Saturday’s Decision Day in the MLS finishes with San Diego FC closing out their regular season with a dominant 4-0 victory over the hosting Portland Timbers at Providence Park, earning a first-place finish in the Western Conference in their inaugural season.

Coming into the final matchday of the MLS regular season, San Diego FC stood in second place with 60 points through 37 matches in the Western Conference, trailing the leading Vancouver Whitecaps by three points.

But SDFC’s regular-season tiebreaker over the Whitecaps meant first place was still up for grabs if San Diego managed to secure the victory and Vancouver failed to gain points against FC Dallas. 

On the road, SDFC had to do its part with a winning performance and result, and from the opening minutes of the match, the visiting Azul y Chrome looked determined to get onto the scoresheet.

SDFC broke that deadlock in the 26-minute, with forwards Anders Dreyer and Amahl Pellegrino connecting for the opening goal of the game.

Dreyer slipped in a pass for Pellegrino inside the penalty box, as he did the rest, curling a right-footed shot around Timbers goalkeeper James Pantemis and into the net to put SDFC up 1-0. 

An encouraging sign for SDFC, as the search for a clinical striker looks to have come to an end just in time for the playoffs, with Pellegrino scoring in back-to-back matches. 

Dreyer also recorded his 19th assist of the season, tying with Inter Miami forward and 2025 MLS MVP favorite Lionel Messi as the league’s top assisters. 

Although SDFC took the 1-0 scoreline into the halftime break, they weren’t satisfied yet as they quickly doubled their advantage within two minutes of the start of the second half. 

Anders Dreyer was involved once again, this time with his scoring boots on as he rocketed a long-range outside-the-box left-footed strike into the goal, leaving Timbers Pantemis no chance to make a save to keep out the 2-0 scoring play in the 47-minute. 

Within the following 120 seconds, Dreyer went on to record his brace with his second goal of the night, pushing the SDFC lead to 3-0 in the 49-minute.

The goal started from an Onni Valakari throughball into the attacking area from his own defensive half, as darting Dreyer was left unmarked and dribbled into a one-on-one situation against Pantemis. 

Dreyer made easy work of the opportunity, lofting a chip over Pantemis and into the center of the goal as he pushed his MLS regular-season goal tally to 19. When adding his 19 league assists on the season, Dreyer finished his 2025 campaign with 38 combined goals and assists. 

Amahl Pellegrino put the icing on the cake in the 63-minute for SDFC, chesting down a pass from club captain Jeppe Tverskov inside the penalty box, finishing the play off with a calm and controlled rolling shot into the bottom right of the goal for his own brace and the 4-0 victory over the Portland Timbers.

An impressive final two matches for the Norwegian forward, contributing three goals and three assists to close out the regular season. 

The scoreless night for Portland also meant SDFC goalkeeper CJ dos Santos added another clean sheet to finish off his regular season between he sticks, ending with a total of ten in league play.  

The final whistle at Providence Park wasn’t the only good news for SDFC, as a 2-1 full-time finish at BC Place for a FC Dallas win over the Whitecaps meant San Diego FC jumped over Vancouver in the standings to end the regular season as the Western Conference top spot holders.

SDFC heads into the 2025 MLS playoffs as the number one seed in the West, finishing their regular season with 63 points from a nineteen-win, six-draw and nine-loss record. 

First place also means SDFC will hold home-field advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. 

After clinching the top seed in the Western Conference following Saturday night’s 4-0 victory over Portland, SDFC head coach Mikey Varas spoke on the accomplishments and contributions of the season and what lies ahead. 

“We are who we are, and we always go after the game, and we always believe in the best, and then as overall, like it’s a moment to celebrate. I hope all of San Diego feels it, because it’s these moments are never guaranteed to you in life, and they’re not easy to come by.”

“I think we said we wanted to be a reflection of the community, and we really meant it, and that’s about putting in hard work and being creative and taking risks and making a lot of sacrifices, and really proud of these guys, really proud of the staff, everybody who’s involved, really proud of the fans. They’ve been with us since day one.”

“It is an incredibly humbling project to be a part of. And now we ask ourselves, what now? Because we’re hungry for more.”

San Diego FC will be tuning into the MLS Western Conference wild-card matchup between the Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake to see who they will be facing and hosting for their best-of-three first-round series.