We also learned where Fox Sports, the host broadcaster for the World Cup in June, prioritizes international soccer.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s English-language telecast in the States was on Fox Sports 2, except for 12 minutes in the second half when the network suddenly and inexplicably interrupted coverage to switch to \u2026 a college basketball game between Iowa State and TCU?<\/p>\n
Another game, Purdue at Nebraska, went into overtime on Fox Sports 1 and the network prioritized the start of Iowa State-TCU over SDFC\u2019s game against Pumas that had just entered the 52nd minute. Purdue and Nebraska ended moments later, but instead of immediately moving Iowa State-TCU to FS1 and resuming soccer coverage, FS2 waited 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
The interruption occurred just as the game got interesting.<\/p>\n
Pumas needed a 3-0 win to advance, since the first tiebreaker if the aggregate score is knotted is away goals and Pumas had scored at Snapdragon Stadium last week in the 4-1 loss.<\/p>\n
Pumas made three changes to its starting 11 from the first leg with a full-throttle attack in mind. It worked, creating a pair of chances in the opening half-hour that compelled saves from Sisniega, who was starting because incumbent CJ dos Santos still hasn\u2019t fully recovered from a gruesome injury during the playoffs last season that involved facial fractures.<\/p>\n
The breakthrough came in the 47th minute on a free kick by Pedro Vite that Sisniega judged, incorrectly it turned out, would be headed back across the goal. Instead, the ball hit no one and bounced into the net.<\/p>\n
![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-sdfc-0211-01.jpg\")
Christopher McVey of San Diego FC is put under pressure by Juninho Vieira of Pumas during Tyesday\u2019s Concacaf Champions Cup match between Pumas UNAM and San Diego FC at Olimpico Universitario Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Manuel Velasquez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It was his only misstep all night. Otherwise, he turned back the historic Mexican club \u2014 and three-time Concacaf Champions Cup titlist \u2014 over and over and over, recording eight saves.<\/p>\n
In the 12th minute, it was a block of a point-blank shot by Uriel Antuna.<\/p>\n
In the 27th minute, diving to his left to thwart Juninho Vieira.<\/p>\n
In the 51st minute, getting a glove on a flick from Roberto Morales in the box.<\/p>\n
In the 62nd minute, denying Alvaro Angulo.<\/p>\n
In the 84th minute, denying Juninho again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really fortunate,\u201d Varas said by phone. \u201cWe have two guys who last year played big games for us, and we\u2019re reaping the benefit of that now where Pablo can step in and really make a big impact for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Pedro](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-sdfc-0211-03.jpg\")
Pedro Vite of Pumas celebrates with a teammate after scoring the match\u2019s lone goal during Tuesday\u2019s Concacaf Champions Cup match between Pumas UNAM and San Diego FC at Olimpico Universitario Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Manuel Velasquez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
In all, Pumas had a 25-5 advantage in overall shots and 9-3 in shots on target. The hosts had 62.5% of possession (nearly 70% in the second half) and forced a whopping 44 clearances.<\/p>\n
This is not how Varas envisioned it would go, vowing on Monday that his players wouldn\u2019t abandon their attacking DNA despite the three-goal cushion from the first leg and specter of high elevation. And they didn\u2019t in the first half, patiently possessing the ball when they won it and generating a pair of golden chances that resulted in shots by left wing Amahl Pellegrino hitting the right post \u2014 twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always want to play with initiative, and we gave a really good effort in the first half of at least making a balance,\u201d Varas said. \u201cAs in life, sometimes the game just goes the other way for you. No matter what we tried, we weren\u2019t able to get a foothold back on the initiative side of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big thing is, I think the guys showed that even when we don\u2019t have initiative in the game, they can still find ways to win. That\u2019s that competitive spirit that I think is really important in a group that has the potential of really doing something special.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was a big step, beating a Liga MX team in the opening round. But Pumas hasn\u2019t won a trophy in 15 years, the third-longest drought in Liga MX, and was booed off the field by its own fans Tuesday night. Toluca, the reigning champ, is a different animal altogether.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not 7,500 feet. It\u2019s 8,750.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the experience is going to be gold for us,\u201d said Varas, who used all five of his subs as his starters gasped for oxygen. \u201cThis was a lot of the guys\u2019 first time doing it. You\u2019ve got it in your head what it might be like, but when your heart starts pumping, that\u2019s a whole different thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second thing is, we\u2019ve got to be able to create a game plan and strategy and also an implementation of it that we don\u2019t concede so much of the territory and so much of the ball for so long. Otherwise, you depend on too many firemen plays from guys, especially from your goalkeeper.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We learned three things in San Diego FC\u2019s first trip south of the border, to face Mexico City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,1254,76,75,1083,127,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-172999","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","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172999","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=172999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}