San Diego FC faced its first MLS-level opponent on Saturday at the Coachella Valley Invitational falling 3-1 to New York City FC. NYCFC failed to take advantage of the first clear scoring opportunity which came in the 5th minute when forward Alonso Martinez missed from just six yards out.
SDFC later capitalized when forward Chucky Lozano found teammate Paddy McNair on a beautiful cross into the box that the former Manchester United player headed into the back of the net from point-blank range. San Diego had a chance to extend the lead in the 24th minute on a breakaway opportunity by forward Anders Dreyer, but the final touch failed him in a one versus one against goalkeeper Matt Freese.
NYCFC started to slowly recover its form and tied the game in the 28th minute when defender Tayvon Gray found Martinez who was able to beat goalkeeper CJ dos Santos. Martinez was not done as he then found teammate Mounsef Bakrar 10 minutes later for the 2-1 lead in favor NYCFC.
San Diego FC was more dominant to start the second half and appeared to tie the match in the 59th minute when Lozano found teammate Anibal Godoy who placed the ball past the outstretched arm of Freese. After a brief discussion with the linesman, the referee ruled that there was obstruction on the shot by an SDFC player who was in an offside position which took the goal off the board.
After both sides made their respective substitutions immediately after the controversial play, including the appearance of San Diego native and USMNT star Luca de la Torre in the 64th minute, Martinez would put the game away for New York City with a golazo less than a minute later on a right-footed shot from 20 yards out.
SDFC now gets ready for its second game of the tournament versus the Portland Timbers on Wednesday before closing out against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, Feb. 15.
“We have a lot of guys who haven’t played in this league and they’ve come from leagues where the transition is different,” said San Diego FC head coach Mikey Varas. “This is a transition league, so this is exactly what we needed. What we’re doing is we are preparing them for what the reality of this league is.”
Grades for SDFC’s performance vs NYCFC
Goalkeeping: B
Even though the opponent scored three times, CJ dos Santos came up big on several occasions with little help from his backline in the first two scores and nothing any goalkeeper could do to prevent the worldie goal from Martinez on the third one.
Midfield: B-
Despite playing limited time together and half the players on the pitch being substituted in the middle of the second half, SDFC did not look overly burdened by the NYCFC pressure.
Attack: B-
The best chances came early on with another one coming in the 52nd minute that Lozano almost scored on and took a great reaction from Freese to fingertip away from the net. Chucky also had another chance in a breakaway but decided to go for a short pass to an open teammate in the middle of the box that ended up getting deflected instead of attempting a left-footed shot from
12-yards out.
Backline: D-
The point of concern for the rest of the tournament and something that needs to be rectified before the regular-season opener versus LA Galaxy. Martinez could have easily tallied another couple of goals for himself if it wasn’t for the goalkeeping and him just not putting the right touch on his shot.
Officiating: D
While I usually don’t bring this up, it was noticeable that the head referee was also in pre-season mode. He missed a clear yellow when a NYCFC player practically hogtied Lozano and later issued a yellow card on SDFC captain Jeppe Tverskov after complaining about the disallowed goal by Godoy. It was probably over-compensation by the ref since he had no reason to disallow the goal considering he had a better view than the linesman, but referred to his colleague even though no flag had gone up indicating an offside position or interference on the goalkeeper.
