Maybe this city owed San Diego one.
Not quite a decade ago, when the last major San Diego sports team that called Mission Valley home left town, Dignity Health Sports Park served for three seasons as its home.
On Sunday, the newest San Diego team — the one that plays futbol, not football — made its debut in the same stadium and shocked the soccer world with a 2-0 victory over LA Galaxy.
With about 1,000 San Diego FC ers singing and cheering from the upper deck, the expansion team used a pair of goals from Anders Dreyer to defeat the defending MLS Cup champions before a near-sellout crowd of 25,224.
The afternoon had a festive feel, not only with the large contingent of visiting fans, but also because the Galaxy and their ers came to celebrate last year’s title. Before the game, the Galaxy brought the MLS Cup on the field and unveiled a championship banner above the south end zone.
“If it was another team also, (a win) is nice,” Dreyer said, “but they had a little party before the game and we spoke about ‘let’s kill that party,’ and I think we did that quite well.”
SDFC coach Mikey Varas wasn’t surprised by the play of his team, saying “since the beginning of preseason, the one guarantee that I had was we were gonna come here, we were gonna be brave on the ball, we were gonna be relentless and we were gonna show a fighting team spirit.”
There have been many changes in the Galaxy’s roster, but at least one player, captain Maya Yoshida, said he was caught off guard by the play of SDFC.
“To be honest, they were much better than I thought because they’ve just trained for six weeks,” Yoshida said.
SDFC controlled most of what was a tepid first half, then scored the first goal in its history with its two designated players, Dreyer and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, taking advantage of a mistake from the hosts just seven minutes after the interval.
With the Galaxy trying to play the ball out from their own end, center back Carlos Garces was unable to control a from goalkeeper Novak Micovic. Lozano gained control, ed it to Dreyer in the center of the 18-yard box and the Danish winger blasted it past Micovic into the net.
SDFC had two chances to add to its lead in the next quarter-hour, but Dreyer and Lozano were denied by Micovic in the 59th and 66th minutes, respectively.
Meanwhile, the expansion team’s defense, led by center backs Paddy McNair and Chris McVey, was solid throughout the afternoon. The Galaxy had one decent scoring chance at the end of the first half but Marco Reus’ free kick from about 19 yards out went over the crossbar.
After putting only one shot on target in the first 78 minutes, the Galaxy looked like they were about to draw level when Miki Yamane crossed the ball from the right. Miguel Berry, a former star at USD, came sliding in to direct the ball toward the net but his shot was stopped at point-blank range by CJ dos Santos.
“They put a lot of pressure on us and there was one very big save,” Dreyer said, “but we closed it in the end.”
Dreyer was the one to end it in the third minute of stoppage time on a counterattack. He ed to Tomás Ángel, who returned the favor to set up his teammate for an easy goal from the right side.
With that, SDFC completed its first MLS game tied for first place in the Western Conference. And if it felt like it took forever for a San Diego team to play in MLS, well, that’s because it pretty much did. The first mention of the city being named a “prime candidate” for expansion happened not long after the league was formed in the mid-1990s.
It even pre-dated MLS commissioner Don Garber, who has been on the job since 1999. Garber was here Sunday — and he’ll be in San Diego on Saturday for SDFC’s home opener against St. Louis City SC.
“You know, there’s so many things that have taken us a long time to achieve,” Garber said. “Getting San Diego into our league has been a long-term goal and objective, but so is breaking ground in New York City (last December for a stadium for NYCFC). It took almost as long. And I think you know, our league has to constantly remind ourselves that we’re new and that you know better to get it right than try to get it done fast, and be willing to do the work to ensure when it does happen, you know, you’re clicking on all cylinders.
“So (there’s a) great ownership group, and owners really do matter. The Mansour family and having the Sycuan tribe, it’s just representing everything that I think we wanted to see happen when we were thinking about San Diego. I can’t wait to be there next weekend.”
San Diego — which has cycled through several outdoor teams including the Toros, the Jaws, the Sockers, the Flash, 1904 FC and the Loyal — finally was awarded a franchise on May 18, 2023, meaning the opening game came exactly 647 days later.
“It’s been like sprinting a marathon and we’re sort of at the end of the marathon,” club CEO Tom Penn said about a half-hour before the game. “The pace that we were on was so quick primarily because we didn’t have to build a stadium; Snapdragon was already constructed.
“… This is so meaningful for the community. I mean, the chance to bring something together that is literally going to be here for generations. And a professional sports team properly executed brings the community together like nothing else.”
Penn’s coach and players sounded like they can’t wait to go again in front of their fans.
“Tonight is about celebrating, tomorrow is about resting and Tuesday we get to work so that we can keep making steps,” Varas said. “This is just a step in the direction of where we want to go. … We said from the beginning we’re here to win.”
