In its 4\u20131 win against Mexico City\u2019s Pumas UNAM<\/a>, kicking off its 2026 schedule, SDFC showed it opted against easing into the long soccer year.<\/p>\nSDFC looked fit and connected before the announced crowd of 22,650.<\/p>\n
It had the ball for most of the 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
Though the visitors went ahead in the 11th minute, on a bicycle kick by Robert Morales, the home team maintained near-constant pressure.<\/p>\n
Goals by Manu Duah, David Vazquez, Alex Mighten and Luca Bombino within an 18-minute stretch, starting with Duah\u2019s perfect header off Dreyer\u2019s corner kick in the 68th minute, ensured that hogging the ball would translate into a blowout win.<\/p>\n
If Pumas was advantaged by having played four official games this season, it was scarcely evident Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Mexican team had no interest in trying to match SDFC\u2019s ball-control game, nor did its counterattacks pose many challenges.<\/p>\n
SDFC\u2019s regulars had the run of play. Legs under them, 2025 MLS runner-up Dreyer, 27, and team captain Tverskov, 32, controlled the game\u2019s flow until the final moments.<\/p>\n
Coming on midway into the second half, a few substitutes ran with the baton against a softened opponent. Left wing Vazquez, 19, headed home a diagonal pass from defender\/December addition Wilson Eisner, 23. Right wing Mighten freed up Duah for his header and scored the third goal.<\/p>\n
For SDFC, the challenge of preparing for the game\/season may have been rougher than the game itself.<\/p>\n
Three and a half weeks of training camp is all Varas\u2019 club got, due largely to SDFC\u2019s expansion team reaching the MLS semifinals, a 3-1 loss to Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Varas commended \u201cthe boys\u201d for maxing out less than a month of workouts, including a scrimmage.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot one excuse dripped from a single pore of them,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a culture where we really embrace adversity, and learning moments together as a team,\u201d said Bombino, a 19-year-old defender in his second season here.<\/p>\n
Tverskov said his teammate maintained fitness before camp began, enabling a productive launch.<\/p>\n
By NFL and MLB standards, SDFC\u2019s time off between the end of the 2025 season (Nov. 29) and the start of the 2026 training camp (Jan. 9) was ultra-brief, as was the preseason.<\/p>\n
But Tverskov called it \u201cquite normal\u201d for European players such as himself and Dreyer, a fellow Dane. Citing another factor in the quick ramp-up, Tverskov added: \u201cWe are comfortable in the way we want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, the Concacaf Champions Cup\u2019s top prize no doubt caught everyone\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
The winner of the 27-team event gets a berth in the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup, plus $5 million.<\/p>\n
San Diego and Pumas will meet Tuesday in Mexico City. SDFC would reach the Round of 16 against Mexico\u2019s Toluca \u2014 a tournament favorite, per some pundits \u2014 with a tie, a win or a defeat that doesn\u2019t negate its edge in goal differential.<\/p>\n
Should SDFC reach the final, May 30, here\u2019s a cherry-on-the-sundae potential opponent: Lionel Messi\u2019s Inter Miami club, which, as the MLS Cup champion, got a first-round bye.<\/p>\n
Enough about the CCC\u2019s incentives.<\/p>\n
Playing for SDFC, said several players, counts as a major incentive, regardless. While that\u2019s what you\u2019d expect them to say, there\u2019s been too much success, too much entertaining soccer from the fledgling franchise, to dismiss the feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is such a clear identity,\u201d said 30-year-old goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega, a Mexico City native.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow we play, it\u2019s just amazing. It\u2019s honestly the most fun I\u2019ve had playing football my entire life. They just let you play free. There\u2019s a very clear system, but within that system you can play free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, they\u2019re back.<\/p>\n
And without a whiff of complacency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As names go, Concacaf Championship Cup is a mouthful. Debuting in 1962, it\u2019s an annual tournament of professional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,1254,76,75,1083,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-164559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-fc","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}