The FIFA World Cup has long established itself as the planet’s biggest sporting event, even outclassing the Olympic Games. Both high-profile events occur every four years.
While the Olympic Games are certainly prestigious, the World Cup offers fans a chance to turn up the volume and turn their national pride into party time.
Venues throughout San Diego County participated with watch parties and gathering spots for this year’s expanded 48-team event. With more teams than ever, there’s been more reasons to cheer.
Belmont Park anchored one of the more massive sites with Head to Fit Social serving as the official San Diego FC 39-day soccer celebration point with large screens, live music, giveaways and player appearances for every match.
Other popular viewing locations include the downtown Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy and South County. Southwestern College will host a World Cup Final viewing party on July 19 as a hub for East County fans.
Chula Vista wasn’t the only South Bay community caught up in the celebration of Mexico’s 1-0 win over South Korea on June 18 that attracted tens of thousands of local soccer aficionados to the streets. Much of Highland Avenue in National City was blocked off after the game, necessitating detours for northbound bus routes.
Instead, excited fans honked horns and waved flags down Plaza Boulevard as a spontaneous fireworks display lit up the festivities.
Everyday life seems to come to a halt during the World Cup. There’s no competing against it for attention.
Thus, with North America (United States, Mexico and Canada) playing host to the 2026 mega tournament, the continent’s two major professional soccer leagues — Major League Soccer and the Women’s National Soccer League — have both taken a well-timed break.
MLS is taking a substantial pause in its 2026 schedule – nearly two months – while the NWSL has elected to postpone league matches until the World Cup’s group stage finishes.
San Diego FC played its last match on May 23 — a 4-2 loss to the MLS Cup runner-up Vancouver Whitecaps. The local kickers return to the pitch on July 22 with a road game in Colorado and host FC Dallas on July 25.
The San Diego Wave FC last played on May 31 – a 2-0 road win in Chicago. They resume their NWSL schedule with a July 4 home game against Gotham FC at Snapdragon Stadium.
Pretty in pink
The Wave enters the second half of the season on top of the league’s 16-team table with a record of eight wins, four losses and three ties for 25 standings points– one point ahead of the Utah Royals FC (7-3-2, 24 points) and Portland Thorns (7-3-3, 24 points).
The top eight teams qualify for the 2026 NWSL playoffs. While the Wave secured the No. 6 playoff berth last season while sneaking into the postseason by one standings point, the local kickers appear to be dictating the pace this season.
The Wave engineered a five-match winning streak from March 22 to April 25 to make a climb up the standings. Wins came against Utah (2-1), Portland (3-1), Chicago (2-0), Boston (1-0) and Denver (3-2).
There’s still much to prove, however.
Regular season play extends through Nov. 2, followed by playoffs Nov. 7-22.
The Wave will be looking to pick up from where it left off following its shutout victory over the host Chicago Stars. Brazilian forward Dudinha opened scoring with her team-leading fifth goal of the year. Trinity Byars doubled the score in the dying moments of the match with her third career goal as the Wave secured its third clean sheet on the season thanks to three saves by Bosnian international goalkeeper DiDi Haracic.
Haracic, who replaces Canadian international and Wave fan favorite Kailen Sheridan in the net, is a capable veteran with appearances in more than 100 matches with various clubs since her NWSL debut in 2013.
Sheridan has since signed a two-year contract with the North Carolina Courage. She will be tasked with moving her team, currently in seventh place in the standings, into pursuit of the Wave.
Men in black
San Diego FC set two MLS expansion team records in its start-up season in 2025: most standings points (63) and most wins (19).
The San Diego side surpassed the 57 points compiled by the Los Angeles Football Club in 2018 and the 17 wins by St. Louis CITY SC in 2023.
The team’s magical first season attracted notice with an attendance average of 28,064 at Snapdragon Stadium, including numerous crowds totaling more than 30,000 and more than half a million for the season. The team’s home opener attracted a 34,056 sellout.
The team ranked fourth in attendance in the 30-team league, ranking behind only teams with established NFL stadiums.
The season ended in the Western Conference Final as the No.-1 seeded San Diego side fell to second-seeded Vancouver, 3-1, in front of a sellout crowd of 32,502 fans at Snapdragon Stadium.
By all accounts, it was an incredible run.
That was last year. Quite a bit has changed since then.
The local side entered the midpoint of its second season with some ground to make up.
Following the May 23 loss to Vancouver, San Diego FC’s record stood at four wins, six losses and five ties for 17 standings points — 15 points off the lead by the Whitecaps and San Jose Earthquakes in the Western Conference standings.
