San Diego FC loses fourth consecutive match, receives another red card

Officially, San Diego FC wears a deep navy it calls azul and a silvery color known as chrome.

Unofficially, SDFC’s a red team.

Amahl Pellegrino became the latest SDFC player to receive a red card, and the visiting club lost 1-0 to the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night. The 2025 Western Conference finalists have now lost four consecutive Major League Soccer matches, a club record.

Pellegrino’s red came in the 79th minute with the team down a goal; Pellegrino was sent off and will have to miss Saturday’s match between SDFC (3-4-2) and the Portland Timbers as a result.

SDFC has already seen twice as many red cards in MLS play this season (4) as all of last season (2) — and the 2026 schedule is still in its infancy.

Ibrahim Aliyu scored his first goal of the season for Houston in the chippy and physical contest. Jonathan Bond stopped one shot and had his first shutout this season.

Aliyu, on the counter-attack, put away a first-touch shot off a feed from Ondrej Lingr that gave Houston a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute.

The Dynamo traded Aliyu to Columbus in exchange for $450,000 in general allocation money (GAM) in April of 2025 and then acquired him from the Crew in March for $250,000 GAM.

Lingr was shown a straight red card in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Houston’s Franco Negri and San Diego’s Ian Pilcher were shown injury-time yellow cards.

San Diego finished with 65% possession but was outshot 11-10 — 2-1 on target.

The Dynamo (4-4-0) have won back-to-back games following a three-game losing streak.

There was a glimmer of happiness on a night when the SDFC was no doubt seeing red. Alejandro Alvarado checked in for Oscar Verhoeven in the 90th minute, marking his return from a knee injury suffered last June.

Includes information from The Associated Press.