San Diego FC’s bland season has become spicy, although not in a way that anyone would’ve imagined when the franchise launched.
By pragmatically loaning exiled star Chucky Lozano to a Los Angeles rival, SDFC mainlined caffeine into the San Diego-L.A. competition if nothing else.
Will San Diego FC fans scream “Beat L.A.” even louder when they see Lozano in Galaxy blue and gold Saturday night, Aug. 29, in Mission Valley?
Come the rematch Oct. 17, will San Diego FC’s players silence the would-be “Choooooky” chanters in Carson?
The move isn’t as bizarre as it seems at first glance.
Lozano could choose his destination, so it wasn’t surprising that the Mexican national landed with the Major League Soccer franchise closest to his San Diego County home.
It’s not ideal for SDFC, beyond ticket sales to one match, that Lozano might boost a subpar L.A. club. The Galaxy sit one point and one slot ahead of 13th-place San Diego.
Many SDFC folks, players included, could have mud on their face if Lozano scores a game-winning goal in Mission Valley, as he did against the Galaxy last year in etching the signature moment to SDFC’s first season.
Friday’s move made sense, regardless, even if the whole saga did not.
Lozano’s contract was a sunk cost. It needed to be moved. Doing so increases SDFC’s roster and budget flexibility. SDFC was too eager in signing Lozano two-plus years ago, doing so before the team hired either a general manager or a coach. But that was then. This is now.
Ahead, the picture remains cloudy, but it has also become a lot more interesting.
Galaxy and Lozano will attempt to manage the 31-year-old’s increased injury risk associated with not having played since last November.
Elias Achouri poses for a photo after a press conference before the San Diego FC match against FC Dallas at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday, July 25, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Next man up
SDFC will turn soon to Elias Achouri, a new arrival, in the expectation of getting a lot more firepower out of the left wing spot.
The Tunisian national Achouri, 27, stands as one of two SDFC designated players with Lozano gone. Winger Anders Dreyer is the other.
The Denmark FC alum has his own style, but because SDFC’s soccer staff was able to vet him, he should fit into the culture far better than Lozano, who was suspended late season after a run-in with coach Mikey Varas, reinstated as a reserve for four of the five-game playoff run and put on the trade block entering this season.
SDFC sporting director Tyler Heaps said Achouri’s speed and “elegance” with the ball remind him of American national Christian Pulisic.
Achouri also has inspired comparisons in style, if not total aptitude, to Jeremy Doku, a Belgian national and Premier League veteran.
It shouldn’t take Achouri imitating Yamil Lamale for SDFC to jump into the playoff picture. After all, MLS admits 18 of 30 teams to the postseason.
Achouri has several above-average MLS players to lean on. Primary to his efforts are three fellow Danish league alums in center forward Marcus Ingvartsen, right wing Anders Dreyer and defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov; and left back Luca Bombino, who can also be effective on runs into the final third.
Almost any stimulus to this endless MLS season is welcomed.
The journey began in February. Paused this summer for about two months to accommodate the World Cup, the schedule will see SDFC log 16 matches between Aug. 15 and the season finale Nov. 7. Then come the playoffs, which run into December.
San Diego FC player Chucky Lozano poses with fans during the 2025 SDFC Season Launch Party hosted at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA. (Xavier Hernandez for the UT)
Star’s departure a swift kick to fans
It’ll be easy to frame the coming Galaxy-SDFC matches as Chucky vs. Mikey.
That won’t be very accurate. While the confrontation between Lozano and Varas last October must’ve been rather volcanic, several SDFC folks made the decision to both suspend and then reinstate the star wing.
Heaps said he had a big say in it, along with Varas, CEO Tom Penn, team ownership and a five-player committee headed by Tverskov, the team captain.
While the post-Lozano chapter can work out for everyone involved, including fans, the whole Lozano-SDFC saga felt both surreal yet all-too San Diego.
Lozano was supposed to be SDFC’s build-around star, both on and off the field. He did provide 11 goals and nine assists.
But his SDFC tenure goes down as yet another swift kick to San Diego sports fans, largely because so much more was expected of it.
Varas, talking about Lozano in September 2024, about seven months before SDFC’s first match, called him a “proven winner” and a “high-level talent” who would create and score many goals.
“On top of that,” Varas said, “he’s Mexican, which is an incredibly important part of the project, due to the community that we live in. And he’s going to resonate a lot with the Latino and the Latino American community.”
Not done there, Varas added: “What I took most from (a conversation with Lozano), though, is that he’s an incredibly humble and good human being. The excitement he transmitted over the phone about the project, not just on the field, but creating a lasting impact and legacy on and off of it, was really inspirational to me.”
Now, he’s headed to L.A.. To the club with the most MLS Cup titles.
That’s a very San Diego chapter.
SDFC will try to author a better one.