The top nine teams in the conference qualify for the playoffs. SDFC stood in 10th place — three points behind the ninth place L.A. Galaxy (5-5-5, 20 points) — at the midseason break.
Following Vancouver (10-2-2, 32 points) and San Jose (10-3-2, 32 points) in the standings were Real Salt Lake (8-4-2, 26 points), Dallas (7-4-4, 25 points), Los Angeles FC (7-5-3, 24 points), Seattle Sounders FC (7-3-3, 24 points), Houston Dynamo FC (7-6-1, 22 points), Minnesota United FC (6-5-4, 22 points) and the Galaxy.
The five teams in the conference standings beneath SDFC included the Colorado Rapids (5-9-1, 16 points), St. Louis (4-6-4, 16 points), Portland Timbers (4-8-2, 14 points), Austin FC (3-7-5, 14 points) and Sporting Kansas City (3-9-2, 11 points).
San Diego defeated Portland and Minnesota in the opening two rounds of last year’s playoffs.
There’s plenty of time to vie for playoff berths. The regular season schedule extends through Nov. 7.
The 2026 MLS Cup playoffs are scheduled to kick-off Nov. 18. The format includes five rounds: a single-elimination wildcard round between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, a best-of-three first-round series, a single-elimination conference semifinal, a single-elimination conference final and the MLS Cup Final.
Ties in the wildcard round are decided by a penalty shootout. Two 15-minute overtime periods will be played in the conference semifinals if tied after 90 minutes. If needed, extra time will be played in the conference final.
The top seven teams in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs.
Overall, 11 players had tallied goals in the first half of the season for SDFC: Danish internationals Marcus Ingvartsen (11 goals) and Andreas Dreyer (seven goals), Los Angeles native David Vazquez (six goals), Finnish international Onni Valakari (three goals), 18-year-old rookie Bryan Zamble (two goals), a graduate of the Right to Dream Academy, Luca Bombino (two goals), Amahl Pellegrino (two goals), Chris McVey (one goal), Manu Duah (one goal), Alex Mighten (one goal) and Pedro Soma (one goal).
The team’s goalkeeping position has been anchored this season by 19-year-old San Diego native Duran Ferree and Cape Verde World Cup call-up C.J. Dos Santos, the team’s mainstay in its first season.
Dos Santos, towering at six feet, four inches tall, appeared in 30 games for SDFC in 2025 with 10 clean sheets and a 70.5 save percentage.
Ferree had played the bulk of minutes (1,080) in 2026 with a 4-5-3 record and 69.5 save percentage.
The team’s impact additions in 2026 include Scottish international Lewis Morgan from the New York Red Bulls, the 2024 MLS Comeback Player of the Year, and young U.S. youth international Soma, 19, acquired from Spanish side UE Corneilla.
Key departures include Mexican winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, veteran Northern Ireland international defender Paddy McNair, midfielder Luca de la Torre (native San Diegan) and veteran Argentine defender Francio Negri.
Lozano appeared in 27 games last season (22 starts) with nine goals and 10 assists but apparently did not fit into the team’s plans for this season. De la Torre’s loan agreement with the U.S. national team expired and he has since signed with FC Charlotte (MLS Eastern Conference).
Dreyer scored some of the biggest goals for San Diego FC last season in bidding for MLS Player of the Year honors. He totaled 19 goals — 23 across all competitions — while adding nine assists.
He held the honor of scoring the team’s first goal, actually the club’s first two goals, in a 2-0 win over the Galaxy on Feb. 23, 2025. He didn’t stop there until the season was officially over.
Dreyer was heavily decorated with awards for MLS Newcomer of the Year, MLS Best XI and MLS All-Star Team. He tied the league record for goal contributions by a first-year player.
Valakari, an attacking midfielder, provided offensive support last season with three league goals and five assists. Vazquez tacked on three league goals from his midfield position while Danish forward Marcus Ingvartsen contributed four assists.
Dreyer is under contract with SDFC through the 2028-29 season with an option through the 2029-30 season. Valakari is under contract through the 2028 season while Ingvartsen is under contract through the 2027 season with options through the 2029 season.
Vazquez is under contract through the 2027 season with an option for 2028.
All four players rank at the top of the team’s scoring table in 2026.
Ingvartsen topped the squad with 11 goals in 15 matches to lead the league while Dreyer followed with six goals and Valakari and Vazquez had both chipped in with three goals. Dreyer paced the team with nine assists while Valakari followed with five assists and Ingvarstn with four assists.
