{"id":427017,"date":"2026-08-08T02:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427017\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:46:09","slug":"tom-krasovic-chucky-lozanos-departure-should-supercharge-sdfc-galaxy-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427017\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Krasovic: Chucky Lozano’s departure should supercharge SDFC-Galaxy rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego FC\u2019s bland season has become spicy, although not in a way that anyone would\u2019ve imagined when the franchise launched.<\/p>\n

By pragmatically loaning exiled star Chucky Lozano to a Los Angeles rival<\/a>, SDFC mainlined caffeine into the San Diego-L.A. competition if nothing else.<\/p>\n

Will San Diego FC fans scream \u201cBeat L.A.\u201d even louder when they see Lozano in Galaxy blue and gold Saturday night, Aug. 29, in Mission Valley?<\/p>\n

Come the rematch Oct. 17, will San Diego FC\u2019s players silence the would-be \u201cChoooooky\u201d chanters in Carson?<\/p>\n

The move isn\u2019t as bizarre as it seems at first glance.<\/p>\n

Lozano could choose his destination<\/a>, so it wasn\u2019t surprising that the Mexican national landed with the Major League Soccer franchise closest to his San Diego County home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not ideal for SDFC, beyond ticket sales to one match, that Lozano might boost a subpar L.A. club. The Galaxy sit one point and one slot ahead of 13th-place San Diego.<\/p>\n

Many SDFC folks, players included, could have mud on their face if Lozano scores a game-winning goal in Mission Valley, as he did against the Galaxy last year in etching the signature moment to SDFC\u2019s first season.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s move made sense, regardless, even if the whole saga did not.<\/p>\n

Lozano\u2019s contract was a sunk cost. It needed to be moved. Doing so increases SDFC\u2019s roster and budget flexibility. SDFC was too eager in signing Lozano two-plus years ago, doing so before the team hired either a general manager or a coach. But that was then. This is now.<\/p>\n

Ahead, the picture remains cloudy, but it has also become a lot more interesting.<\/p>\n

Galaxy and Lozano will attempt to manage the 31-year-old\u2019s increased injury risk associated with not having played since last November.<\/p>\n

\"EliasElias Achouri poses for a photo after a press conference before the San Diego FC match against FC Dallas at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday, July 25, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nNext man up<\/p>\n

SDFC will turn soon to Elias Achouri, a new arrival, in the expectation of getting a lot more firepower out of the left wing spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tunisian national Achouri, 27, stands as one of two SDFC designated players with Lozano gone. Winger Anders Dreyer is the other.<\/p>\n

The Denmark FC alum has his own style, but because SDFC\u2019s soccer staff was able to vet him, he should fit into the culture far better than Lozano, who was suspended late season after a run-in with coach Mikey Varas, reinstated as a reserve for four of the five-game playoff run and put on the trade block entering this season.<\/p>\n

SDFC sporting director Tyler Heaps said Achouri\u2019s speed and \u201celegance\u201d with the ball remind him of American national Christian Pulisic.<\/p>\n

Achouri also has inspired comparisons in style, if not total aptitude, to Jeremy Doku, a Belgian national and Premier League veteran.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t take Achouri imitating Yamil Lamale for SDFC to jump into the playoff picture. After all, MLS admits 18 of 30 teams to the postseason.<\/p>\n

Achouri has several above-average MLS players to lean on. Primary to his efforts are three fellow Danish league alums in center forward Marcus Ingvartsen, right wing Anders Dreyer and defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov; and left back Luca Bombino, who can also be effective on runs into the final third.<\/p>\n

Almost any stimulus to this endless MLS season is welcomed.<\/p>\n

The journey began in February. Paused this summer for about two months to accommodate the World Cup, the schedule will see SDFC log 16 matches between Aug. 15 and the season finale Nov. 7. Then come the playoffs, which run into December.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego FC player Chucky Lozano poses with fans during the 2025 SDFC Season Launch Party hosted at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA. (Xavier Hernandez for the UT)
\nStar\u2019s departure a swift kick to fans<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be easy to frame the coming Galaxy-SDFC matches as Chucky vs. Mikey.<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t be very accurate. While the confrontation between Lozano and Varas last October<\/a> must\u2019ve been rather volcanic, several SDFC folks made the decision to both suspend and then reinstate the star wing.<\/p>\n

Heaps said he had a big say in it, along with Varas, CEO Tom Penn, team ownership and a five-player committee headed by Tverskov, the team captain.<\/p>\n

While the post-Lozano chapter can work out for everyone involved, including fans, the whole Lozano-SDFC saga felt both surreal yet all-too San Diego.<\/p>\n

Lozano was supposed to be SDFC\u2019s build-around star, both on and off the field. He did provide 11 goals and nine assists.<\/p>\n

But his SDFC tenure goes down as yet another swift kick to San Diego sports fans, largely because so much more was expected of it.<\/p>\n

Varas, talking about Lozano in September 2024, about seven months before SDFC\u2019s first match, called him a \u201cproven winner\u201d and a \u201chigh-level talent\u201d who would create and score many goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that,\u201d Varas said, \u201che\u2019s Mexican, which is an incredibly important part of the project, due to the community that we live in. And he\u2019s going to resonate a lot with the Latino and the Latino American community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not done there, Varas added: \u201cWhat I took most from (a conversation with Lozano), though, is that he\u2019s an incredibly humble and good human being. The excitement he transmitted over the phone about the project, not just on the field, but creating a lasting impact and legacy on and off of it, was really inspirational to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s headed to L.A.. To the club with the most MLS Cup titles.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a very San Diego chapter.<\/p>\n

SDFC will try to author a better one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego FC\u2019s bland season has become spicy, although not in a way that anyone would\u2019ve imagined when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,1254,76,75,1083,127,1696],"class_list":["post-427017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427017","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=427017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}