The moment the soccer match began Wednesday night in Mission Valley, the home-team chant went up.

“Ole, Ole, Azul y Chrome,” fans cried out, “we are San Diego Football Club.”

On this night, the supporters’ claim rang entirely true if one also accounted for the opponent’s quality.

San Diego FC renewed the sparkle and flair of its entertaining inaugural season, enabling the defending Western Conference champs to win a Major League Soccer match after having taken five losses and four ties since mid-March.

I’m no Peter Drury, for sure.

But I saw this victory, a 5-0 decision over an extra-vulnerable Austin FC, coming from Tijuana to Oceanside.

For a while, SDFC had been emerging from its funk.

Coach Mikey Varas’ club had outplayed its previous two opponents, both upper-tier MLS teams. Because it allowed a pair of game-tying goals late in each match, SDFC harvested just two of the six points.

This time, playing with the tempo Varas said would trouble Austin, SDFC owned the match via comprehensive play and goals in the eighth, 17th, 54th, 79th and 91st minutes.

Let’s not get carried away: Austin FC wasn’t good.

The Texas team was likely reduced by a recent stretch of schedule and travel that its coach described as “insane,” plus injuries to several regulars such as star forward Brandon Vázquez, a Chula Vista native who didn’t make the trip as he builds up from reconstructive knee surgery.

Up front for SDFC, however, the Danish tandem of Marcus Ingvartsen and Anders Dreyer has been causing trouble for better MLS clubs than Austin.

Both forwards scored Wednesday, and both enhanced the opportunities of several teammates.

https://wpdash.medianewsgroup.com/2026/05/13/sdfc-snaps-two-month-winless-streak-with-rout-of-austin-fc-at-snapdragon-stadium/

I liked that, in this game, Alex Mighten made his third start of the year.

Saturday in Seattle, the speedy left wing had shown well as a late-game entry. The 24-year-old’s drive-and-dish in stoppage time should’ve resulted in the Sounders’ first home loss since June.

Starting the offense off well Wednesday, Mighten ran varied “receiver routes” upfield to help SDFC decode Austin’s defense. Then, Mighten, setting a tone, set up the game’s first scoring threat. Though Ingvartsen was unable to convert the wing’s service for his fifth goal in six matches, it was already abundantly clear that SDFC wouldn’t lack for opportunities.

Yet if the tempo and improved combinations felt like 2025, it did so only on the surface level.

SDFC will need to show it can play complete matches against the better team, especially in the much-improved Western Conference.

None of the four MLS opponents SDFC has beaten – Montreal, St. Louis, Kansas City and Austin – would make neutral soccer lovers rush out to buy MLS game tickets or a streaming service subscription.

SDFC, which entered Wednesday’s match in a three-way tie for 11th place in the Western Conference, will play middling FC Cincinnati and the Western powerhouse Vancouver Whitecaps the next two Saturdays ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

It’s realistic that Dreyer and friends will earn a win and a tie there, going into the two-month MLS window on a five-game unbeaten streak.

But the front office and ownership ought to use the summer transactional window to obtain an international player or two.

The messy and costly divorce between SDFC and wing Hirving “Chucky” Lozano shouldn’t result in SDFC not landing other stars from Mexico, where that country’s top league this year has reasserted its superiority to MLS.

Mexican players worth pursuing include left wing Alex Vega, 28, of Toluca and forward-midfielder Diego Lainez of Tigres. Either one could help SDFC rekindle the magic of 2025.