In one overlooked aspect, Major League Soccer and San Diego FC have it much harder than several of their professional sports counterparts in the United States.

MLS teams that visit Mission Valley attract very few fans on their own merit, a league-wide unfortunate reality that’s been brought home in San Diego since SDFC’s debut season.

This MLS fact of life denies San Diego FC even a small fraction of the considerable opponent-related ticket sales that benefited the Padres and Chargers for decades on the same site.

Saturday night, when SDFC’s fans enlivened another match, the visit from German soccer great Thomas Müller, 36, and the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps didn’t appreciably move the needle at the gate.

San Diego FC gets drilled at home by Vancouver Whitecaps — again

For the Padres and Chargers, being able to count on opponents’ fans to buy thousands of tickets bolstered cash flow and planning.

When either of the Los Angeles-MLS clubs comes to Mission Valley, SDFC does see a spike in sales. Those rivalries hold promise for the second-year club, which hasn’t faced LA Galaxy this year.

The only bankable needle-mover throughout MLS, however, appears to be Lionel Messi of Inter Miami. If Messi, now 38, makes his first MLS visit to San Diego next year or the following years, a sellout is almost certain.

There’s no one to blame for MLS matches being so home team-reliant, financially. It’s the price of being an upstart league. Major League Baseball had established a strong national presence before the Padres came aboard in 1969. The Chargers reaped windfalls at the gate from the NFL’s rocket-like growth into a global powerhouse.

Making ticket sales extra important for MLS, the league doesn’t command relatively large media rights fees.

New standard

Coach Jesper Sørensen’s Whitecaps put on a crisp soccer show Saturday, winning 4-2 before an announced crowd of 23,906.

This was San Diego’s 54th MLS match overall, counting the playoffs, and its 16th this season.

No other MLS opponent appeared as well-prepared as Vancouver did Saturday against well-rested SDFC.

It wasn’t a surprise. Vancouver has soared since  Sørensen came over from Denmark in January 2025. His first team reached the Concacaf Champions Cup final, tied coach Mikey Varas’ expansionist SDFC club for most points in the Western Conference and became the first of the franchise’s 15 clubs to reach the MLS Cup, where it lost to Messi and Co., 3-1.

Obtained late last season, Müller has served as a brilliant organizer during games. He has boosted Vancouver’s combinations.

Sørensen, 52, was an attacking midfielder in Denmark’s top leagues. In his team’s 3-1 win against San Diego in last year’s playoffs, Vancouver widened its attack and exploited SDFC’s youthful frontline to a greater extent than any other opponent had in the postseason.

Both SDFC and Vancouver went into Saturday intent on entering the seven-week Major League Soccer international window on a winning note. As they did in November here, Vancouver won the first half by multiple goals. The Whitecaps ably replaced four players – three sidelined by injury — who made large contributions to the playoff win.

The U.S. men’s national team should consider Sørensen the next time it looks for an assistant coach or a head coach.

SDFC’s most encouraging success Saturday: the goal in stoppage time by 18-year-old forward Bryan Zambie of West Africa, cutting the lead to 4-2. Zambie evaded a defender and slotted a sharp-angled shot to the far post.

Notable

In honor of SDFC wing Hirving Chucky Lozano, a fan wore a Mexican national team jersey with No. 22 – the same number Lozano wore when he scored the goal that beat Germany in the 2018 World Cup. Muller played in the same match.