SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 05: San Diego FC celebrates after defeating the Seattle Sounders 3-0 at Snapdragon Stadium on April 05, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
Heading into their inaugural season, San Diego FC was looked at as a curiosity, not a contender. Even the folks who handle the national broadcasts thought they’d be talking about SDFC … well, not all that much.
“Zero, zero, and zero. We always do this fun little thing on MLS Season Pass — it's called Preseason Predictions,” MLS studio host and analyst Kaylyn Kyle told NBC 7. “It's so hard, and we always get hammered from fans, but Major League Soccer is one of those leagues where there's 30 teams, and because of the salary cap, you genuinely don't know how teams are going to do until you see, like, the first six or seven weeks of the season.”
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WATCH HEREWell, we’ve now reached that point. With SDFC sitting in second place in the Western Conference, with wins over four of the last five MLS Cup champions, it’s safe to say SDFC has wedged itself into the national conversation.
“I've eaten my words,” Kyle said. “I had them last place in the Western Conference, if I'm being completely honest, because Mikey [Varas, SDFC head coach] came in, he barely had any time to prep. He didn't have really any time to bring in his own players. It was a quick turnaround for a coach that's not ever coached in Major League Soccer. I just think you guys have a really good spine of your team. You guys work like dogs, but then you play a beautiful brand of football, which I genuinely wasn't expecting.”
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SIGN UP To be fair, nobody outside of America’s Finest City was. SDFC has become the feel-good story of the early season with a stellar, and likely sustainable, start.
“It’s just so cool to see because it's almost that Cinderella story where the unknown turns into the known in a short amount of time,” Kyle said. “I don't think it's a team that will fall off. