A one-goal cushion plus a one-man advantage equaled three points for San Diego FC in its 3-2 win over LAFC on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium — but not without 45-plus minutes of anxiety for the home club.
SDFC (3-1-2) picked up three MLS Cup points with Saturday’s win, the first in franchise history at home.
The historic result came after SDFC successfully nursed the one-goal lead it held at halftime and capitalized on LAFC playing much of the second half a man down.
Midfielder Igor Jesus was sent off in the 53rd minute when he received his second yellow card of the match, allowing SDFC to play conservatively.
But with LAFC (3-3-0) threatening repeatedly even after Jesus’ red card, a celebratory atmosphere for much of the first half at Snapdragon gave way to palpable tension.
The liveliest cheers from the home crowd — which included Manny Machado and Jurickson Profar, opponents earlier in the day but both wearing chrome and azul at night — came when Chucky Lozano entered the match in the 72nd minute.
Lozano, seeing his first action since the March 1 home opener, wasted little time in firing off a shot that LAFC goalie Hugo Lloris stopped in the 75th minute.
“I felt great physically,” Lozano said via a translator. “The first half was great, and it was a result of all the work we’re doing.”
Lozano nearly scored in injury time on a free kick that barely cleared the top crossbar, not long after he had a shot attempt blocked.
SDFC’s three-goal eruption in the first half proved to be the difference in the match.
Alex Mighten capped a 19-minute flurry for the home club when his left-footed poke of an Onni Valakari found the left side of the goal. The sequence gave SDFC a 3-0 lead in the 40th minute.
Valakari’s assist came only seven minutes after he booted a goal of his own, cleaning up on a free kick that sailed just above the reach of Christopher McVey header attempt. SDFC went back to the well with the play, having scored the first goal of the match from a similar set piece.
Anders Dreyer lofted a well-placed free kick that found McVey, who rose above the traffic in the box. McVey’s header snapped beyond the reach of Lloris, finding the back of the net in the 21st minute.
“Anders has so much quality. He’s so smart at finding free spaces,” SDFC coach Mikey Varas said. “The opponents want to stop Anders, and he’s still able to impact the game in a tremendous way in so many facets.”
Artem Smoliakov scored LAFC’s first goal in the 43rd minute on a shot from beyond the box that seemed to crawl under the crossbar. The score left SDFC goalkeeper CJ dos Santos shrugging.
All the more exasperating for SDFC was that the goal came seconds after defender McVey made an athletic play to deny Denis Bouanga’s look.
Then, during injury time, Cengiz Ünder punched through another LAFC goal from just in front of the net.
“We lost our composure for two minutes, but halftime came at a good moment to cut that momentum,” Varas said. “(A lead is) never safe at the first-team level… The second you lose concentration at the first-team level, the game can change so quickly.”
Despite its chances, LAFC could not deliver the equalizer in the second half. The visitors’ best look came in the 59th minute, when David Martinez created a breakaway opportunity only to have dos Santos make a spectacular save on the point-blank attempt from the left side of the box.
Dos Santos denied Martinez again in the 65th minute.
