Tom Krasovic: San Diego FC makes bold first impression as MLS franchise

Tom Krasovic, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Feb 25, 2025

Published in Soccer

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SAN DIEGO — As first impressions go, this was close to perfection.

San Diego FC introduced itself to Major League Soccer Sunday night with a 2-0 road victory over the league’s most prestigious franchise, and nothing about the performance screamed fluke.

Before the match, the Los Angeles Galaxy celebrated its league-record sixth MLS Cup postseason title before the sellout crowd in Carson, Calif.

Then the newbies from San Diego outplayed the home team over the 90 minutes.

It wasn’t just that Danish import Anders Dreyer, an efficient, fit right wing, rammed home two clean goals in the second half.

Or that goalkeeper CJ dos Santos, a former teammate to the great Lionel Messi, stopped a point-blank shot in the closing minutes.

Belying their expansion status, coach Mikey Varas’ players were the more together side in each half.

The visitors started fast. They possessed the ball for 70% of the first 12 minutes.

By halftime, they’d won the possession game by 19 percentage points. They’d taken the game’s only two corner kicks.

You figured the champions would regroup and make things tougher for Varas’ team.

But it was San Diego that came out sharper. Exploiting a bad pass near L.A.’s goal seven minutes into the half, the visitors took the lead.

Left wing Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, San Diego’s most recognizable star, turned the bad pass into a sharp pass of his own, setting up Dreyer. Dreyer knocked it home from the center of the box.

What stood out was the poise. Lozano, who put panic into defenders on several occasions, made a crisp delivery. Dreyer struck the ball flush with his left foot. No woulda-coulda-shoulda imprecision.

From there, the two teams played an even match. punctuated by dos Santos’ difficult save in the 79th minute.

But when a counterattack opportunity itself three minutes into stoppage team, SDFC — which really does need some sort of nickname — aced one more test. San Diego advanced the ball some 70 yards in a rapid response. Settling with the ball left of the box, Tomás Ángel attracted two Galaxy defenders.

It was Ángel whom Varas called upon to replace Lozano just five minutes earlier.

Big boots to fill, but Ángel, a 22-year-old from Colombia, was up to it. Waiting for Dreyer’s run, he paused and threaded the ball between the defenders to the middle of the box.

Pow. Dreyer roofed the shot, his second scoring strike with the left foot.

Wow.

Expansion teams aren’t so sharp in most debuts. It was only last month weeks ago that Varas and Co. began preseason training camp.

Yes, a number of the team’s players had been teammates together with San Diego’s sister franchise in Denmark. But soccer chemistry often takes time to develop.

Yes, the Galaxy were lacking a few very good players who helped them win their sixth title. But this is still a talented club that soccer experts said will reorganize itself into a championship contender.

This wasn’t a case of the soccer ball bouncing one team’s way at a high rate. Though an unacceptable mistake led to the first goal, San Diego won the balance of play by a solid margin. Its expected goal total was twice that of the Galaxy’s. Its compact spacing, short passes and quick recoveries of possession seemed to keep the home team from finding a sustainable style of play.

“These guys know what they’re doing” was the theme throughout. The team’s owner, British-Egyptian entrepreneur Mohamed Mansour, attended the match.

He has to be feeling even better about his hire of CEO Tom Penn. Given Penn’s track record, the smashing debut was perhaps not a big surprise. Penn co-founded MLS expansion team LAFC, a future league champion, nine years ago. In his SDFC role, Penn hired analytics expert Tyler Heaps, making him the youngest sporting director in Major League Soccer. Together, they hired Varas, who had a strong background in player development.

Just one game of 34?

No, no, no.

There would be only one inaugural match in SDFC’s history. No soccer mulligans.

The lads laced their big chance into an upper corner.

Next comes the first home match, Saturday night in Mission Valley against St. Louis. Expect a sellout. And, we can be sure about this: the rest of MLS will be taking notice of the San Diego newbies.

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