Photos by Nico Estep

Snapdragon Stadium hosted a playoff game on Sunday night. It was also San Diego FC’s [SDFC] first ever playoff game as the club is in its inaugural season. 

“Just a tremendous honor to have the responsibility [of] representing San Diego as a community,” SDFC Head Coach Mikey Varas said postgame, describing the significance of the club’s first postseason victory in its first year of existence. “As the head coach, making sure we develop a team and individual players that are a reflection of the values of the entire community; all 18 [cities of San Diego County], including Baja California. So I would say a huge honor, but a lot of hunger,” Varas said. 

From the get go, SDFC gave their opponents in the Portland Timbers absolutely no chance to get comfortable. The 11 players on the pitch in Azul y Chrome, a capacity-filled venue and Frontera SD in full volume made its impact known on the scoreline early on. 

Both SDFC goals on the night were scored in the first 30 minutes.

“I think the team came out with tremendous focus and concentration playing at a very high tempo. Very collective in nature [and] really compact. When we played compactly and at a high tempo, it was very difficult for Portland,” Varas said on what he saw on the pitch from his side. 

SDFC’s number 10, Anders Dreyer, who is also a MLS Newcomer of the Year and MVP Finalist has experienced playing in various European football stadiums and environments. Sunday night was a new experience for the 27-year-old Danish winger.

“It meant a lot. It takes me back to the first game in the history of the club, but this playoff game was different. The fans today were amazing, I think I’ve never experienced something like that,” Dreyer said of what this playoff victory means to him. “Before kick-off, I was standing and looking around and took it in. I am so happy we won the first game in the playoffs, here at Snapdragon [Stadium] where it’s been tough for us. It’s a win, we can be happy for 24 hours and then we look ahead to Saturday,” Dreyer said. 

It is a best-of-three series between Portland Timbers and SDFC. The MLS assists leader ended up scoring the goal that would be the difference in the first game of the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. 

“I think Cory [Baird] had it on the right side, played it to Anibal [Godoy] and Anibal saw me I was free. He passed me through, one-touch, then I saw [Luca Bombino] arriving [and] free. Then a one-two, he [Bombino] made a perfect cross back, I put my head in the ball it goes in,” Dreyer said, breaking down his diving header goal. 

Substituted on the pitch in the 58th minute, Torrey Pines High School alumnus, Luca De La Torre was on target with all 26 of his passes. 

“It’s not something to take for granted to play for the club that’s your hometown club. To represent the people you grew up with and [with] the community. Tonight was a festival of football, it was on I’ll definitely remember,” De La Torre said of the playoff atmosphere and the privilege to play in this match. 

The ‘festival of football’ as De La Torre put it did not feature the club’s highest paid player. It was brought up various times in the postgame press conference about the absence of forward Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano. 

“We had a situation that we’ve been handling internally. We think Hirving’s response has been positive in training. He’s been working hard, showing a lot of commitment to get back into the team. We had already communicated to him before this game, as long as there’s no setback, that he’ll be back,” Varas said if leaving Lozano out of the matchday squad in consecutive games was an indication if the ‘situation’ had not been resolved.

This ‘situation’ refers to a halftime “verbal altercation” involving Lozano in the penultimate regular season fixture at Houston on October 4. This was reported by Tom Bogert of The Athletic.

At SDFC postgame press conferences, bilingual players are asked questions in English, then in Spanish due to a notable presence of Hispanic media. 

De La Torre is one of the bilingual players. He was asked in Spanish about Lozano.   

“It’s a situation we are handling internally. The group is at a really good place right now and everyone was ready to play,” De La Torre said in English when asked in Spanish regarding the absence of Lozano. Strangely, the San Diego native responded to every Spanish question in the same language aside from this one.

Could this indicate that there is more to the ‘situation’ or perhaps that the words are not matching what is actually going on? 

Nonetheless, SDFC without number 11 secured the victory. They are set to face the Timbers in Portland on Saturday as it will be Game 2 at 6:30 p.m. If SDFC is victorious, they advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. If SDFC is defeated at Providence Park, a tiebreaking Game 3 will occur on November 9 at Snapdragon Stadium.