLS history.