Major League Soccer teams are allowed 20 players on game-day rosters — 11 starters and nine substitutes.
Wednesday night at Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego FC had seven guys on the bench, two of whom were backup goalkeepers and two others who have barely played this season. That’s it. That’s all they had available.
“We’re a bit short-handed at the moment,” sporting director Tyler Heaps said before the 1-0 loss against a Toronto FC team that had just released its two highest-paid players and is in 12th place in the Eastern Conference. “This is a daunting summer. This league is not easy to play all these games.”
This was always the fear for an expansion franchise that has yet to start its youth academy and doesn’t have a reserve team or doesn’t partner with a club in the USL Championship: Get bit by the injury bug … before the MLS summer transfer window to find reinforcements … while facing three games in eight days.
Help could be on the way, but not before Saturday night’s first-place showdown at Snapdragon Stadium against the Vancouver Whitecaps, who ominously sit one point behind in the Western Conference and are hell bent on revenge after a 5-3 SDFC win up north last month.
The transfer window opened Thursday and lasts through Aug. 21, allowing teams like SDFC (13-7-3) and Vancouver (12-5-5) to replenish rosters for the stretch run to the playoffs.
“We’re actively looking for three or four bodies,” Heaps said. “We’ll be active in the next couple of weeks.”
Luca Bombino #27 of San Diego FC and Hirving Lozano #11 react to a foul called during their match against the Toronto FC at Snapdragon Stadium on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Seven players missed Wednesday’s game due to injury, including striker Marcus Ingvartsen, midfielder Anibal Godoy, defender Paddy McNair and several key reserves. Two players — midfielder Alejandro Alvarado Jr. and defender Andres Reyes — have undergone season-ending surgeries.
The club also jettisoned German defender Jasper Loffelsend, who signed with a second-division club in Poland. He was replaced by Aiden Harangi, a 19-year-old outside back who has been a member of U.S. youth national teams and had been playing with Eintracht Frankfurt’s reserves in the fourth and fifth tiers of German soccer. Harangi is a short-term loan.
Tyler Heaps, sporting director and general manager of San Diego FC, speaks during a press conference at the team headquarters in Little Italy, Wednesday Jan. 22, 2025, where San Diego native and midfielder, Luca de la Torre, and winger Andres Dreyer were introduced, Howard Lipin / For The San Diego Union-Tribune).
One player who hasn’t been replaced is striker Milan Iloski, whose loan term from Danish sister club FC Nordsjaelland was set to expire later this month. Iloski and SDFC couldn’t come to terms on a loan extension or multiyear contract, and the Escondido native and San Pasqual High School alum is returning to Denmark after scoring 11 goals in a mere 471 minutes for SDFC, including four in the landmark victory at Vancouver.
It amounts to the biggest — and most controversial — decision of Heaps’ tenure as GM, one that might make financial sense for the future but won’t be popular in the short term given Iloski’s scoring prowess and local ties.
The issue wasn’t with FC Nordsjaelland, which is also part of the Right to Dream empire and has sent several other players to SDFC. The issue was with Iloski, who was making $156,000 this season and wanted a healthy raise that SDFC wasn’t willing to grant.
“Disappointed, for sure,” Heaps said. “He’s a fantastic person. I know he was disappointed as well, and it’s not an easy one to lose somebody from here. … We were a long ways away. I think if it was close, it would have gotten done.
“These are the difficult parts of my job as well. But it’s one that we need to protect the long-term process of this league. It’s obviously a salary cap league, so it’s very difficult to start to project into the future. It’s just something that didn’t make sense for us to do right now.”
Jeppe Tverskov #6 of San Diego FC looks to pass against Jonathan Osorio #21 of Toronto FC at Snapdragon Stadium on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
SDFC managed a 2-1 win at Chicago last Saturday without Iloski, but the offense went cold Wednesday night against a Toronto FC team that employed a tactic of man-marking with an extra free defender at the expense of an attacker that captain Jeppe Tverskov admitted “surprised us a little bit.” Toronto got a first-half penalty via a VAR review and converted for the game’s lone goal; SDFC didn’t get a PK via VAR on an apparent handball in the 87th minute and suffered its second straight home loss.
“It’s football,” Tverskov said. “Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t.”
Coach Mikey Varas was asked about the call. He preferred to focus on his own team, on the controllables.
“Listen, I think I could sit here and talk about officiating,” Varas said. “I can talk about all the things that went against us tonight, or that we feel went against us. But at the end of the day, we weren’t good enough tonight, we know that. We know, no matter what is outside of our control that doesn’t go our way, what we can control is our performance.
“All of us know that we could play better than that, and now it’s an opportunity to bounce back in three days. … It’s just looking in the mirror knowing that it wasn’t good enough.”
San Diego FC (13-7-3) vs. Vancouver Whitecaps (12-5-5)
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Snapdragon Stadium
Streaming: AppleTV
Radio:760-AM (English); 1700-AM (Spanish)