San Diego FC’s expansion Major League Soccer franchise set a league record for most standings points (63) and wins (19) in an inaugural season after defeating the host Portland Timbers, 4-0, on Saturday. Prior to that. San Diego FC defeated the host Houston Dynamo, 4-2, on Oct. 4 to move into a tie with the Vancouver Whitecaps for first place in the 15-team Western Conference standings.
San Diego FC (19 wins, nine losses, six ties) matched the Whitecaps (18-7-9) with 63 points in the conference table but earned the top seed in the upcoming 2025 Audi MLS Cup playoffs by virtue of more wins.
Dallas defeated Vancouver, 2-1, to aid the locals’ cause.
Amahi Pellegrino and Anders Dreyer each scored two goals in the win over Portland as the San Diegans secured the top seed in the conference playoffs in the final match of the regular season.
Pellegrino scored the match opening goal in the 26 minute, Dreyer followed with goals in the 47th and 49th minutes before Pellegrino closed out scoring in the 63rd minute.
Both Pellegrino and Dreyer each added one assist to their match total while Onni Valakari collected two assists. Jeppe Tverskov contributed one assist.
The Southern California visitors dominated the match in shots (11-10), shots on target (5-3), possession (65-35 percent), passes (565-255) and corner kicks (5-3).
Dreyer, who bagged two goals in the win over Houston, increased his season numbers to 19 goals and 19 assists.
The formidable San Diego entry finished three points ahead of the third place L.A. Football Club (17-8-9), five points ahead of fourth place Minnesota United (16-8-10) and eight points ahead of the fifth place Seattle Sounders (15-9-10).
The top nine teams in each of the Western Conference and Eastern Conference tables qualified for the playoffs. The first round features a single-elimination wildcard match-up between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds. The winner will then play the No. 1 seed in the next best-of-three Round One series.
Portland (11-12-11, 44 points) will host Real Salt Lake (12-17-5, 41 points) in the Western Conference wildcard game on Oct. 22 with the winner advancing to meet San Diego FC.
Chicago (15-11-8, 53 points) will host Orlando City (14-9-11, 53 points) in the Eastern Conference wildcard match. The winner will play top-seeded Philadelphia Union (20-8-6).
A tie match goes directly to the kicks form the penalty mark tiebreaker in Round One. The first team to win two matches advances. The higher-seeded team hosts the first and third games (if necessary).
From the conference semifinals to the MSL Cup, playoff series are single elimination with extra time and penalty shootouts for tied games. The higher-seeded team hosts.
The conference semifinals will feature two 15-minute extra time periods. If still tied, a penalty shootout will determine a winner.
The conference finals and MLS Cup final are both single-elimination matches hosted by the higher-seeded team.
Deadlocked matches are resolved via extra time, then penalty shootouts (if necessary).
The conference semifinal and finals matches are win or go home.
SDFC is guaranteed to play a minimum of two matches, three if a tie-breaking best-of-three match is required.
A team advancing directly to the championship game from Round One would play a total of five matches (two in Round One and one each in the conference semifinals, conference finals and MLS Cup). The maximum number of games played would be six (three in Round One and one each in the next three rounds).
Philadelphia topped the Eastern Conference with 66 points to win the Supporters Shield, followed by Cincinnati (20-9-5) with 65 points and Inter Miami (19-7-8) with 65 points.
Round One series match-ups in the Western Conference include No. 2 Vancouver vs. No. 7 FC Dallas on Oct. 26, No. 4 Minnesota vs. No. 5 Seattle on Oct. 27 and No. 3 LAFC vs. No. 6 Austin FC on Oct. 29.
San Diego FC will host its first playoff game on Oct. 26 and play its second game on Nov. 1. A third game would take place on Nov. 9.
Eastern Conference Round One pairings include No. 3 Inter Miami vs. No. 6 Nashville, No. 2 Cincinnati vs. No 7 Columbus, No. 4 Charlotte vs. No. 5 New York City.
Lionel Messi of Inter Miami topped the league with 29 goals, followed by Denis Bouanga of the L.A. Football Club and Sam Surridge of Nashville each with 24 goals. Dreyer ranked fourth in the league with 19 goals but first with 19 assists.
San Diego’s C.J. Dos Santos allowed 38 goals in 29 matches to rank 10th among MLS goalkeeping leaders while recording nine clean sheets.
San Diego FC’s roster includes 15 players who have scored at least one goal and 16 players who have recorded at least one assist.
Hirving Lozano ranks second on the team with nine goals and Tverskov with 11 assists.
The inaugural season has been a record-setter, starting with the first home match in team history with a stadium record 34,506 in attendance. Fans obviously liked what they saw as the newest MLS entry averaged 28,064 per game.
The team sold more than 18,000 season tickets, ranked fourth in the 30-team league in attendance and hosted more than 500,000 fans to home matches.
San Diego FC also unveiled its Right to Dream academy, the first of its kind in the league with training and education on site to develop future professionals.
NWSL
The San Diego Wave (10-8-7, 37 points) clinched a playoff berth for the third time in four seasons following a commanding 6-1 victory over the Chicago Stars (2-12-11, 17 points) on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium in front of 16,920 fans.
The six goals were a single-match club record.
Delphine Cascarino scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season while Dudinha scored her third and fourth goals of the season to make it four goals in four games for the Brazilian international.
Kenza Dali matched Cascarino for the team lead with her fifth goal of the season while also recording her third assist of the season.
Kristen McNabb scored her second goal of the season while Adriana Leon recorded her third assist of the season and Gia Corley recorded her second assist of the season.
Cascarino is the only player in the league this season with at least five goals and five assists, joining retired Wave standout Alex Morgan (seven goals, five assists in 2023).
The Wave scored three goals in the opening 18 minutes, including tallies by Cascarino, Dudinha and an own goal.
The top eight teams make the playoffs, which are slated to start with quarterfinals Nov. 7-9.
