The last time San Diego FC hosted Minnesota United, the expansion club dominated the stat sheet.<\/p>\n
SDFC outshot the Loons 28-6, had more than twice as many shots on target (14) than the visitors did (6), controlled the clock for 66% of the time and completed 527 passes to Minnesota\u2019s 199.<\/p>\n
And San Diego FC got absolutely smoked.<\/p>\n
Minnesota United\u2019s Anthony Markanich and Carlos Harvey scored within three minutes of each other in the second half and Nectarios Triantis tacked on a goal in stoppage time of the Sept. 13 match. Only a Jeppe Tverskov score in the game\u2019s dying seconds kept SDFC from being shut out; the club lost, 3-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt we were really good, but we didn\u2019t score goals,\u201d SDFC forward Amahl Pellegrino said last week. \u201cIf you don\u2019t score goals, you don\u2019t win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top-seeded SDFC will host Minnesota United at 7 p.m. Monday in the MLS Western Conference semifinals at Snapdragon Stadium. The biggest match in franchise history may well hinge on these four questions:<\/p>\n
How has the downtime affected both teams?<\/p>\n
MLS has its quirks, perhaps none stranger than this: The league this year took a two-week break in the middle of the playoffs to accommodate FIFA\u2019s international windows. Top players scattered to their national teams for World Cup qualifiers and friendlies, while the rest stayed behind with their MLS teams, trained \u2014 and waited.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s strange, yes. But is the mid-playoff break beneficial? Detrimental?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be both,\u201d Pellegrino said. \u201c Of course, it\u2019s not only on us. It\u2019s the same for Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n
The time off allows some players to get healthy, yes, but it\u2019s a momentum-killer for teams, like SDFC, that have been hot. And god forbid a player get hurt or sick while playing for his national team. Which brings us to \u2026<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-sdfcxol-0929-018.jpg\")
San Diego Football Club\u2019s, Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano (11) protests a foul during Saturday\u2019s Major League Soccer match versus San Jose Earthquakes played at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA. (Xavier Hernandez for the UT)
\nHow healthy are San Diego\u2019s stars?<\/p>\n
San Diego FC\u2019s Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano did not play for Mexico\u2019s national team on Tuesday night because of a hamstring issue.<\/p>\n
That same day, SDFC\u2019s top player, Anders Dreyer, was left home from Denmark\u2019s World Cup qualifier against Scotland after contracting a virus.<\/p>\n
There was immediate concern that both would be unable to play against Minnesota. But Lozano and Dreyer returned to San Diego midweek, and took part in regular training at SDFC\u2019s Singing Hills headquarters. Coach Mikey Varas offered a one-word answer \u2013 \u201cYes\u201d \u2013 when asked if either would be available to face Minnesota United.<\/p>\n
Dreyer is the one player SDFC can least afford to lose. The league\u2019s Newcomer of the Year and a finalist for MLS\u2019 Landon Donovan MVP Award, Dreyer leads SDFC in goals and assists.<\/p>\n
Lozano, who was benched and then removed from the starting lineup following a tantrum in a late-season match, offers experience, a deft scoring touch \u2014 and, critically, experience in penalty shootouts.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another MLS quirk: While the first round of the playoffs were best-of-three and included penalty shootouts (but no overtime), the win-and-go-home matches that make up the next three rounds include two 15-minute overtime periods and then, if the match remains tied, a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
SDFC experienced its first-ever shootout in Game 2 of its first-round series against the Portland Timbers. Just two San Diego players converted their attempts \u2014 Lozano and Dreyer.<\/p>\n
Can SDFC stop the Loons\u2019 set pieces?<\/p>\n
No team in MLS is better at scoring off set pieces \u2014 that is, free kicks, corner kicks and throw-ins \u2014 than the Loons.<\/p>\n
Minnesota United has scored a league-best 25 goals off set pieces this season, according to Opta Analyst. That\u2019s nearly 41% of its scoring for the season.<\/p>\n
SDFC has scored just 10 goals off set pieces, accounting for 13.89% of its scoring.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s by design: Loons coach Eric Ramsay was in charge of set pieces while coaching with global powerhouse Manchester United. The Loons\u2019 situational success has been a great equalizer, which may explain how Minnesota has been able to stay competitive despite selling star Tani Oluwaseyi to Villarreal of Spain\u2019s La Liga and Sang Bin Jeong to St. Louis City.<\/p>\n
SDFC goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega is making his second straight playoff start in place of the injured C.J. dos Santos after spending most of the season as the club\u2019s backup. It\u2019s key that he communicate with SDFC\u2019s defenders as Minnesota United sets up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know they\u2019re a team that\u2019s really good at set pieces,\u201d Sisniega said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Amahl](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-sdfc-1110-mm-014.jpg\")
Amahl Pellegrino #90 of San Diego FC celebrates after a goal against the Portland Timbers during match three of the Western Conference Round One of the 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs at Snapdragon Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nWho\u2019s going to score, anyway?<\/p>\n
San Diego FC has scored 17 goals since its September loss to Minnesota. Fourteen of them have been scored by either Dreyer (8) or Pellegrino (6). (The others to score: Luca de la Torre, Onni Valakari and Lozano).<\/p>\n
So for all the talk about schedules and setpieces, strategy and statistics, Monday\u2019s match could come down to how well Dreyer and Pellegrino play.<\/p>\n
And how many times they find the back of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been boring; almost two weeks now without playing games,\u201d Pellegrino said. \u201cWe\u2019re really looking to Monday, and Monday can\u2019t come soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLS Western Conference Semifinals: San Diego FC vs. Minnesota United<\/p>\n
When: 7 p.m. Monday<\/p>\n
Streaming: AppleTV<\/p>\n
Radio: 760-AM, 1700-AM (Spanish)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time San Diego FC hosted Minnesota United, the expansion club dominated the stat sheet. SDFC outshot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":400029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,55904,1582,276,189541,53516,21070,3549,15520,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-400028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-anders-dreyer","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-chucky-lozano","13":"tag-mikey-varas","14":"tag-minnesota-united","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-fc","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115601423509867203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}