SDFC's Marcus Ingvartsen and Onni Valakari celebrate the former's second goal against LAFC. This victory, their 4th in a row, propels them to prepare for their first win in 9 MLS matches, with two home games before the 2026 World Cup. The resilient SDFC still needs to avoid late-game passivity to prove their revival.
SDFC ’s Marcus Ingvartsen , right, and Onni Valakari celebrate after Ingvartsen scored his second goal of the game against LAFC in the second half at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Saturday, May 02, 2026.
It’s winning time for a club that’s winless in its last nine Major League Soccer matches. Even bad things must come to an end, and there’s sound reason to believe SDFC will come out on top Wednesday night in Mission Valley for its first Major League Soccer victory since — yikes — March 7.
If a worthy but reduced Austin FC denies SDFC the three points, the breakthrough should come within San Diego’s two home games that follow ahead of the 2026 World Cup. San Diego FC has improved quite a bit since bottoming out with a franchise-worst MLS showing April 4 at San Jose. Center-forward Marcus Ingvartsen, sidelined for much of last season, has emerged to score four goals in the past five games.
The 6-foot-1 1/2 target man has lightened the load of star wing Anders Dreyer, a fellow Dane who can trust Ingvartsen’s positioning. The back line has both healed up and calmed down, with high-upside center back Manu Duah, 20, lifting his play to where it was headed before the detours of two red cards and growing pains.
Though tempo-controlling defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov may sit out another match, World Cup-bound Anibal Godoy of Panama has played fairly well in the captain’s stead the past two games. The breakthrough win won’t happen if SDFC falls into the late-game passivity that Ingvartsen cited two Saturdays ago, when third-place LAFC scored in the 80th minute and again in stoppage time to steal a 2-2 tie.
Reprising the turnover issues that cropped up late in last Saturday’s match at Seattle might extend the winless streak, too. Up 1-0 on a Sounders club that hadn’t fallen at home since its 2-0 loss in June to global powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain of France, San Diego FC “renounced the ball a little bit at the end … and we got pushed back,” coach Mikey Varas said.
Then, Sunday, it earned a road tie with Minnesota United, which beat SDFC here in April, 2-1. Much like LAFC coach Marc Dos Santos, who justifiably blasted MLS schedule-makers for having his team play its fifth game in 14 days and just four days before having to face Mexico’s top team, Austin coach Nico Estevez griped about the latest travel squeeze.
The Spaniard pointed out that his team played Sunday night in Minnesota, flew home to Texas on Monday and would fly Tuesday to San Diego. One of Austin’s starting center defenders went down Sunday, making him doubtful against SDFC. Two midfielders are still building up their stamina after an injury hiatus.
Austin FC star forward Brandon Vázquez, a Chula Vista native who scored in Austin’s 2-1 homefield win over San Diego in early 2025, may not play for long on Wednesday in his comeback from reconstructive knee surgery. Vázquez played the final seven minutes at Minnesota, a week after logging two minutes in his first match in nearly 300 days.
“The main thing is,” Varas said, “we need to play with tempo. The more we have the ball, the more we grow into the game. ”Ingsvartsen, harkening to the team’s performances of last year, when the San Diego newbies won the 15-team Western Conference, said the players are “finally starting to look like ourselves. ”The possibility of a ‘super’ El Niño is starting to make coastal California nervousWhat happens after a homeless encampment sweep?
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SDFC Marcus Ingvartsen Onni Valakari LAFC WORLD CUP 2026 Mission Valley World Cup-Bound Anibal Godoy MATCH VS AYRTON
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