A mediocre first half to the season notwithstanding, San Diego FC’s leaders seem to still know what they’re doing.
They spoke with appropriate candor about how things have gone this year. They left the soccer spin to what happens on the pitch.
“We cannot hide, we cannot make excuses,” coach Mikey Varas said.
“It probably wasn’t how any of us had it planned,” said Tyler Heaps, SDFC’s sporting director.
The honeymoon has ended for a franchise that last year became just the second expansion team in Major League Soccer’s three decades to reach a conference championship match.
SDFC is 4-6-5 and sits 12th in the 15-team Western Conference standings.
But a new opportunity comes with Wednesday’s MLS restart — a road game against 13th-place Colorado and a playoff format that will admit nine Western Conference teams.
While San Diego FC will try to master its high-altitude test in its first match following a nearly two-month World Cup break, the franchise’s business side made numerous tweaks meant to improve fans’ game day experience. The unveiling will come Saturday, when the team returns home to Snapdragon Stadium to face FC Dallas.
SDFC began this season well, winning three MLS games and drawing two. From there, what beset a San Diego franchise that last year hummed to the conference’s top playoff seed?
Varas noted a “stew” of circumstances, while also pointing out, not incorrectly, that his second team has also “played a lot of good football.”
Heap and Varas have focused on the way SDFC finishes. The club has missed out on 11 points after fading late, a sign that the depth wasn’t up to snuff.
Underlying factors included a spate of red cards far exceeding anything San Diego FC went through last year, injuries and schedule-related fatigue. Evident too: Opponents better understand how to attack Varas’ club.
The Hirving “Chucky” Lozano saga, still unresolved, created headwinds that may not have fully subsided.
A lot more could be said about the stew Varas referenced. It included a grueling stretch in the Concacaf Champions Cup, sending San Diego FC to the high-altitude Mexico City area twice as part of a four-game schedule.
But the introspection must include a gaze at the big picture.
Every MLS team must contend with chaos, some of it dished out by a schedule that won’t be aligned with the international soccer world until next summer.
MLS is a parity-driven league in the extreme. As such, San Diego received several gifts, not just headaches. Three of the team’s four wins have come against reduced opponents who looked ripe before the ball was first kicked.
SDFC rolled by a combined 13-0 against CF Montreal, which fired its coach soon after; Austin FC, whose coach appeared to punt the game due to severe travel-and-attrition fallout; and Sporting Kansas City, which has the league’s worst goal differential at minus-23
San Diego’s only other win came against a St. Louis City club that’s 5-6-4.
The long break for the World Cup has already brought one tangible benefit — the return of captain Jeppe Tverskov from injury.
Able to work with a recharged and much healthier cast of players in recent days, Varas said he emphasized creating immediate turnovers, rather than just long balls, and speeding up the tempo overall.
Heaps signed a defender and a versatile attacker while also continuing to seek a deal for Lozano.
The summer transfer window remains open through the end of August. The plan, said Varas, is to acquire both a difference-maker in the highest line and an attack-minded fullback.
It’s imperative that SDFC build up its depth. Next month’s Leagues Cup will match Varas’ club against three Mexican teams. Beginning with the Aug. 15 road test against LAFC, nine matches are scheduled in a 43-day stretch.
The talent gap between SDFC and most of the teams it is chasing isn’t great, offering hope of a second-half surge up the table.
The chasm in points between San Diego and the conference’s top four clubs, on the other hand, argues against Varas’ club earning a top-four seed and home-field advantage for the MLS Cup playoffs.
Count the Vancouver Whitecaps of 2025 and 2026 as San Diego FC’s most capable rival, yet one that may also provide inspiration about what can be accomplished.
Vancouver played nine Champions Cup matches last year yet remained an energetic force, going on to tie San Diego atop the conference standings.
The Canadian club struck gold last summer, adding German star Thomas Müller — a brilliant reader of the game who, at 36, was looking for a late-career landing spot.
Enhanced by Müller’s rapid acclimation, Vancouver made its first MLS Cup final.
The Whitecaps are now atop the Western Conference alongside coach Bruce Arena’s much-improved San Jose Earthquakes.
Why did Müller choose Vancouver?
He ticked off several reasons. His comfort with sporting director Axel Schuster, a fellow German, and with coach Jesper Sørensen, a Dane who’d played the midfield in Europe. Müller also cited his belief that Vancouver could win the MLS Cup, and Vancouver’s standing as “one of the world’s most beautiful cities”.
San Diego’s charms would seem a comparable recruiting advantage.
SDFC’s roster boasts two team-oriented stars. Anders Dreyer and Marcus Ingvartsen stand among the league leaders in assists and goals, respectively.
If Vancouver’s summer splash panned out, why can’t SDFC do the same?
San Diego FC (4-6-5) vs. Colorado Rapids (5-9-1)
When: 6:40 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Streaming: Apple TV
Radio: 760-AM