A San Diego FC side-sitting ninth in the MLS Western Conference went into their first rivalry match of 2026, hoping to snap an eight-game winless run, against Los Angeles FC.
The last time SDFC fared victorious came on March 11 in a CONCACAF Champions Cup win over Liga MX side Toluca, 3-2. On March 7, they secured their last MLS victory, a 1-0 away win over Sporting Kansas City.
Midfielder and captain Jeppe Tverskov suffered a lower-body injury in the previous match against the Portland Timbers, adding another obstacle for head coach Mikey Varas and his players as they face the third-place team in the Western Conference.
Fellow midfielder Anibal Godoy took the captain’s band and played in Tverskov’s defensive midfield role.
“We talked about it [Tverskov injury] as an opportunity for players to step up,” Varas said postgame. “For Anibal to step up, in terms of putting his stamp on the team from the leadership perspective, I think he did a great job.”
Making his first appearance of 2026, goalie CJ Dos Santos was back between the posts after suffering a facial injury in last season’s playoffs at Portland.
Setting the tone in the seventh minute, forward Marcus Ingvartsen headed an Anders Dreyer corner kick that opened the scoring.
“Good first and early corner, we talked about [that] there could be early opportunities on their [LAFC] first post area,” Ingvartsen said. “It was a perfect ball, I was completely free getting in there. [A] very good start and in this moment, it gave us a lot of confidence.”
In the first half, outshooting the opposition six to one, putting up 65% possession and a 0.79 expected goals [xG] to LAFC’s 0.04 xG, the Azul y Chrome looked like the first-place-caliber team that dominated a season prior.
“I would say the first 80 minutes were really good,” Varas said. “We’re up 2-0 and I think we’re in complete control of the game. The boys showed a really great step in the right direction to who we want to be.”
Premier League legend and LAFC forward Son Heung-min was subbed into the match at minute 60, looking to spark the Black and Gold attack.
Before Son could make an impact, Ingvartsen capitalized on a turnover forced by Varas’ lethal press. LAFC forward Denis Bouanga coughed up the ball in the build-up, and SDFC defender Oscar Verhoeven lobbed the ball to Dreyer with loads of real estate.
Dreyer dealt the ball to Ingvartsen. From penalty-spot distance, he buried his second, 2-0 SDFC in the 71st minute.
“Very nice to get the second goal from open play,” Ingvartsen said. “Two nice goals, [it is] nice personally to get them in and I think as a team, at least, we played 80 very strong minutes.”
They were just 19 minutes plus stoppage time from ending the eight-game skid, but Bouanga and Son had other plans.
In the 82nd minute, Bouanga was fed a line-breaking pass by Son that had the SDFC on the back foot in their own 18-yard box. An impressive finish by Bouanga from a tough angle got one back for the Black and Gold, 2-1 SDFC.
A total of nine minutes were added, as in the 93rd minute, a masked Dos Santos put his face on the line. The goalie successfully swept the ball from Bouanga, who was through on goal. But, at the cost of exiting his first match in six months, he suffered another facial injury.
LAFC forward David Martinez won a corner in the 102nd minute.
The second ball off the corner ended up at the feet of defender Ryan Hollingshead, who at point-blank range tied the match at two, sealing the draw.
It is now nine consecutive games without a victory for SDFC, the roughest patch in the club’s short history.
“If your culture is strong, it doesn’t depend on one person,” Varas said. “The ambition we have is to have a culture where these are the moments it’s built for. Ultimately, what I do is just remind them who we are, what we play for [and] why we’re here.”
SDFC now sits in 11th place in the Western Conference and faces a tough test in its next match. A loss to fourth-place Seattle Sounders on May 9 at 7:30 p.m. would extend the winless streak to double digits.
