SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 05: Hirving Lozano #11 and Anibal Godoy #20 of San Diego FC celebrate after a goal against the Seattle Sounders during the first half at Snapdragon Stadium on April 05, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
San Diego FC is doing something an expansion team should not be doing. After Saturday night’s 3-0 win over Seattle, they’re sitting in 2nd place in the Western Conference and have the fourth-best record in all of Major League Soccer.
Sure, they’ve only played seven matches. But this group has only been together for about two and a half months so, logically, they should not even be playing this well. Captain Jeppe Tverskov offered an explanation of why things have come together so quickly.
“We train very structured. People know their roles and that’s why we are clicking that early, being a brand-new team,” says Tverskov, who scored his first SDFC goal against the Sounders.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
The history of expansion teams in North American professional sports is littered with teams that are offered up as cannon fodder for established franchises. Starting in 1969 the NFL, NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball have added a total of 37 brand new expansion teams (not including established franchises like when the NFL and AFL merged or the NBA absorbed the ABA).
All of them have finished with a losing record and missed the playoffs except one, the 2018 Vegas Golden Knights who shocked the world by winning the Western Conference and going all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
In Major League Soccer, early success has been a little easier to come across. In 1998, the Chicago Fire won the MLS championship in their first year in existence. However, that was a very different time for Major League Soccer. The league only had 12 teams, eight of them made the playoffs, and three of them were so bad they’d dissolve in the next few years so winning was actually a whole lot easier.
Local
The league finally started to figure things out in 2007 and has added 19 teams since then. Of those 19, five have managed to make the playoffs:
2009 - Seattle Sounders
2017 - Atlanta United
2018 - LAFC
2020 - Nashville SC
2023 - St. Louis City SC
All of them lost their first playoff game except Nashville, who owns the only expansion team postseason win in MLS history (which of course happened with the extenuating circumstances of a global pandemic).
And that brings us back to SDFC. It bears noting, they’ve beaten four of the last five MLS Cup champions and feel like there’s still a lot more in the tank.
“I feel like we’ve been very good in periods of the game this season,” says Tverskov, who echoes his coach’s sentiment that they have yet to put together a complete game.
“The fact of the matter is, we're not even close to as good as we can be, because I don't think we've put together more than 50 minutes, 55 minutes of our complete highest level without a bit of a drop,” says head coach Mikey Varas. “When we get there, I think we're going to be quite a special team.”
Perhaps even special enough to make professional sports history.
If you’re interested, here’s a timeline of expansion for the four major sports in the United States and how each team fared I their inaugural seasons.
NHL EXPANSION
1970 – Buffalo Sabres (24-39-15, 5th place in East Conference) and Vancouver Canucks (24-46-8, 6th place in East Conference).
1972 – New York Islanders (12-60-6, last in the East Conference) and Atlanta Flames (25-38-15, 7th place in West Conference). The Flames would move to Calgary in 1980.
1974 – Washington Capitals (8-67-5, last in the Norris Division) and Kansas City Scouts (15-54-11, last in the Smythe Division). In 1976 the Scouts move to Denver and become the Colorado Rockies, then in 1982 it moves again to become the New Jersey Devils.
1991 – San Jose Sharks (17-58-5, last in the Smythe Division).
1992 – Ottawa Senators (10-70-4, last in the Adams Division) and Tampa Bay Lightning (23-54-7, last in the Norris Division).
1993 – Anaheim Mighty Ducks (33-46-5, 4th place in Pacific Division) and Florida Panthers (33-34-17, 5th place in Atlantic Division).
1998 – Nashville Predators (28-47-7, last in the Central Division).
1999 – Atlanta Thrashers (14-57-7-4, last in the Southeast Division). They relocated and became the Winnipeg Jets in 2011.
2000 – Columbus Blue Jackets (28-39-9-6, last in Central Division) and Minnesota Wild (25-39-13-5, last in Northwest Division).
2018 – Vegas Golden Knights (51-24-7-11, 1st place in Central Division). Vegas not only became the first expansion team to reach the playoffs, they went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals.
2021 – Seattle Kraken (27-49-6, last in the Pacific Division).
MLB EXPANSION
1961 – Los Angeles Angels (70-91, 8th place in the American League) and Washington Senators (61-100, last in the American League). In 1972 the Senators would move south and become the Texas Rangers.
1962 – Houston Colt .45s (64-96, 8th in the National League) and New York Mets (40-120, last in the National League). Houston would rename themselves the Astros in 1965 when they moved into the Astrodome.
1969 – San Diego Padres (52-100, last in National League West), Montreal Expos (52-110, last in the National League East), Kansas City Royals (69-93, 4th place in American League West), and Seattle Pilots (64-98, last in American League West). A year later the Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers and the Expos fled to Washington, D.C. in 2005 and are now known as the Nationals.
1977 – Seattle Mariners (64-98, 6th place in American League West) and Toronto Blue Jays (54-107, last in American League East).
1993 – Colorado Rockies (67-95, 6th place in National League West) and Florida Marlins (64-98, 6th place in National League East).
1998 – Arizona Diamondbacks (65-97, last in National League West) and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (63-99, last in American League East).
NBA EXPANSION
1988 – Charlotte Hornets (20-62, last in the Atlantic DIvision) and Miami Heat (15-67, last in the Midwest Division). Charlotte would relocate to New Orleans in 2002.
1989 – Minnesota Timberwolves (22-60, 6th place in the Midwest DIvision) and Orlando Magic (18-64, last in the Central Division).
1995 – Toronto Raptors (21-61, last in the Central Division) and Vancouver Grizzlies (15-67, last in the Midwest Division). The Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001.
2004 – Charlotte Bobcats (18-64, 4th place in the Southeast Division). They got their Hornets name back in 2014 after New Orleans changed its mascot to the Pelicans.
NFL EXPANSION
1995 – Carolina Panthers (7-9, last in NFC West) and Jacksonville Jaguars (4-12, last in AFC Central).
1999 – Cleveland Browns (2-14, last in AFC Central).
2002 – Houston Texans (4-12, last in AFC South).
