San Diego FC faces fresh challenges after record-setting first year
Anders Dreyer’s flowing locks are gone, changed by a good buzzcut.
“Tired of the long hair,” San Diego FC’s Danish winger stated.
The query, in fact, is whether or not his group’s efficiency will get a trim, too.
SDFC begins year two in Major League Soccer on Saturday evening at Snapdragon Stadium in opposition to CF Montreal, with the inconvenient actuality that the one method they’ll enhance on their inaugural season is to achieve the MLS Cup closing.
The blessing: The roster that completed atop the Western Conference is essentially intact and has a year of familiarity with the soccer-meets-riverboat-gambling fashion that flummoxed one opponent after one other.
The curse: The security internet of low (or actually, no) expectations has vanished, from an growth group picked close to the underside of MLS to at least one projected to contend for silverware.
“Hopefully, we as a group, the players and the staff, can continue what we did last year,” stated Dreyer, the MLS Newcomer of the Year in 2025 with 19 objectives and 19 assists. “It’s going to be powerful. The second year for a group is all the time powerful.
“You see that so much when a membership is promoted in Europe, and the following year is not pretty much as good. It’s what perhaps we are able to face this season. Teams are perhaps getting ready a bit of bit extra for what’s forward after they play in opposition to us. … Last year we have been driving a bit of little bit of a wave that every little thing was going nice.
“Now we start a new season.”
Or as coach Mikey Varas put it: “We won’t take anyone by surprise, right?”
A year in the past, SDFC shocked the defending champion Los Angeles Galaxy 2-0 of their inaugural match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, then spent the following eight months emphatically proving it wasn’t a fluke. The chrome and blue set MLS information for wins (19) and factors (63) by an growth franchise, finally succumbing 3-1 to the Vancouver Whitecaps and German star Thomas Müllerin the Western Conference closing.
The best growth group in MLS historical past is usually thought-about the 1998 Chicago Fire that gained the MLS Cup. But the league had 12 groups again then, not 30. And the wage cap guidelines weren’t as convoluted or restrictive, and the home expertise pool was not almost as diluted.
“When you do something special or almost special, it can be a natural reaction for people to relax and (say), ‘That was hard,’” Varas stated. “That’s simply one thing we can’t settle for. Here at this membership, we need to have this relentless pursuit of profitable, relentless pursuit of who we need to be from a tradition and magnificence of play perspective.
“Right now, it’s been a lot of emphasis that not only do we need to take the same steps we took last year in preparation but we need to take those steps even better.”
The first was sustaining continuity with the roster, and sporting director Tyler Heaps did that by exercising buy choices on 4 children and re-signing or extending a number of veterans, together with Varas.
The most notable departure is Mexican star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, though he technically is not gone. The membership introduced final month that the 30-year-old left wing who made $7.6 million final season is now not of their sporting plans they usually’d work to switch him, just for Lozano to specific a want to remain and, sources have instructed the Union-Tribune, block any proposed strikes to different golf equipment.
The stalemate has reached six weeks, with Lozano exhibiting up for follow day-after-day and coaching by himself on the facet.
The different notable departure is heart midfielder Luca de la Torre, who began 24 video games however had a lowered function off the bench throughout the playoffs. Pedro Soma, a 19-year-old US youth nationwide group participant who joined SDFC final summer time from FC Barcelona’s reserves, has been beginning in that spot.
The most notable incoming switch is Lewis Morgan, a 29-year-old Scottish ahead who has been efficient in MLS… when he is wholesome.
Varas stated Morgan is making progress from his newest damage bout and may very well be accessible within the subsequent few weeks as an possibility up prime or huge left.
A lower-profile acquisition was the type that has come to outline SDFC: claiming 23-year-old defender Wilson Eisner off MLS waivers.
Eisner had precisely zero minutes of MLS expertise, enjoying completely on the San Jose Earthquakes’ reserve group, however Heaps appreciated his analytics and versatile ability set. Eisner began each video games in opposition to Mexico City membership Pumas within the Concacaf Champions Cup and gained himself effectively within the 4-2 mixture victory that SDFC despatched to the spherical of 16 of the regional membership championship.
With the worldwide winter switch window closed, any high-profile additions — together with a chosen participant to bolster the assault — doubtless will not come till summer time.
The greatest problem for SDFC, although, could be much less who performs and extra how opposing groups play in opposition to them.
The league has a year’s value of movie on the aggressive fashion developed by the Right to Dream Academy that invitations the excessive press, patiently tries to interrupt it, then furiously assaults the open areas on the again finish.
It’s a dangerous train, notably with the youngest again line in MLS historical past — three rookies began within the playoffs — charged with not coughing up the ball in and across the penalty field. SDFC set MLS information final season for the bottom share of balls launched ahead by its goalkeepers and most passes within the offensive buildup.
Most groups could not determine it out. Vancouver lastly did, exposing SDFC for 3 early objectives within the convention closing at Snapdragon Stadium.
“We’re going to face a lot of different ways teams are going to play against us,” captain Jeppe Tverskov stated, “and that’s what you have to do as a club. You have to evolve also to what people evolve to what you have done.”
To that finish, Varas has spent the preseason worrying much less about putting in his system and extra about prepping for the tactical tweaks they may see.
“I think teams are going to be more willing to play us in extremes, either really, really all-out pressing and see if they can gamble, or in a low block and try to catch us on the counterattack,” Varas stated. “We’re going to wish to take the following steps in that as a result of now everybody can have a full year of movie on what we do.
“These are very smart coaches and very smart players, and the league will adapt.”
The schedule is form in the beginning. The first three opponents — Montreal, St. Louis City and Sporting Kansas City — are all projected to complete at or close to the underside of their conferences. SDFC does not face a group that completed within the prime 5 of the convention till April 11, when it hosts Minnesota United in its seventh sport.
But there are extra midweek video games now that they’ve superior within the Champions Cup and to account for a midseason World Cup break, taxing and testing the depth of a franchise that’s nonetheless 4 or 5 years from with the ability to pluck prospects from its youth academy.
“It was a special year, but we can’t allow ourselves to drop right now,” Tverskov stated. “We need to hold ourselves now to a standard which seemed a little easier last year because we had so many exciting first things. Now we need to work harder.”
SDFC’s offseason strikes
Loan buy
D Luca Bombino (LAFC, MLS)
D Oscar Verhoeven (San Jose, MLS)
M Onni Valakari (Pafos FC, Cyprus)
M David Vazquez (Philadelphia, MLS)
Incoming
M Bryce Duke (MLS free company)
D Wilson Eisner (MLS waivers)
M Lewis Morgan (Red Bull New York, MLS)
D Kieran Sargeant (Houston, MLS)
D Osvald Søe (Boldklubben, Denmark)
F Bryan Zimble (Right to Dream Ghana)
Outgoing
M Heine Gikling Bruseth (Kristiansund, Norway)
M Luca de la Torre (Charlotte, MLS)
D Paddy McNair (Hull City, England)
D Franco Negri (Houston, MLS)
(Note: Hirving “Chucky” Lozano technically stays on the roster, however the membership has stated he’s now not a part of their plans.)
MLS opener: San Diego FC vs. CF Montreal
When: 7:30 pm Saturday
Streaming: AppleTV
Radio: 760-AM, 1700-AM (Spanish)
