June was supposed to be the dead of winter for San Diego FC. Gravity was supposed to exert its powerful downward tug on the Major League Soccer expansion team. A regression to the mean. A pin in the euphoric bubble.
SDFC had just completed a 5-1-1 May, accumulating 16 of a possible 21 points and vaulting into second place in the Western Conference standings.
Then came a two-week international break to cool their torrid form. Then came three straight MLS away games, starting with the third-place and first-place teams and concluding with a quick turnaround at FC Dallas that required the club to stay on the road.
Oh, and they’d be missing several key pieces through international duty or injury.
And what happened? SDFC went 3-0 in June, scoring 12 goals and taking over sole possession of first place in the Western Conference.
“It’s been nice,” said right wing Anders Dreyer, who was named MLS Player of the Month for June with three goals and five assists. “We scored a lot of goals. We’re very happy about that. We also want to close down on defense. But the most important thing is we get the three points, and nine out of nine on the road.
“It’s nice, and hopefully we can take that energy and good feeling into the home game on Saturday.”
The opponent for the 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Snapdragon Stadium is the Houston Dynamo, who sit in 10th place in the Western Conference and have lost three of the last four, including 3-1 at home against CF Montreal, statistically the worst team in the league.
SDFC’s roster continues to shuffle, with the return of left wing Hirving “Chucky” Lozano from injury and Panamanian midfielder Anibal Godoy from international duty but the loss of defender Andres Reyes and midfielder Alejandro Alvarado Jr. to season-ending surgeries. Midfielder Luca de la Torre is still with the U.S. national team preparing for Sunday’s CONCACAF Gold Cup final against Mexico.
But none of that turbulence, so far, has mattered on SDFC’s nonstop flight to the top of the Western Conference. The expansion club is one point shy of the 30-team league’s best overall record.
Someone is out, someone else steps in.
Danish striker Marcus Ingvartsen gets hurt; Milan Iloski steps in and scores nine goals in a mere 292 minutes, including four against previously first-place Vancouver. Midfielders are missing; Alvarado, signed as a free-agent trialist, steps in. Problems at left back; 18-year-old Luca Bombino steps in. Reyes, one of their key offseason signings, is perpetually injured; Christopher McVey steps in.
“I think we are a very good group for the moment, and everybody supports everybody no matter how much each of us plays or not,” Dreyer said. “It just shows the character of a new team. Twenty-five new players getting along. That’s just nice. Of course, we keep on building the culture here and keep on getting that winning mentality. We just keep improving week by week. Yeah, it helps that we are such a close team.”
Added coach Mikey Varas: “We want to be a relentless club in terms of having that mentality to go for more always, recognizing what we do well and celebrating those moments but also being open enough to recognize that we’re not perfect and we can be even better.”
San Diego FC head coach Mikey Varas acknowledges the crowd after their win against the FC Dallas at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday, May 3, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Who could have possibly imagined this when the team gathered for preseason training camp a mere six months ago?
Swedens’ McVey, one of the first signings, admits it. He couldn’t. How could he?
“It’s hard knowing before you come here,” McVey said after practice Thursday. “I was like the fifth player to sign. You kind of didn’t know who the players were coming in. It was a little gamble. But I trusted the project. I knew the people behind it would do a good job with it.
“At that moment in time, it was hard to say where we’d be. But just the way we trained, I was like: ‘OK, we could be really good.’ Our playing style and the way we play, it’s hard to tell in the beginning. It takes a little while to build together. But yeah, it’s been great.”
San Diego Football Club’s Christopher McVey (97) and Sporting KC’s goalkeeper, John Pulskamp (1) battle for the cross during Saturday’s Major League Soccer match against Sporting Kansas City at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA. (Xavier Hernandez for the UT)
So great that the 28-year-old McVey signed a contract extension through the 2027 season with a player option for 2028.
That came on the same day that Dreyer was named player of the month, the latest indication that he’s in the thick of the MVP race with nine goals and a league-leading 14 assists through 20 games.
“For us, to be honest, we don’t pay much attention,” said Varas, whose team plays four of the next five at home before Leagues Cup play between MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX starts in late July. “We focus on the training. We give them a high five, of course, the same way if somebody re-signs or gets a contract extension. It’s a quick high-five, and that moment dissipates in a second.
“Everybody here understands that, yeah, it definitely takes individual plays and your individual talent, but it also takes the guy next to you, in front of you, behind you, who’s helping those moments come to life. Inside this building, I can tell you all the players are in complete agreement that the only thing that matters is where we’re at, at the end of the season.
“That’s the finale. That’s what our season, our legacy, will be defined by.”
Originally Published: July 4, 2025 at 1:42 PM PDT