At Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday night, San Diego FC’s final game of the year ended the same way that most of their matches this season ended: with a loss.
SDFC fell to Sporting Kansas City 1-0 before an announced crowd of 23,695, bringing a bitter end to a season that began with so much promise.
With the loss, San Diego wrapped up its second season with a record of nine wins, 14 losses and 11 draws for a total of 38 points, finishing 13th in Major League Soccer’s 15-team Western Conference and failing to qualify for the postseason.
It was a steep drop from the historic 19-7-9 record and 63 points that the squad achieved during its debut season in 2025 — the best regular season record of any Western Conference club in MLS history.
For various reasons, the team couldn’t replicate last year’s success this year. After winning five of its first six matches in all competitions to kick off their 2026 campaign, SDFC struggled the rest of the season.
Against Kansas City, the score was tied 0-0 for most of the match before Sporting forward André Luiz nailed a penalty kick in the 76th minute with a left-footed shot to the bottom right corner of the net. Luiz was awarded the kick after being fouled moments earlier by SDFC defender Kieran Sargeant.
With the victory, Sporting KC gained revenge for a 1-0 loss at home against San Diego on March 7. But the win wasn’t enough to make a difference in the standings; Kansas City finished dead last in the Western Conference with a 7-5-22 record and 26 points.
Following the game, SDFC head coach Mikey Varas said that his team hadn’t been decisive enough against Sporting and was little slow.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” he said during a post-match press conference. “I need to do a better job coaching the group. We didn’t get the results that the fans deserve.”
“A lot of people are disappointed – disappointed in me, disappointed in the team,” he added. “I’ll take that responsibility.”
Varas said that he and his players would take time during the offseason to reflect on their struggles – both as individuals and as a team, over the past year. He also said he told the team after the match that he believes they’ll bounce back next season.
“We’re still going in the right direction,” he told the media. “As much as this hurts right now, I’m very confident that we have players who will benefit from this experience. They’ll be better players because of it.”
Midfielder Onni Valakari said that there isn’t one big thing that he could point to as something that the team could fix in order to be successful in the future.
“If it was one easy fix, we would have done it,” he told the media. “It was just a number of small things,” such as a lack of consistency as a unit during games.
Starting goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega agreed.
“It was never a lack of determination; the whole group was committed,” he said. “I think it was just a lack of execution at certain points of the season. So, I think that if we just clean up some of the details next season, we’re going to have a great year.”
Up next: San Diego FC plays two MLS seasons next year. First, it will run an abbreviated “sprint season” from Feb. 19-May 8, 2027, during in which all teams only play 14 matches, and only against opponents in their own conference. Then in July 2027 the league will kick off its new regular-season format, with games through April 2028, bringing it in line with the competition windows used by international pro leagues.
San Diego’s first “sprint season” game is set for Feb. 21 on the road against Los Angeles FC, followed by home contests against Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas on Feb. 27 and March 6, respectively. All games will be steamed live on Apple TV.
