San Diego FC blew a three-goal lead in a stunning second-half collapse, surrendering three goals in the final 17 minutes to draw Austin FC 3-3 at Q2 Stadium. A match that appeared firmly in San Diego\u2019s control unraveled late, as Austin completed an unexpected comeback.<\/p>\n
An\u00edbal Godoy opened the scoring five minutes after halftime before an own goal from Mikkel Desler doubled San Diego\u2019s lead in the 57th minute. Marcus Ingvartsen then made it 3-0 in the 64th minute after combining with Anders Dreyer and C\u00e9dric Bakambu.<\/p>\n
Austin answered through Brandon V\u00e1zquez in the 73rd minute before Christian Ramirez secured a four-minute brace to erase San Diego\u2019s three-goal advantage and force the draw.<\/p>\n
Both teams had their depth tested Saturday night, with several players unavailable due to international duty and injuries.<\/p>\n
San Diego was without forward Elias Achouri (Tunisia), midfielder Onni Valakari (Finland) and goalkeeper CJ Dos Santos (Cape Verde) due to international duty. Forward Amahl Pellegrino, midfielder Gabriel Pirani and defender Sam Vines were also unavailable with lower-body injuries.<\/p>\n
Austin were without five players: Guilherme Biro (suspension), Przemys\u0142aw P\u0142acheta (lower body), Brad Stuver (illness), Myrto Uzuni (Albania) and Joseph Rosales (Honduras).<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2019s starting lineup featured five defenders: Kieran Sargeant, Ian Murphy, Ian Pilcher, Manu Duah, and Oscar Verhoeven\u2014the same defensive alignment that helped San Diego earn a 2-2 draw against Inter Miami last week.<\/p>\n
Austin\u2019s attack was active in the opening 45 minutes. They fired off seven shots but couldn’t find the back of the net. Despite the opportunities, the visitors controlled 60% possession. San Diego had zero attempts in the first half.<\/p>\n
With the game knotted at zero, head coach Mikey Varas subbed on veteran striker C\u00e9dric Bakambu for David Vazquez. Bakambu signed with the club earlier this month and had appeared in three matches before Saturday.<\/p>\n
Five minutes into the second half, Verhoeven sent a cross inside toward Marcus Ingvartsen and Bakambu, but neither got their head on the ball. San Diego midfielder An\u00edbal Godoy pounced on the rebound and scored his first goal of the season.<\/p>\n
Moments later, San Diego doubled its lead thanks to an own goal by Mikkel Desler in the 57th minute. Austin goalkeeper Damian Las made a questionable challenge inside the box and was out of position when Ingvartsen attempted a cross to his teammate. Bakambu headed the ball toward the net, and Desler\u2019s clearance was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
San Diego then scored its third goal in 14 minutes. Anders Dreyer approached the box and made a short pass to Bakambu, who gave it right back to Dreyer. He found Ingvartsen between multiple defenders, and the forward finished with one touch to give his team a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The Danish duo connected yet again. This was Dreyer\u2019s 11th league assist in 2026, and Ingvartsen netted his first goal since mid-May, bringing his season total to 12 goals.<\/p>\n
No lead is ever safe for San Diego sports teams.<\/p>\n
Brandon V\u00e1zquez, a San Diego native, gave Austin life in the 73rd minute with an incredible diving header that bounced right in front of Duran Ferree and over his head.<\/p>\n
This was his first goal of the season. V\u00e1zquez had nine goals across all competitions the year prior. Ervin Torres assisted the goal.<\/p>\n
Austin\u2019s veteran forward Christian Ramirez (82\u2019 and 86\u2019) then scored two goals within four minutes to tie the match\u2014an incredible turn of events late in the match.<\/p>\n
Jon Bell sent a bouncing pass past several San Diego defenders, and Ramirez scored via header. A couple of minutes later, he scored the equalizer to erase Austin\u2019s three-goal deficit. Ramirez got behind the backline, received a pass from Jon Gallagher, and put the ball in the bottom left corner.<\/p>\n
The home crowd erupted when the equalizer entered. Austin completed an incredible comeback, while San Diego suffered a stunning collapse.<\/p>\n
Eight minutes were added, but neither team could break the 3-3 tie. Both teams left Q2 Stadium with one point as they enter the final seven games of the regular season. San Diego and Austin are both eyeing a late playoff push.<\/p>\n
After the international break, San Diego will return on Oct. 10 when they travel to New York to face the Red Bulls at Sports Illustrated Stadium. New York has won consecutive matches against Columbus and New York City. Julian Hall, an 18-year-old forward, leads the team with 10 goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego FC blew a three-goal lead in a stunning second-half collapse, surrendering three goals in the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[106929,154641,132,135,134,133,154639,154638,154637,136366,80863,136,223,80862,154640,43636,731,136367],"class_list":["post-449063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-anders-dreyer","tag-anibal-godoy","tag-austin","tag-austin-fc","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-cedric-bakambu","tag-duran-ferree","tag-elias-achouri","tag-manu-duah","tag-marcus-ingvartsen","tag-mls","tag-news","tag-onni-valakari","tag-oscar-verhoeven","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-soccer","tag-tst-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}