San Diego FC secured their first-ever MLS playoff match victory last Sunday night, defeating the Portland Timbers 2-1. Playing their first home match in a month, the win was also their first in three months. The electric crowd was buzzing with excitement, all there to witness the team’s first ever MLS playoff match. The thunderclaps were heard all throughout the stadium and even came through loud and clear on television.

Early on, San Diego was on the attack. Around the 7th minute, Ian Pilcher had a header saved by goalkeeper James Pentemis. A couple of minutes later, it was Luca Bombino that had a shot on goal saved by Pantemis. Both fullbacks were involved in the offense early on in this match.

The scoring began in the 22nd minute when Anders Dreyer took a corner kick from the far side. Dreyer kicked the ball toward the 6-yard box, but it was headed outside the penalty area. That’s where Manu Duah was standing and waiting for the ball to come to him. Duah kicked the ball toward the goal; it was deflected by a Portland Timbers player and went off the woodwork. Standing close by was Onni Valakari, who was ready to kick the ball in, and he sent the ball to the back of the net. That was San Diego FC’s first-ever playoff goal.

San Diego kept up the attack. SDFC almost had another goal two minutes later from Amahl Pellegrino, but the officials said that Dreyer, the person who passed the ball to Pellegrino, was offside. It would not take long for San Diego fans to see another goal. After a San Diego throw-in by Ian Pilcher, Pilcher passed the ball out to Corey Baird on the near side. Baird dribbled the ball along the nearside line and passed the ball back and centrally to Anibal Godoy. Godoy had a one-touch pass out to Anders Dreyer. Dreyer passed it out toward the far side in the penalty area to Luca Bombino. Dreyer then ran toward the penalty area to find Luca’s pass and headed the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0. One of the craziest stats of the season is that whenever Anders Dreyer scores a goal, it will most likely mean that San Diego will win. Prior to Sunday’s match, San Diego was 13 wins, 1 loss, and 0 draws whenever Anders Dreyer scored a goal.

Before the half would end, San Diego would be in a bit of trouble. In the 36th minute, Luca Bombino was playing the ball on the far side when he was dispossessed by Diego Chara in the midfield. Chara was able to find Antony running in stride toward the goal. It was a 2-v-1 situation as Chris McVey was the lone center back between Antony and Krisoffer Velde. Antony passed the ball to Velde, who made a cut in front of McVey inside the penalty area and kicked the ball past CJ Dos Santos for the goal. The score was now 2-1 heading to halftime. San Diego FC had 63% of possession, 10 total shots, and 5 shots on target. Portland had 37% of possession, 3 shots, with all three being on target.

In the second half, it is hard to say which team had the tougher time trying to score a goal. San Diego missed a chance five minutes into the second half with Valakari missing his chance to score his second goal of the night. A few minutes later, Corey Baird’s shot was blocked by Pantemis. Around the 60th minute, there was a chain of events that were not in Portland’s favor. Antony missed a chance to score when he had a 1-on-1 situation against CJ Dos Santos, shooting wide of the goal. A couple of minutes later, the Timbers had a free kick on the near side where the ball was sent to the penalty area, and Kamal Miller had a headed ball go over the crossbar. Another two minutes later, the Timbers had another free kick, and as the kick was coming in, Jimmer Fory fouled Anibal Godoy right outside the penalty area, and Fory was given a yellow card for his actions. The ball would be given back to San Diego, and as that happened, Fory challenged Ian Pilcher for the ball, and his tackle was not a great one. Fory was given a second yellow, and that equals a red card. Portland would play with 10 players on the field for the rest of the night. For Fory, it means that he will not be seen on the field when San Diego plays at Providence Park. Even with 10 men on the pitch for Portland, San Diego could not capitalize on their advantage. San Diego in the second half had 79% of the possession, 5 total shots with three on target. Meanwhile, Portland had 21% of possession with 2 shots and none on target. San Diego got the win and now heads to Portland up a match in this best-of-three series.

Round 1 MLS Playoff Matchups

Speaking of Round 1, here is how the rest of the playoff matchups have done. Inter Miami easily defeated Nashville 3-1. Philadelphia and Chicago Fire had to go to penalties thanks in part to the Fire’s Jack Elliot scoring a late goal. The Union won the matchup in penalties. Another easy one was for Vancouver, as they trounced FC Dallas 3-0. The “Hell Is Real” matchup between Cincinnati FC and Columbus was a good one, with Cincinnati coming up on top 1-0. Minnesota United and Seattle Sounders had a 0-0 draw. The Sounders missed three penalties and made it easy for Minnesota to win in penalties. Charlotte FC and New York City FC saw the only away team win their match in game 1 with a score of 1-0. Finally, LAFC defeated Austin FC 2-1.

