For most of San Diego FC’s young life, the hard part felt optional.
The club arrived in Major League Soccer and immediately behaved like it had no interest in the usual expansion-team syllabus.
The results came so fast that the normal MLS growing pains — the ugly nights, the roster strain, the tactical doubt, the emotional drag of losing — seemed to skip San Diego entirely.
Now, they have arrived all at once.
SDFC (3-5-2) enters Saturday’s match against LAFC (6-2-2) at Snapdragon Stadium winless in eight straight matches across all competitions, losers of five consecutive matches and suddenly living inside the kind of uncomfortable stretch that tests more than form.
It tests belief. It tests depth. It tests whether a possession system built on control can survive a run defined by fatigue, injuries, red cards and the growing weight of expectation.
This is not just a rough patch. It is the first real test of SDFC’s existence.
And it arrives with one of the league’s sharpest measuring sticks walking into town.
“The rivalry is real,” SDFC coach Mikey Varas said. “If you just think about the games and everything that happened surrounding the games with both L.A. teams last year, there’s no doubt.”
A positive result would mean more than SoCal supremacy. It would give San Diego something it has been chasing for more than a month: points.
Fans celebrate after San Diego FC beat Minnesota United 1-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs at Snapdragon Stadium on November 24, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Inaugural bliss
A year ago, almost everything around SDFC seemed to glow.
The expansion team did not merely exceed expectations in 2025. It blew past them.
San Diego set MLS expansion records with 19 wins and 63 points, finished atop the Western Conference and turned Snapdragon Stadium into one of the league’s most compelling new stages.
Varas’ team played with nerve and clarity. The system was ambitious, but rarely reckless. Now, they’re 11th in the conference, and recently slipped below the playoff line for the first time in the club’s short history.
“Last year, the team went for every single game,” Varas said. “They really left their heart and soul on the field and a lot of the games went our way.
“This season, the team is going after every single game. They’re leaving their heart and soul, especially in these last matches, on the field every single time, and the results are not going our way. It’s a razor-thin business, and we’re feeling the wrong side of the stick right now.”
Mikey Varas of San Diego FC celebrates after the season opener against CF Montreal at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Picking up where they left off
SDFC opened the 2026 season by smashing CF Montréal 5-0 at Snapdragon, a performance that felt like a reminder and a warning.
Winger Anders Dreyer was pulling strings. Striker Marcus Ingvartsen looked like a front-line difference-maker, filling the void of expensive castoff Hirving “Chucky” Lozano. Youth-defying goalie Duran Ferree reinforced the back line’s confidence with three straight clean sheets to begin the season.
“I think we had a couple of games early on, especially early in the games, and early second half, we were really good coming out with a lot of energy,” Ingvartsen said.
That, he said, has been missing lately.
“I think our start of the games, Salt Lake, etc., we haven’t started with the same energy as we normally do,” he said.
Minnesota United FC celebrates scoring during last month’s MLS match against SDFC at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA. (Xavier Hernandez for the UT)
The skid
The last five matches have told a very different story.
This has not been one kind of bad.
It has been a full MLS smorgasbord of problems: a 3-0 loss at San Jose shaped by an early mistake and a red card; a 2-1 home loss to Minnesota in which SDFC scored first and still finished with 10 men; a 4-2 defeat at Real Salt Lake that got away almost immediately; a narrow 1-0 loss at Houston after another red card; and a 2-1 defeat to Portland decided deep into stoppage time.
Varas saw progress against Portland despite the defeat.
“I felt like we played with more rhythm,” he said. “I felt like we were stronger in duels. We controlled the game. So we’ve had a lot of possession in the season, but I felt like the possession was a bit more vertical. We were getting much closer to making dangerous situations. We didn’t give up a lot, especially early on.
“The game did get a little bit out of control, which is something we need to improve. But overall, it was still a step in the right direction.”
