I wrote about it last year<\/a>, but now it\u2019s time to catch up to the present: How did San Diego fall so far so fast?<\/p>\n\n The Drop<\/p>\n
San Diego started 2026 on the right foot. They were navigating some tough schedule congestion with the addition of their Concacaf Champions Cup berth \u2014 beating Pumas and logging a win against Toluca before being eliminated \u2014 and still managed to go undefeated in five in regular-season play. They were playing the same dominant, high-possession soccer that netted so many results for them in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until early March that the red flags started popping up. Or, well, red cards. San Diego was still winning, but logged a stunning four red cards in the month of March: three in two games against Toluca, and another in their draw against RSL.<\/p>\n
Then April hit, and things went drastically downhill. The first strike on their record was a 3-0 loss to San Jose, but San Jose has proved themselves a threat to any squad this season. That could be forgiven, but then San Diego lost to the Loons. And Real Salt Lake. And Houston, and Portland, and . . . you get the picture. Throw in three more red cards in under a month, and you\u2019ve got some major trouble brewing.<\/p>\n
The Chrome and Azul lost five of five games in April (conceding 12 goals in that stretch alone) and drew their first two in May, making for a seven-match winless streak before their comeback against Austin.<\/p>\n
Since then San Diego has been hit or miss, leading to an underwhelming record that has them sitting at 12th in the West with just 20 points in 17 games. They\u2019ve only won a single match on the road all season. With an overall record of 5-7-5, Varas\u2019 side is struggling to make their mark and live up to the lofty expectation they set for themselves last year.<\/p>\n
\n Breaking It Down<\/p>\n
For one, San Diego no longer has the element of surprise, the benefit of an untested roster to come out of nowhere and blow the socks off their underestimating enemies. There\u2019s something to be said for teams across the board having a fantastic season and then falling off the next year (looking at you, Philadelphia), but that doesn\u2019t feel like a substantial enough reason for this team\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n
Critics point to the issue of Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano, the famed Mexican winger who has yet to see a single minute of playing time in 2026. Varas has made it clear that Lozano\u2019s not part of the plan for San Diego. I don\u2019t think their performance as a club is just a \u201cwe benched Chucky Lozano\u201d problem. San Diego was doing great even navigating schedule congestion early in the season without him. However, Lozano is taking up a DP slot, plus a lot of salary, that SDFC then can\u2019t use on other heavy hitters to turn the team around. Plus, Lozano is one of those guys that makes the headlines even when he\u2019s not there, and there\u2019s something to be said for the weight his name carries. His role \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 in Varas\u2019 squad is still tangible.<\/p>\n
Starting keeper CJ Dos Santos also suffered a fractured cheekbone in San Diego\u2019s playoff round against Portland, putting him out for nearly six months before coming back to play in May. A nose injury then put him out again through the break. Keeper Duran Ferree manned the net in his absence, allowing 19 goals against in the span of 13 games. Dos Santos is now back in action, but did concede the all-important single goal by Colorado in the club\u2019s first game back after the break. So far, he\u2019s logged two saves in as many games back.<\/p>\n
As far as actual roster changes go, defender Paddy McNair was transferred to EFL side Hull City in January, and his absence has been felt on the back line. Midfielder Luca De La Torre\u2019s option was declined. Outside of that, the squad hasn\u2019t really lost any firepower between 2025 and 2026. Anders Dreyer, responsible for a whopping 19 goals in the club\u2019s 2025 campaign (plus four in playoffs), has scored just six goals this season, but he\u2019s not having a bad year \u2014 he\u2019s still second in the entire league in assists with nine, only behind LAFC\u2019s Son Heung-Min.<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2019s approach hasn\u2019t changed. They still play high-possession soccer. They\u2019re just not doing as much with that possession, struggling to find a consistent way to break lines and convert. The team is fumbling in the box, conceding when it matters, and struggling with speed up the flanks.<\/p>\n
This World Cup break may have been good for them. San Diego lost to Colorado in their first game back, but then they managed to pull one over on Dallas. It remains to be seen whether they can really turn this around, but the club has also been active this transfer window. They\u2019ve recently signed defender Tunisia international team winger Elias Achouri (DP) and goalkeeper Marcus Alstrup, both from the Danish Superliga, where Dreyer also played before his stint in the Belgian Pro League. Add in new defender Dagur Dan Th\u00f3rhallsson, and you\u2019ve got three notable acquisitions that have the potential to reignite the lackluster aspects of San Diego\u2019s current play. They\u2019ve also acquired goalkeeper Marcus Alstrup from Danish Superliga.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fact is, Minnesota United can\u2019t entirely know what kind of team they\u2019ll be facing this weekend, especially taking into consideration an upcoming swath of schedule congestion as both teams contend with Leagues Cup. This Saturday\u2019s matchup is a bit of a wildcard: San Diego has a chance to set the tone for their great comeback, or Minnesota could play spoiler and double down on Varas\u2019 side. Let\u2019s all root for the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last season\u2019s Western Conference semifinal match saw the Loons fall to an absolute powerhouse San Diego side, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[37748,1979,32885,166709,166708,74,76,75,38577],"class_list":["post-418092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-club-san-diego-fc","tag-latest-news","tag-minnesota-united-fc","tag-minvssd-08-01-2026","tag-mnufc-matchday","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-storylines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418092","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=418092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}