San Diego FC hosts St. Louis City SC on Sunday night at Snapdragon Stadium, an early barometer for a team looking to start hot in its second season in Major League Soccer.<\/p>\n
For San Diego, the difference between victory and disappointment this weekend may be the presence of a player they lacked for much of last year: a fully healthy Marcus Ingvartsen.<\/p>\n
When Ingvartsen left the pitch after suffering a serious leg injury last March against Columbus, SDFC didn\u2019t just lose a striker. They lost a reference point.<\/p>\n
He was acquired in March of 2024, along with Jeppe Tverskov, to provide experience and insight into the Right to Dream style of play and culture.<\/p>\n
Ingvartsen missed over two months, and suffered multiple setbacks once he returned last June.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was a real tough journey for him. For a guy who tries to do everything right, all the time, nothing went his way,\u201d SDFC coach Mikey Varas said. \u201cIn fact, I don\u2019t even think he got a lot of ties, in terms of everything that he and the club tried to get him going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now healthy, Ingvartsen is reinvigorated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long, tough year for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cWe as a club, aligned a lot of stuff and really did a clever way of building it up throughout the preseason. Maybe taking two, three or four extra weeks to get in complete shape. That\u2019s definitely worth it compared to what happened last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with my progress and how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
In SDFC\u2019s first three matches this year, two against Mexico City club Pumas in the Concacaf Champions Cup and a 5-0 rout of CF Montr\u00e9al last week in its MLS opener, Ingvartsen delivered both production and presence.<\/p>\n
He scored once, and added an assist against Montr\u00e9al. He\u2019s produced four shots \u2014 two on target \u2014 and completed 83% of his passes overall in the attacking third. Just as important, he\u2019s won five duels and drew multiple fouls in advanced areas, relieving pressure and allowing San Diego\u2019s midfield to push higher.<\/p>\n
The numbers reflect efficiency. The performance has reflected something deeper: authority.<\/p>\n
An opening statement<\/p>\n
Ingvartsen\u2019s assist on Onni Valakari\u2019s goal in the 53rd minute against Montreal gave San Diego a 3-0 advantage. It stemmed from composure. A cushioned layoff after checking into space, recognizing a late-arriving runner rather than forcing a contested shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was man on man,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing able to use one of the high lines, in this case me flicking the ball, is a way that if the game for some reason didn\u2019t work in phases one and two, lower at our goal, we had that option going deeper, either in space taking care of the ball or sometimes just that flick, and we see when I come and one or two players goes deep, it\u2019s a half-way free run to the goal. Just great timing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnders (Dreyer) shouts \u2018flick it,\u2019 and he goes. Luckily Onni was there to follow it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
His goal six minutes later came from intelligent positioning \u2014 a delayed run that separated him from his marker rather than overpowering him.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuick corner kick. I think I had a big chance right before that so I wanted to have that goal,\u201d Ingvartsen said. \u201cI see everybody falling in, and make eye contact with Anders and luckily it was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question entering 2026 was not whether Ingvartsen could still score. It was whether he could regain rhythm after a disrupted season.<\/p>\n
Varas is happy to have him healthy, and not at all surprised by his return to form.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the player that we envisioned when we signed him, and another guy who\u2019s a high talent, high character, and now it\u2019s about him gaining more and more rhythm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best is still to come from Marcus, for sure. I know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building a foundation<\/p>\n
Ingvartsen\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 long predates his arrival in MLS.<\/p>\n
Developed at Danish club FC Nordsj\u00e6lland, he emerged as one of the Superliga\u2019s most efficient young forwards, winning the league\u2019s Golden Boot in 2016-17. That breakout earned him a move to Belgian side KRC Genk, where he experienced European competition and a more physical tactical environment.<\/p>\n
A subsequent stint in Germany with Union Berlin further sharpened his adaptability. There, he operated across multiple positions \u2014 central striker, second forward, even wide attacker \u2014 in a system that prioritized defensive discipline and transitional precision.<\/p>\n
Those years shaped him into something more nuanced than a traditional No. 9. He became comfortable at a number of skills that MLS clubs value, like reading defensive spacing and pressing intelligently.<\/p>\n
San Diego bet on that versatility when constructing its inaugural roster. Last season\u2019s injury interrupted the integration process. This year is about completing it.<\/p>\n
Ingvartsen believes the next step is paying even closer attention to detail, no matter how small, in order to get sharper.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel from the beginning coming back from vacation that the foundation is pretty good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did a very good job last year, even with the new guys coming in and quickly finding a rhythm. Now we can get into specific points of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of layers to add on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving forward<\/p>\n
The most talked-about subplot for San Diego this winter was the status of Mexican international Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano.<\/p>\n
As the 2026 season dawned, SDFC announced it was moving on from the Mexican star. Though Lozano remains under contract, he is no longer a part of the club\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
Expect opponents to focus even more of their attention on containing Dreyer, a playmaker extraordinaire.<\/p>\n
According to American Soccer Analysis, 33 of the MVP runner-up\u2019s league-leading 81 key passes and 10 of his 19 assists camr from players \u2014 Lozano and Escondido\u2019s Milan Iloski \u2014 who are no longer on SDFC\u2019s active roster<\/p>\n
At 30, Ingvartsen is in a phase where experience meets physical capability. If he remains healthy, he projects as a double-digit goal scorer.\u00a0After missing most of last season, the veteran striker is essentially a new addition and could be key in taking the pressure of Dreyer going forward.<\/p>\n
Plus, he and Dreyer already share a language on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to have a player like him around, being able to run off of him sometimes, and he can see those passes,\u201d Ingvartsen said of his fellow Dane. \u201cThat connection, of course, we speak the same language, but I also think we speak the same football language.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited to keep building on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego FC vs. St. Louis City SC<\/p>\n
When: 6:15 p.m. Sunday<\/p>\n
TV: FS1, FOX Deportes<\/p>\n
Streaming: AppleTV<\/p>\n
Radio: 760-AM, 1700-AM (Spanish)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego FC hosts St. Louis City SC on Sunday night at Snapdragon Stadium, an early barometer for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[11383,19156,24652,11408,92275,74,1254,92274,76,75,43959,2498],"class_list":["post-198400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-anders-dreyer","tag-hirving-chucky-lozano","tag-marcus-ingvartsen","tag-mikey-varas","tag-mls-2026","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-diego-fc-vs-st-louis-city-sc","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-st-louis-city-sc","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198400","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=198400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}