While the San Diego Padres were in the midst of a four-game sweep against the Atlanta Braves at Petco Park to open the 2025 Major League Baseball season, soccer fans also had something noteworthy to cheer for as San Diego FC secured its first home field victory over the Los Angeles Football Club last Saturday in front of 32,502 fans at Snapdragon Stadium.
The victory was definitely a measuring stick for Major League Soccer’s newest club, which improved its early season record to three wins, one loss and two ties (3-1-2) as it carved out a third-place niche in the 15-team Western Conference standings.
The win was also emotional as it came against an established MLS team, not to mention a new geographic rival.
San Diego FC now has some bragging rights after going 2-0 against the league’s two Los Angeles-based franchise. SDFC previously defeated the host L.A. Galaxy, 2-0, on opening weekend.
More history-making tidbits: the hosts led 3-0 through 40 minutes to the delight — astonishment, perhaps? — of the near-capacity crowd.
First-year head coach Mikey Varas called the first half showing by his new side “unbelievable.”
“The first 38 or 40 minutes of that match we were unbelievable,” Varas said. “I hope everyone takes notice of the San Diego team’s effort and quality of its players. That’s how I felt at that moment.
You play a top team with top players and those things can happen. They started pressing us and we made an effor. We lost our composure for a minute. Halftime came at the right moment.”
The second half wasn’t too bad, either, after the hosts regained their composure by holding the L.A. visitors scoreless to preserve the milestone one-goal victory.
Christopher McVey opened scoring in the 21st minute on a head shot to stake the hosts to a 1-0 lead. Onni Valakari pounced on a misplay by LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to double the lead at the 33-minute mark and Alex Mighten made it 3-0 in the 40th minute.
Valakari also drew the assist on Mighten’s tally to give him two goals and three assists in six games with the team.
Anibal Godoy set up McVey’s goal with a free kick.
The match was far from over, however, and LAFC made a game of it with back-to-back goals to close out the opening half. Artem Smolyakov trimmed the SDFC lead to 3-1 with a goal in the 43rd minute and teammate Cengiz Ünder scored five minutes into stoppage time to lower the SDFC lead to 3-2.
Overall, the hosts logged the better statistical edge in the rivalry match. San Diego FC out-shot LAFC 15-12 with six shots on target, a 63 percent possession edge, 90 percent pass accuracy and 12-8 advantage in fouls.
There were six yellow caution cards issued in the contest — four to the hosts. The visitors picked up one red card ejection, allowing San Diego FC to play with a one-man advantage in the second half.
The Vancouver Whitecaps continue to lead the Western Conference standings with a 4-1-1 record and 13 points, followed by Austin FC (4-2-0) with 12 points.. SDFC is tied with Minnesota and the Colorado Rapids, both with 11 points.
LAFC entered the week eighth in the Western Conference table with three wins and three losses.
SDFC’s only loss so far this season has been to Austin.
Next up for the San Diegans is a home match against Seattle (1-2-3) on Saturday, April 5, and a road match April 12 at Colorado.
Two MLS teams remain undefeated to kick off the new season — Inter Miami with a 4-0-1 record to lead the Eastern Conference and the Columbus Crew with three wins and three ties to lie one point behind Inter Miami in the conference standings.
Pad squad
The Padres generated home runs by Fernando Tatis Jr., Gavin Sheets and Jake Cronenworth in the sweep of the Braves. A.J. Smith-Shawyer, Jose Suarez and Hector Neris combined on a 5-0 shutout with nine strikeouts in Sunday’s finale. The Friars opened a three-game series against visiting Cleveland with a 7-2 win on Monday for their first 5-0 start in club history.
Make that 6-0 after Tuesday’s 7-0 victory over the Guardians.
