San Diego FC, which suffered the first loss in its short history versus Austin FC on the road in Texas on March 23, bounced back in a big way Saturday.
SDFC emerged with a 3-2 victory, its first ever at home, against geographic and conference rival LAFC. All the goals came before halftime; no scoring occurred in the second half before the announced crowd of 32,502 at Snapdragon Stadium.
The home side scored during the 20th, 33rd and 39th minutes of the first half, with the first goal coming when Swedish defender Christopher McVey nailed a header from the center of the box to the top right corner of the goal.
San Diego’s second score came 13 minutes later when Finnish midfielder Onni Valakari hit a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the goal’s lower right central zone.
Six minutes after that, the third goal of the half for the home side came when English winger Alex Mighten hit a left-footed shot from the center of the box to the goal’s bottom left corner. Valakari had an assist and German midfielder Jasper Loffelsend was credited with the second assist.
“I was just happy that I was able to get an opportunity today, and take it,” Mighten said during the post-match news conference. “I’m super happy that we’ve got super supporters who are with us every game.
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— San Diego FC (@sandiegofc) March 30, 2025
Alex Mighten puts home the delightful pass for our third first half goal. pic.twitter.com/XTD56wPTix
“I’ve played in front of some great supporters and this is right up there,” he added.
The visiting side, to its credit, fought back and managed to score a couple of goals just before halftime.
During the 42nd minute, L.A. defender Artem Smolyakov managed to hit a left-footed shot from the left half-space outside the box to the goal’s lower right central zone. Then, during stoppage time, Cengiz Under scored with a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the central zone.
His teammate Mark Delgado was credited with the assist and Sergei Palencia picked up
the second assist.
The goal came during the fourth minute of extra time (49th minute overall), about 90 seconds before the end of the half.
Although the final score was close, SDFC dominated the match from the start. San Diego
was credited with controlling ball possession for just over 60% of the match and took six shots on goal, compared to four for L.A.
https://t.co/wwr0usBjVw pic.twitter.com/wDG6nXfJuT
— San Diego FC (@sandiegofc) March 30, 2025
SDFC also blocked four shots, while L.A. was credited with blocking two of San Diego’s. SDFC was also credited with 775 total passes, compared with 458 for LA.
“We could have killed them with even more passes,” head coach Mikey Varas said. He added that the seeds are being sown for San Diego to become a premier franchise, not just in Major League Soccer, but globally.
“Fifty years from now, this club will be a giant. Our job now is to take the first steps (toward greatness), and I think the boys are doing a great job right now,” Varas said.
SDFC star player Hirving “Chucky” Lozano again was not one of the starting 11, but he returned as a reserve, as he continues to recover from an injury.
Lozano suffered a hamstring strain during the team’s March 1 home opener.
With Saturday’s victory, San Diego (3-1-2, 11 points) rose to second in the Western
Conference standings behind the Vancouver WhiteCaps (4-1-1, 11 points).
The expansion club’s first home win followed two draws at Snapdragon. Next up, SDFC hosts the Seattle Sounders FC (1-2-3, 9 points) at 7:30 p.m. on April 5.
Notes: There were five minutes of stoppage time tacked onto the first half of the match and about seven minutes onto the second half … Los Angeles FC joined Major League Soccer as an expansion franchise in 2018 and is the city’s second men’s professional soccer team, after the LA Galaxy … LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo is a San Diego native who grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos and graduated from Mt. Carmel High School … Among the celebrities on hand for the match were Padre Manny Machado, hours after a win at Petco Park, and actress Issa Rae; both of them are part owners of SDFC. Also in the house were Machado’s former teammate, outfielder Jurickson Profar, whose Braves are in town, Chicano singer-songwriter Eddie Zuko, an Imperial Valley native; and undefeated boxer Jonny “Magic” Mansour, who’s from the East County.
