Not going to sugarcoat anything, Saturday afternoon’s performance was absolutely horrific, as SDFC have hit a new low. San Diego came to that match flatter than a slice of New York style pizza, while the New York Red Bulls were soaring for a 4-1 victory at home. But everything is abysmal right now with fans wanting everyone to be fired in the midst of a run since the Leagues Cup of SDFC going 3-2-5 and not having seen a win since being at home against the LA Galaxy. San Diego will have to find it within themselves to try and salvage this season with just 6 matches to go.
In the last six matches, San Diego has been having a problem of stopping the best player on the pitch. Against Orlando, Antoine Griezmann scored a goal, against San Jose they failed at stopping Niko Tsakiris, against Philly they did nothing to stop Cavan Sullivan, at Miami Leo Messi made magic happen by scoring on a free kick, and in Austin they were able to come back due to a brace from Cristian Ramirez. So with a couple of weeks to prepare, Julián Hall should have been a priority, right? Well, within 15 minutes that answer was no, as Jeppe Tverskov and Aníbal Godoy gave away the ball at midfield, and the Red Bulls quickly pounced and dribbled the ball the other way. Jorge Ruvalcaba received the ball inside the penalty area, and Julián Hall ran past two defenders to receive and shoot the ball into the back of the net for the goal. The question was if Hall was offside when he received the ball, but the referee did not further review the play. The goal stood, and San Diego was already in shambles. San Diego was 0-3-10 when conceding the first goal prior to Saturday’s match and have been scored on 33 times in those matches, only being able to score 14 times for a -19 goal differential.
The bleeding did not stop in the first half, as the scoring continued from the Red Bulls. On a corner kick from Cade Cowell in the 20th minute, nobody marked Devin Padelford, who headed the ball into the net for the goal. That would be the 10th goal on a set piece for San Diego, which prior to Saturday’s match had the 5th highest expected goals rate in the league on set pieces. The score was 2-0 at that point of the match. But it only took another 7 minutes for the Red Bulls to score again, this time going the distance. From a pass by goalkeeper Ethan Horvath to Justin Che, Che sent the ball long to midfield with the intention of sending it to Julián Hall, but the ball took a bounce and, with space in front, was received by Ruvalcaba. Ruvalcaba used his speed to get past Manu Duah and, just before entering the penalty area, passed the ball to Cade Cowell. Cowell took a shot that was blocked by Oscar Verhoeven, but Cowell was able to recover the rebound. Cowell passed the ball back to Adri Mehmeti, who passed it to Ronald Donkor. Donkor was able to send the ball through into the penalty area to Ruvalcaba, who on a tough angle on the near post was able to get a shot off and score the goal to make it 3-0. Kieran Sargeant tried to slide and prevent the pass from going to Ruvalcaba in the first place and even tried to get in front of Ruvalcaba to prevent the shot, failing on both fronts. But also everyone around Sargeant just failed at defending a very tight window. With Donkor on the ball, Ian Murphy went towards Donkor, which opened space behind Murphy. What should have happened is both Manu Duah and Kieran Sargeant converging on Ruvalcaba. Instead, Duah covered the space behind him heading towards the goal. CJ Dos Santos went to cover the near post and attack the ball. Maybe if Duah goes for Ruvalcaba, Dos Santos doesn’t have the need to cover the near post and can stay at his position, probably having a better shot at saving the attempt. But since the second half of the last match in Austin, San Diego has conceded 6 unanswered goals.
The San Diego response was not great. In the 42nd minute, Marcus Ingvartsen was fouled inside the penalty area, which meant a penalty kick was awarded to San Diego FC. That was good. The bad was that Anders Dreyer took the penalty kick, went low and to his right—which he does most of the time—and the penalty attempt was saved by Ethan Horvath. The score at halftime would remain 3-0. The first half stats had San Diego with 68% possession, 7 shots with 2 on target, and 9 touches in the opposition box. The Red Bulls had 12 total shots, 6 shots on target, and 16 touches in the opposition box. Passing looked atrocious at a 79% completion rate. Captain Jeppe Tverskov was one of the weakest links in that department with a 73% completion rate, the lowest rate for Jeppe in any league game this season. If Jeppe can’t get the ball through and over to the final third, the entire system breaks down in the midfield. A change was made at halftime for Alejandro Alvarado to come in for Tverskov. The other change was Cédric Bakambu for Marcus Ingvartsen. Marcus had 4 shots in the first half with one on target, and it seemed that Bakambu was brought in for a change in speed for the attack.
