The New York Times once opined that \u201cchaos is the resting state of Major League Soccer,\u201d a tendency that gets dialed up that much further in the postseason.<\/p>\n
San Diego FC<\/a> got a dose of that last weekend in their first-ever Audi MLS Cup Playoffs away match, a wild 2-2 affair<\/a> at Portland<\/a>\u2019s Providence Park decided by a penalty-kick shootout in front of the famed Timbers Army.<\/p>\n \u201cI always knew this league was crazy from the outside, but when you’re in it every single day, you really start to live it,\u201d SDFC sporting director and general manager Tyler Heaps told MLSsoccer.com Thursday afternoon as his side prepare for Sunday\u2019s must-win Game 3 of their Round One Best-of-3 Series with the Timbers at Snapdragon Stadium (9 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cWe are opposite teams, in my opinion. One team really wants to dictate the play with the ball and have the ball in play, and make it a game that’s attractive, and the other team wants to not make it like that. And that’s what makes this league so challenging, is that there are those disparities.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Crunch time<\/p>\n San Diego took four of six points off Portland during their historic debut campaign, finishing 19 points and seven standings places ahead of the Timbers, with an expected-goals total 15 better than PTFC’s and a superior goal differential by a whopping margin of 30.<\/p>\n Yet such is the nature of the playoffs that they find themselves locked in a dogfight with the Rose City side that now hinges on 90 tense minutes to extend their dream debut season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have guys that have never played in playoffs in their entire life, because we have guys coming in from foreign leagues that don’t know what this is about,\u201d noted Heaps. \u201cSo now, after the first two games, I think they realize that it’s about this heightened sense of urgency. There’s people playing for their lives. That’s the reality that we’re in right now: every game is a final. You either win or you’re done. And so that’s going to bring another sense of stress, I think, to the group.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I truly believe, and we train it every single day, that if we just focus on us and do what we know that we’re very good at, we can beat anybody at any given day. I think we’ve proven that this year. We’ve beaten every single team in the West already, and that says something.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a timely stress test for the SDFC project. The intricate, methodical possession style installed by Heaps, head coach Mikey Varas & Co. took the Western Conference by storm, powering them to first place and setting new MLS records for points (63) and victories (19) by an expansion club.<\/p>\n All that meticulous work got pitched into a back-and-forth slugfest when Timbers boss Phil Neville threw caution to the wind with a barrage of attacking substitutions and a hyper-aggressive high press that MLSsoccer\u2019s Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle labeled \u201cgoblin mode<\/a>,\u201d culminating in a delirious 98th-minute equalizer from young reserve Gage Guerra<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Phil did on the weekend was, in my opinion, suicidal,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cYes, it worked, but going 1v1 all over the field, there’s moments in that game where they\u2019re 1-v-2 at the back, and I feel like we’re always one pass away from a breakaway, but we just weren’t sharp enough on the day, and that’s on us.<\/p>\n \u201cBut yeah, chaos is a good word to use in this league, especially when it comes in the playoffs, and we just need to try to control that as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Team-first model<\/p>\n Heaps is quite aware of the MLS conventional wisdom about team-oriented systems like SDFC\u2019s and Supporters\u2019 Shield winners Philadelphia Union<\/a>, which runs to the effect that in the postseason, they are vulnerable to moments of brilliance from elite \u2013 and expensive \u2013 Designated Player talent. Recent MLS Cup winners like Riqui Puig<\/a>, Gabriel Pec<\/a>, Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez and Denis Bouanga<\/a> are often cited as cases in point.<\/p>\n \u201cYou still need that talent to shine through, but I believe our collective is among the strongest,\u201d said Heaps, pointing to the Columbus Crew<\/a>\u2019s Game 2 rout<\/a> of the more expensively assembled FC Cincinnati<\/a> in the East side of the bracket.<\/p>\n \u201cThat collective, I don’t think you can say that it won’t work in the playoffs. I think the sample size is small, and normally, as somebody that’s watching the game, you realize and you remember the individually brilliant moments, but also a collective team can put together a run of games very easily.<\/p>\n “I think, that allows you to be successful, especially in the playoffs. And so that’s what we’re going to lean on.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Successful start<\/p>\n In the bigger picture, even a high-leverage occasion like Sunday night won\u2019t shake San Diego\u2019s faith in what they\u2019ve built so far.<\/p>\n Beyond that effective, attractive game model, Los Ni\u00f1os made a raft of clever signings like MLS Newcomer of the Year<\/a> and Best XI<\/a> selection Anders Dreyer<\/a>, linchpin holding midfielder Jeppe Tverskov<\/a> and MLS veterans Chris McVey<\/a> and An\u00edbal Godoy<\/a>, and brought local product Luca de la Torre<\/a> home to good effect. A reported locker-room spat with Mexican star Chucky Lozano<\/a> last month was handled with a brief suspension that reinforced team principles while keeping the winger onside and committed, if his clutch goal and badge-kissing celebration in Portland is any indicator.<\/p>\n The local community has embraced the squad, with consistently strong turnouts at Snapdragon and a sellout crowd expected for Sunday\u2019s decider. Most remarkably of all, SDFC have shown unprecedented faith in youth, making it a centerpiece of their fledgling organization\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n There\u2019s the lavish residential academy and school that welcomed its inaugural class several weeks ago, crafted in the model of their global affiliate, Right to Dream. And they\u2019ve accrued top prospects from elsewhere and put them to good use, like 19-year-old fullbacks Luca Bombino<\/a> or Oscar Verhoeven<\/a>, as well as Manu Duah<\/a>, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft who’s been converted from center mid into a highly promising center back.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s, for sure, what I’m most proud of,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cOn Sunday, it’ll sting if you lose, but I can still look back and say, wow, we built something really special here, and I don’t think this is a short-term thing. We built this for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Times once opined that \u201cchaos is the resting state of Major League Soccer,\u201d a tendency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23826,16416,29202,74,1254,76,75,29203,6532],"class_list":["post-44056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-match-previews","tag-mls-cup-playoffs","tag-national-writer-charles-boehm","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdvspor-11-09-2025","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44056","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=44056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}