San Diego FC players react as referee Walter Lopez issues a red card to Marcus Ingvartsen #7 during the first half against Toluca at Snapdragon Stadium on March 11, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Meg McLaughlin/Getty Images)
The cost of the system
The red cards have become impossible to ignore.
Manu Duah was sent off against San Jose. Christopher McVey saw red against Minnesota. Amahl Pellegrino was dismissed against Houston.
Taken separately, each incident potentially could be explained. Taken together, they look like stress fractures.
San Diego’s system asks for courage. Center backs must play forward. Midfielders must receive balls under pressure. Fullbacks must trust the spacing. The goalkeeper must be part of the possession structure.
When the timing is right, SDFC plays as if it has an extra man on the field. When the timing slips, the whole thing can suddenly feel exposed.
“There’s never one thing. A lot of circumstances have led to it,” Varas explained. “One, red-card situations leading to non-continuity of lineups; injury situations, same idea. Playing a lot of minutes with 10 players, having a shorter preparation in the preseason to get some really basic things really honed in. Dealing with the disappointment of playing two competitions and getting knocked out in a really tough competition.
“Also, the ability to maintain your level with rising expectations based on last season.”
That last part may be the most revealing.
This year, opponents have more film — and, apparently, more answers. Ingvartsen confirmed teams had made adjustments, but believed it was SDFC’s level of play that had dropped recently.
“We have been facing a little bit more man v. man, high pressure, which we, in the first three games of the season, was able to manage really well,” Ingvartsen said. “We scored a lot of goals in those matches … we have been struggling in the team connection, individual mistakes and so on for a longer period now.”
That is where fatigue matters.
San Diego has been fighting on two fronts, including two high-altitude tests in Mexico during Concacaf Champions Cup play.
The toll has been visible, and unlike some MLS clubs, SDFC does not yet have the support of an MLS NEXT Pro team or even an Under-19 academy side to help absorb the strain.
Depth is not just a roster luxury in MLS. It’s a necessity.
Jeppe Tverskov of San Diego FC heads the ball against Prince Owusu #9 of CF Montreal during the season opener at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Another big blow
This week, the injury bug claimed its costliest casualty.
Jeppe Tverskov, San Diego’s captain and holding midfielder, limped out of the Portland loss with a lower-body injury.
Varas told MLSsoccer.com that Tverskov will be out “for some time” and unavailable against LAFC, with veteran Aníbal Godoy among the leading candidates to fill the gap.
Tverskov is the cerebral metronome of Varas’ possession system. He is the player who helps San Diego decide when to accelerate, when to pause, when to invite pressure and when to break it.
Losing a player who helps set the tempo will be a significant challenge for a team built around rhythm.
Godoy has seen enough big matches to understand how to manage unstable moments.
Said Varas: “He’s going to be a really important guy going forward.”
LAFC’s Son Heung-Min, left, has his jersey grabbed by Toluca FC’s Nicolás Castro as he attacks during the second half of the first leg of a CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at BMO Stadium. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
That team from the north
LAFC arrives at an awkward time for both teams.
The club recently snapped a four-game winless streak with a 1-0 win at Minnesota, then carried that momentum into Concacaf Champions Cup play with a 2-1 semifinal first-leg win over Toluca on Wednesday night.
Coach Marc Dos Santos is expected to rotate the lineup with next week’s decisive second leg at Nemesio Díez Stadium looming, but that does not make this easy for San Diego.
LAFC’s second-choice options are still dangerous. Denis Bouanga could also be involved from the start after missing the Toluca match because of yellow-card accumulation.
For LAFC, Saturday is a rivalry match squeezed between continental obligations.
For San Diego, it’s an opportunity to reset.
The inaugural season was about subverting expectations. The start of 2026 was about confirmation. This stretch is about resiliency.
For the first time, SDFC is not playing with house money.
San Diego FC (3-5-2) vs. LAFC (6-2-2)
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday
Streaming: AppleTV
Radio: 760-AM