Dreyer and Ingvartsen are tied with 15 goal contributions this season while Valakari follows with 11.
“Being able to create history from day one in this amazing city is something that will be magical,” Ingvartsen said upon joining the team for its inaugural season.
He’s making an even more of a contribution to the team’s success in his second season following an injury plagued first season.
Of note, Zamble, 18, scored his first goal in the team’s home opener on Feb. 21 and added a second goal on Feb. 23.
More homegrown talent is in the pipeline.
Making Waves
The NWSL has grown significantly in both size and talent since its formation in 2012 as the successor league to Women’s Professional Soccer (2007-12), which in turn was the successor league to the Women’s United Soccer Association (2000-03).
The NWSL began play in 2013 with eight teams, four of which were former members of WPS.
The league added a ninth team in 2014. Fourteen teams competed in the league last season. There are 16 teams this season.
Since its formation 13 years ago, seven clubs have won the league’s playoff championship and six teams have won the NWSL Shield, emblematic of the team with the best record during regular season play.
Gotham FC is the defending NWSL champion while the Kansas City Current is the league’s defending regular season champion.
The league remains fiercely competitive. Gotham FC secured the final playoff berth last season as the No. 8 seed and promptly ran the table with successive upsets over the top-seeded Current, fourth-seeded Orlando Pride and second-seeded Washington Spirit.
Gotham FC, the successor team to the Sky Blue FC of WPS, also won the 2023 NWSL Final played in front of 25,011 fans at Snapdragon Stadium (a new league single-game championship match record) with a 2-1 win over Seattle.
The Wave is the San Diego region’s first top tier professional women’s soccer team since the San Diego Spirit disbanded with the WUSA in 2003. The San Diego Sunwaves represented the region in the now-defunct USL W-League (U.S. Soccer second tier) from 2005-07.
The Sunwaves, which began play as the San Diego Gauchos Women (based in their inaugural season at Sweetwater High School), won the W-League’s Western Conference regular season championship in 2007 braced by Mexican international goalkeeper Sophia Perez, a Bonita Vista High School and SDSU alumna.
The USL W-League existed from 1995 to 2015 with 127 unique teams existing over the course of its history. The league boasted 18 teams in its final season.
Perez, who recorded 30 caps for Mexico from 2004-10, won a national championship in the Women’s Premier Soccer League with the Orange County Waves in 2011. She was a pat of Olympic and Women’s World Cup qualifying teams with Mexico.
Women’s professional soccer continues to grow from the seed planted by lower division leagues.
There are five NWSL teams spread along the West Coast (Seattle, Portland, Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego). Utah makes it six teams west of the continental divide.
Five teams are spread across the Atlantic seaboard.
Expansion teams in Atlanta and Columbus (Ohio), both affiliated with MLS, are scheduled to join the league in 2028.
Five of the original eight clubs are still in operation, though three under new monikers.
Expansion teams for this season include the Boston Legacy and Denver Summit.
The Wave joined the NWSL in 2022 along with Angel City FC (Los Angeles) and found almost instant success.
The team’s first match at Snapdragon Stadium attracted a sellout crowd of 32,000 against Angel City after a late season move from 6,000-seat Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego.
The Wave advanced as far as the semifinal playoffs its inaugural season with a 2-1 quarterfinal win over the Chicago Red Stars in front of 26,215 fans at Snapdragon Stadium to set a league postseason single-game attendance record.
However, that first otherwise magical season ended in the next round with a 2-1 loss in Portland.
The Wave was heavily represented in the league’s postseason awards in 2022 with Alex Morgan winning the Golden Boot award, Sheridan named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, Naomi Girma selected as both the Defender of the Year and Rookie of the Year and Casey Stoney regaled as NWSL Coach of the Year.
The Wave came back the next season in 2023 to win the NWSL Shield as the team with the best regular season record.
Despite the improved success, the Wave was eliminated in the semifinals again following a 1-0 loss to the OL (Seattle) Reign. Girma earned accolades as U.S. Soccer’s Female Player of the Year.
The Wave crashed ashore in its third season by finishing 10th in the league standings and failed to make the playoffs. A seven-game winless stretch cost Casey her job. U.S. Soccer men’s icon Landon Donovan served as an interim coach to the end of the season.
Still, the franchise made headway with a valuation of $120 million in a sale to new owners in 2024 compared to the $2 million expansion fee paid just two years earlier.