Jeppe Tverskov Extension

In other good news, San Diego FC has extended midfielder Jeppe Tverskov. The extension runs through 2027 with an option for 2028. No financial details were released, but this is great news for the captain of the club. Tverskov has been a great leader and has helped implement the Right To Dream style of play here in San Diego. In this system, San Diego tries to keep the ball a lot, and they do so with a lot of short passes. Jeppe Tverskov is right in the middle of the action. Even when other teams want to speed up the tempo, Tverskov is there to get the ball and dictate the tempo the team should be playing at.

In Tverskov’s first year in MLS, he was called up to the MLS All-Star Game and led the league with the most touches (3,249) and the most passes attempted (2,933). Jeppe is a great contributor offensively for a central defensive midfielder, with 45 key passes that lead to a shot, which ranks 33rd in the league. On the defensive side of the ball, Tverskov has 65 tackles, has 47 tackles won, and leads the league in interceptions with 68. Tverskov is just an all-around great player and an amazing player to have in the midfield.

According to MLS Analytics, in the score for the number of passes over or under the expected, Tverskov is just second to Cristian Roldan, who has a score of 71.12. Tverskov’s score is 61.45. Roldan, who is 30 years old, was probably seen as one of the best defensive midfielders in MLS until Tverskov came around. Roldan currently earns about $1.6 million from the Sounders and is labeled a TAM player. I do not believe Tverskov would receive a big raise from his current $700,000, but it will be a slight increase that may make him a TAM player.

The Business of MLS: Milan Iloski’s Salary and SDFC’s TAM Budget

Speaking of salaries, the Major League Soccer Players Association came out with their updated list of players’ salaries. This became a hot topic around the web with people wondering how much Milan Iloski makes. Milan Iloski is a former SDFC player that was loaned to San Diego FC from FC Nordsjælland. Iloski scored 10 goals while with San Diego, and when they could not agree to a deal, Iloski went back to Nordsjælland. Iloski spent a very short time back in Denmark and then came back to MLS with the Philadelphia Union on a million-dollar fee.

Terms of his salary were not released at the time, but now we have those numbers. Iloski’s guaranteed compensation is $552,569. Iloski is also a TAM player, which means you also have to add on the million-dollar transfer fee and possibly divide it by the years of his contract. Iloski is signed through 2027, so you could estimate that $333,000 is being tacked on to his contract each year he is a TAM player. So his total TAM salary would be around $880,000.

Now, is that an amount San Diego FC could have paid? It is tough to say, but my opinion is no. The issue with his salary is that it is a big jump from the $150,000 he was making with SDFC. This is a cap league, where you have to be smart with your dollars. You can use TAM for this type of situation. Target Allocated Money (TAM) is a way to cover any money over the salary budget charge. The maximum salary budget charge is $743,750. TAM will cover anything over that, and that includes a player’s transfer or loan fee. There is also a budget number for each year of how much TAM you can use, and this year’s number was $2,225,000.

Currently, San Diego has six TAM players: Luca De La Torre, Marcus Ingvartsen, Paddy McNair, Andres Reyes, Onni Valakari, and Corey Baird. Their total compensation and estimated TAM numbers (any overage above the maximum salary) are detailed below.

Most of Baird’s and Pellegrino’s salaries are covered by their former teams. Back to the TAM budget number, the team is already at $2,204,491 out of the $2,225,000 TAM budget. San Diego simply did not have enough TAM to cover a $500k salary plus a transfer fee. Most of their TAM money was already spent on players already on the roster.

The Union was able to pick up Iloski because they had enough TAM to make the deal possible. Also, with TAM availability decreasing next year to $2,125,000, Iloski is able to fit their budget but with some tough decisions. Rumor has it that one of their TAM players, Tai Baribo, will be set to leave in free agency. This will free up some TAM for next year with a smaller TAM budget. Union is not the only team having to make tough decisions on their roster. For San Diego FC, they would love Luca De La Torre to come back next year after his loan is completed, but on a slightly smaller salary. The pay cut De La Torre will be looking at will be significantly less than the $1.6 million he is making this year. These are the kinds of things that happen in a salary cap league; tough decisions will be made to not only balance the budget but to field a competitive team.