With San Diego’s 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night, SDFC was officially eliminated from the playoffs. With one more match to go, at best San Diego finishes in 11th place in the Western Conference, and at worst, San Diego finishes in 13th place. No doubt this was a sophomore slump filled with the arrogance of the season before that finished at the top of the Western Conference and the ignorance that this club could just continue with sustained success. Fingers will be pointed, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Will San Diego FC learn from their mistakes in the shortened season three, or will they stick to their Right to Dream form of developing youth and forgetting about success in the present?
The nail in the coffin came on Wednesday night as San Diego FC played against the Vancouver Whitecaps, the team at the very top of the conference. Vancouver would score first, coming off a corner kick that was headed away by Pellegrino, but Tate Johnson would head the ball back into the penalty area. Ryan Gauld would recover and pass the ball out to Mathias Laborda. Laborda would pass the ball centrally to Aleksa Cvetkovic, who easily tapped the ball into the back of the net for the goal. Even with eight outfield players inside the penalty area for San Diego, Vancouver was still able to find the space to get passes through and have the ball go into the net for the goal. Just a poor defensive showing from San Diego FC. More defensive lapses continued as, in the 41st minute, Chris McVey and Oscar Verhoeven just couldn’t connect on a pass. The ball was recovered by Tate Johnson, and he passed the ball forward to Yadaly Diaby as he headed towards the penalty area. Diaby would pass the ball back towards the top of the box for Oliver Larraz. Larraz would send a cross into the penalty area for Brian White, who headed the ball in for the goal. Again, just a poor breakdown in defensive coverage inside the penalty area. At halftime, it was 2-0, and this is where it felt like San Diego FC wasn’t going to be able to come back.
In the 66th minute, it was another cross into the penalty area; this time it was Edier Ocampo on the near side. Ocampo’s cross was kicked by Rayan Elloumi on the volley towards goal, where Ryan Gauld was able to dive and head the ball into the back of the net for the third goal. But this is something teams have been doing since late last year: sending crosses into the penalty area, creating havoc, and San Diego FC just doesn’t know how to defend, how to man-mark, or do anything when the ball is over their heads. Ten minutes later, on a fast break going the other way for Vancouver, it was Bruno Caicedo who was able to deliver the final blow for the fourth goal. San Diego FC was able to get one back on a set piece that was delivered by David Vazquez and headed by Onni Valakari. It looked very accidental as the ball traveled behind Valakari, who was looking in the opposite direction, and into the upper right corner of the goal, barely going in. So San Diego was able to get one back in a 4-1 final, which eliminates SDFC from playoff contention.
In St. Louis, with now nothing left to play for, it was time to play the kids. Bryan Zamble, Pedro Soma, and Alejandro Alvarado all made the start on Saturday afternoon. St. Louis was still playing for a higher placement in the Western Conference but had to do it without first-choice keeper Roman Burki. This meant that Benjamin Lundt would make the start. St. Louis was facing a bit of a U.S. Open Cup hangover after rotating players before the cup and losing that match against Minnesota. After winning the cup, St. Louis dropped two more league matches. The goalkeeping change proved to be a factor when, with St. Louis on the ball just outside San Diego’s penalty area, SDFC was able to intercept a ball from Chris Durkin at the feet of Marcus Ingvartsen. This forced Durkin to slide to win the ball back, but St. Louis did not recover, and Ingvartsen was able to get a pass off to Alejandro Alvarado. On the counter, Alvarado was able to send a pass through to Anders Dreyer at midfield. When Dreyer finally had control of the ball, he chipped a shot over the goalkeeper Lundt who was way off his line, and the ball bounced right into the back of the net for the lone goal of the match. That was Dreyer’s 15th goal of the season and his ninth non-penalty goal of the season.
San Diego was able to get their eighth clean sheet of the season, with only the LA Galaxy match being the lone game where San Diego was scored on and still won the match. With nothing to lose, it felt like in this match San Diego opened up their play style a little bit. San Diego had 13 total shots with two on target, six shots from outside the box, and seven from inside the box. But there was more than just shooting from outside the box; San Diego had a wide buildup in this match, being much more direct in buildup and progression. That’s not San Diego’s style or what has been bestowed to SDFC by the Right to Dream system. San Diego is much more patient in their buildup and more central. This seemed to be more of a Mikey Varas influence, telling his bosses that with nothing more to play for, it was time to see what the head coach could do with his players. Possession was also at 50/50, with St. Louis City also fighting for the ball and possession. The field tilt favored St. Louis, but sometimes in this crazy game, all you need is one goal, the best defensive match of the season, and you come out victorious.
Up next for San Diego FC is Sporting KC for their final home match of the season. San Diego will continue to evaluate this roster as Sporting Director Tyler Heaps and Head Coach Mikey Varas try to bounce back from this terrible season to have a successful sprint season. As we saw with St. Louis, Varas will likely give more playing time to younger players to close out the season. Alejandro Alvarado is one of those players who will need his option to be picked up at the end of the season. Alvarado played very well against St. Louis; not only did he have the lone assist for the only goal of the match, but he was heavily involved in the midfield with the most touches for San Diego FC at 70. The midfielder playing alongside Alvarado was Pedro Soma, who played okay, but you could clearly see why Alvarado is favored among the coaching staff and is higher up the depth chart over Soma. And before anyone gives me the “well, you could have just started Soma and Alvarado more” take, please just stop that. Would you really want this squad, even more inexperienced, playing more young guys in the midfield along with the terrible backline? I don’t think that goes over as well as most people think. I think this season, the coaching staff chose experience over the raw talent of Soma, though that could change next season if Godoy’s option is not picked up. I can see Alvarado heading into next season as the starter alongside Jeppe, with Soma being a depth piece off the bench. Or the time may come that they transition from Jeppe to Soma and Alvarado in the midfield next season.
We’ve talked about two guys that need their options picked up in Godoy and Alvarado, and there are 13 more names on that list that need their options picked up and to re-sign with SDFC at the end of the season. Gabriel Pirani and Cedric Bakambu should be shoo-ins to be re-signed at the end of the season, with Pirani having one more season left under his U-22 contract. Amahl Pellegrino is a maybe; it depends on how San Diego FC wants to handle Bryan Zamble, who also has an option for next season. Both Pellegrino and Zamble will be playing behind Achouri and will have limited minutes. The next guys on the list that are a “no way they should be re-signed” are Willy Kumado, Alex Mighten, and Ema Boateng. The rest are playing for a spot on next season’s roster, and that’s Ian Murphy, Oscar Verhoeven, Kieran Sargeant, Sam Vines, Ian Pilcher, and Marcus Alstrup. It’s doubtful that Alstrup gets re-signed, but he could stay around if the team decides to loan out Ferree. It’s going to be interesting how San Diego FC handles the off-season and potential turnover on this roster to have a better year in a shortened season.
With nothing else to play for and only prospects to watch, all I have left to say is thanks again for reading. It was a truly up-and-down season, and I’ll probably recap the entire campaign at a later date. Cheers!
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