{"id":294041,"date":"2026-05-01T00:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/294041\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:09:09","slug":"san-diego-fc-vs-lafc-what-to-know-for-walmart-saturday-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/294041\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego FC vs. LAFC: What to know for Walmart Saturday Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southern California rivals meet when San Diego FC<\/a> host LAFC<\/a> for Matchday 11’s Walmart Saturday Showdown.<\/p>\n

11th in Western Conference
\n11 points, 3W-5L-2D<\/p>\n

The sophomore slump has struck San Diego, who are on an eight-game winless streak and have lost five straight matches.<\/p>\n

That stretch includes their Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> elimination in the Round of 16 against back-to-back LIGA MX champions Deportivo Toluca.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can last year’s record-breaking expansion side<\/a> earn their first win in almost two months? San Diego beat their SoCal rivals twice during the 2025 MLS campaign.<\/p>\n

Anders Dreyer:\u00a0The 2025 MLS Newcomer of the Year<\/a>\u00a0remains SDFC’s most dangerous player, with a club-best nine goal contributions (5g\/4a) this season.
\nMarcus Ingvartsen: The Danish striker has emerged as another key offensive threat, producing 5g\/2a for the Chrome-and-Azul.
\nManu Duah: The No. 1 pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft continues his rise as a top-rated center back amid reported interest from several European clubs.\u00a0
\nAn\u00edbal Godoy: The veteran midfielder is set to captain Panama at this summer’s 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>.
\nOnni Valakari: The Finnish international has 3g\/2a this year after contributing 15 goal contributions (4g\/11a) last season.<\/p>\n

Head coach Mikey Varas has a hole to fill in midfield, telling MLSsoccer.com that captain Jeppe Tverskov<\/a> will be out\u00a0 “for some time” with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

3rd in Western Conference
\n20 points, 6W-2L-2D<\/p>\n

After a mini-slump, LAFC snapped a three-game winless streak last weekend with a 1-0 victory<\/a> at Minnesota United FC<\/a> courtesy of a David Mart\u00ednez<\/a> golazo.<\/p>\n

The Black & Gold carried that momentum into Concacaf Champions Cup action on Wednesday night with a\u00a02-1 defeat of Toluca<\/a> in Leg 1 of their semifinal series.\u00a0Timothy Tillman<\/a> opened the score at BMO Stadium, and center back Nkosi Tafari<\/a> headed home Son Heung-Min<\/a>‘s cross for a 91st-minute game-winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Head coach Marc Dos Santos has all but confirmed he’ll rotate his squad against San Diego ahead of Wednesday’s visit to Estadio Nemesio D\u00edez for the decisive Leg 2.<\/p>\n

Will one of LAFC’s depth pieces step up this weekend in their first SoCal Derby of the season?<\/p>\n

Son Heung-Min: The South Korean superstar was rested for last weekend’s trip to Minnesota. Mindful of the Toluca series, he could watch on from afar yet again.
\nDenis Bouanga: LAFC’s all-time leading scorer has 4g\/4a in regular-season action. He’s eyeing a fourth straight 20-plus goal campaign.\u00a0
\nDavid Mart\u00ednez: The Venezuelan international completes LAFC’s formidable attacking trio and, with 3g\/1a so far, is on pace for a career-best season.\u00a0
\nHugo Lloris: The French World Cup-winning goalkeeper has been in stellar form and leads MLS with eight clean sheets.\u00a0
\nStephen Eust\u00e1quio: Canada’<\/a>s co-captain is back from injury and looking to regain top form as the World Cup approaches.<\/p>\n

Squad rotation and all, Bouanga<\/a> could be involved from the start after missing Wednesday’s Champions Cup clash due to card suspension.<\/p>\n

For San Diego, there’s no better time to break out of a slump than in a SoCal Derby in front of their fans at Snapdragon Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Add to that LAFC’s Champions Cup commitments, and the Chrome-and-Azul have plenty in their favor going into this Walmart Saturday Showdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southern California rivals meet when San Diego FC host LAFC for Matchday 11’s Walmart Saturday Showdown. 11th in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[35910,11414,74,1254,76,75,125093,125094,6532],"class_list":["post-294041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-los-angeles-football-club","tag-priority-match","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-saturday-showdown","tag-sdvslafc-05-02-2026","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294041","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=294041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}