The newest team in Major League Soccer, San Diego FC is fast running out of firsts \u2014 good and bad.<\/p>\n
Last weekend\u2019s 4-3 loss to the Houston Dynamo at Snapdragon Stadium may go down as the first gut-punch in franchise history.<\/p>\n
SDFC allowed goals in the 87th and 99th minutes, resulting in a defeat that was as rare as it was surprising.<\/p>\n
For starters, SDFC hardly ever allows second-half goals \u2014 much less two of them by the same player during a span of 12 minutes.\u00a0 And visitors\u2019 second-half goals at Snapdragon Stadium have been as rare as snowballs in summer.<\/p>\n
So, yes, visiting SDFC is in uncharted territory \u2014 first bounce-back game? \u2014 heading into Saturday\u2019s 5:30 p.m. matchup against the Chicago Fire. But there\u2019s also enough of a sample size, defender Chris McVey said, to believe last week\u2019s lapses were merely a one-off. At 12-6-3, SDFC remains atop the conference standings. Chicago (8-8-4) sits ninth in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had moments (last week) where we played really well and especially in the second half, we came out really strong,\u201d McVey said.<\/p>\n
Then disaster struck. San Diego FC led 3-2 in the 78th minute when San Diego defender Luca Bombino attempted to pass the ball back toward goalkeeper C.J. dos Santos. His pass wasn\u2019t firm enough, and Houston pounced. The Dynamo\u2019s Ezequiel Ponce sprinted toward the goal in an attempt to corral the ball before dos Santos got there. The two collided, and Houston was awarded a penalty kick. Following a lengthy injury delay \u2014 dos Santos\u2019 nose was bloodied in the collision \u2014 Ponce nailed the free kick, and the match was tied.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we gave away that penalty and they kind of got back into it,\u201d McVey said. \u201cBut even in that moment, I kind of felt like we\u2019ll score another one. We kept pushing for it, but then the fourth one came.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game was nine minutes into stoppage time when Houston advanced past midfield and began its attack. Ethan Bartlow brought the ball slowly to the top of the goal box; rather than attack him, SDFC\u2019s Jeppe Tverskov and Onni Valakari hesitated briefly. Bartlow laced a pass through them and to Ponce, who beat SDFC\u2019s Ian Pilcher for a clean look at the goal.<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s accomplishment was even more impressive considering how SDFC has played at Snapdragon. The club had allowed just two second-half goals at home all season before Ponce\u2019s brace on Saturday.<\/p>\n
And SDFC has the highest second-half scoring differential \u2014 plus-13 \u2014 of anyone in the 30-team league.\u00a0 The next-closest team, Nashville SC, is at plus-seven.<\/p>\n
So SDFC spent this week trying to tighten up the back line without, well, tightening up. There\u2019s a fine line between addressing issues and dwelling on them.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s gameplan is simple, McVey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStick to our principles and make sure we do it for 90 minutes,\u201d McVey said. \u201cI thought that last game, we had good moments. I thought we started a little slow, but then we have moments where we start picking it up and we start playing like us again. And when we do, we\u2019re\u00a0 a really good team and we can hurt a lot of teams. \u2026 If we do, then we\u2019re a hard team to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travel talk<\/p>\n
McVey, like many of his SDFC teammates, got his start playing internationally. Road trips in Sweden were short, made mostly via bus.<\/p>\n
Thursday, SDFC flew 2,000 miles to Chicago. It\u2019s the latest lengthy road trip for a club that in the last month has trekked to Minneapolis, Vancouver and Dallas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d coach Mikey Varas said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you ever get used to it. But I do know we have a belief that it\u2019s not a deterrent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, SDFC was a perfect 3-0 on the road last month, outscoring its opponents 12-7. The club is 6-4-0 on the road this season.<\/p>\n
After Saturday, SDFC will play its next six matches at home, starting with Wednesday\u2019s match against Toronto. The club will take on second-place Vancouver on July 19 and host Nashville on July 25. After that, SDFC will host Leagues Cup matches against Liga MX clubs Pachuca (July 29), Tigres (Aug. 1) and Mazatl\u00e1n (Aug. 5) before returning to the road Aug. 9 against Sporting Kansas City.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re baaack<\/p>\n
Midfielder Luca de la Torre returned to SDFC on Thursday after playing for the United States in the Concacaf Gold Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so good to have one of our brothers back. He had a great tournament, a great adventure with the national team,\u201d Varas said. \u201cI think all of us are happy to have him back, and he\u2019s happy to be back. This is his home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another newly returned player, midfielder Anibal Godoy, did not accompany the team to Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an injury,\u201d Varas said. \u201cHe\u2019s just coming back from time with the (Panama) national team, and he has a little bit of sensation in his legs. So we\u2019re not going to bring him on the trip. We\u2019re going to let him focus on his recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Player loaned out<\/p>\n
SDFC has loaned midfielder Heine Bruseth to Sarpsborg 08 of Norway\u2019s Eliteserien through the end of the season. SDFC selected the 21-year-old from Orlando City in this year\u2019s expansion draft.<\/p>\n
San Diego FC (12-6-3) vs. Chicago Fire (8-8-4)<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> 5:30 p.m. Saturday<\/p>\n TV:<\/strong> AppleTV<\/p>\n Radio: <\/strong>760-AM (English), 1700-AM (Spanish)<\/p>\n Originally Published: July 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The newest team in Major League Soccer, San Diego FC is fast running out of firsts \u2014 good…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,3549,15520,7264,221,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-58189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-fc","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114837376399915207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58189","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=58189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}