The changes did seem to work in one regard, as a goal came from Cédric Bakambu in the 60th minute. With the Red Bulls on the attack on one end of the pitch, San Diego was able to intercept a pass in their own penalty area, and Godoy was able to pass the ball long to Cédric Bakambu. Bakambu was able to recover on the far side and pass the ball back to Anders Dreyer at midfield. Dreyer would dribble the ball forward as Bakambu began to move into a more central area. Dreyer passed the ball back to Oscar Verhoeven, who passed it forward to Alejandro Alvarado. Alvarado passed the ball forward to Dreyer on the wing. With Bakambu moving forward towards the penalty area, Dreyer made a long cross towards Bakambu. That is where the ball met Bakambu’s foot as he kicked it into the back of the net for the goal. That was Dreyer’s 12th goal of the season, which leads MLS. For Bakambu, that was his second goal and first in open play. San Diego had a bit of life in New Jersey. A header just minutes after the goal from Bakambu went wide and over the crossbar, but that was another great chance from San Diego FC to get this match closer.
Unfortunately for San Diego, there were not many great chances after that in regulation. The icing on this cake came in stoppage time when the Red Bulls added a fourth goal of the night. On a free kick from the Red Bulls at midfield, they decided to kick the ball long in the direction of San Diego’s penalty area. The ball was received by Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who was able to dribble past Chris McVey and CJ Dos Santos as the ball was softly kicked and rolled into the back of the net. Again, there was a breakdown in backline coverage as Manu Duah tried to go for the aerial duel, lost, and ended up on the ground. McVey was easily crossed up by Choupo-Moting, who was able to use his strength to fight off McVey going for the ball and Choupo-Moting got the shot off. The final score was 4-1 as the Red Bulls had 28 shots with 12 on target for an expected goals value of 4.16. San Diego only had 14 shots with 5 on target and just 20 touches in the opposition’s box. This was a terrible display of football as San Diego had an international break to prepare, and right now it seems like nothing is working to cover terrible defending and passing. If you can’t do those two things right, you have no chance at getting the ball into the feet of your forward players.
New York pressed San Diego it seemed like the entire match, and San Diego did not feel comfortable with that. Which is odd, as their entire system is based on inviting pressure and should be used to a team pressing them, even in training. But the Red Bulls are in the top five category of having the most pressed sequences. The other four are Philadelphia Union, Vancouver Whitecaps, St. Louis City, and Real Salt Lake. San Diego is collectively 1-1-3 against those teams. San Diego had early season success against St. Louis in a 2-0 victory, but they are a new St. Louis team that hasn’t lost a match since May 3rd, and San Diego has to face that team along with Vancouver at the very end of the month. San Diego would possibly need to defeat both clubs if they think they have a chance at the playoffs. But they need to figure out how to be quicker on the ball when getting pressed, because an 80% passing completion rate is not going to cut it.
Defensively, San Diego needs solutions on the backline. Everyone’s defending is so poor, and they are not a good unit no matter what the combination. Sargeant is just a huge drop-off from Luca Bombino. Sargeant has eclipsed the minutes that Bombino played, but in almost every defensive category Bombino was just better. It is being felt just how much of a defensive presence Bombino was after two matches and 7 goals conceded by San Diego FC. On the other side, Oscar Verhoeven is not playing at the level he was defensively last season. Tackles won percentage, ball recovery per match, and ground and aerial duels have all dropped off. Chris McVey has also been a huge disappointment and just can’t be relied on for big minutes, as Ian Murphy has been starting in his place. Remarkably, Manu Duah has been having a better year defensively than last season, but he does have moments where he has a breakdown in coverage. It could just be youth and inexperience in playing the position. Could his skills be more helpful as a 6 since Jeppe Tverskov has not been having a great season, or do you keep moving forward as-is and just hope that this group finds a way to play better defensively? The other question is, if Duah goes to a club in Europe, will it be as a center back or will he be moved back to the midfield?
With 6 matches left, maybe it’s just too late for change and you let this team die out there and have those guys figure it out. Fans want to see signs of change and adjustments. I really wish I had a nickel any time a fan said they wanted to see “a change in tactics,” as it might produce a very healthy income. Changes in play style and “tactics” would come from the Right to Dream playbook, and the head coach is just a conduit to that playbook, so there’s not going to be much change there. Players and coaches come and go, but you can’t really enact any changes there until after the season. What is going to be really interesting is what a second-year club will do after a dreadful season, only because there is no precedent set yet due to being a young club. Will they listen to the loud roars of “Fire Mikey,” or will they stick to their long-term plan of developing youth with a head coach who is known for that? Or will the club support their manager even further and bring in better quality players? Time will tell, but this club has a group of core players who are going back for next season and beyond. Players with contracts for next season or with options include Achouri, Dreyer, Ingvartsen, Tverskov, and CJ Dos Santos. Those are your players that will remain with the club for the next couple of seasons, and that’s not even the full list. But that group needs to be looked upon as they’re trying to pull themselves from the mud and mess they’ve created. Someone needs to be a leader here and start to step up and get SDFC out of this free fall.
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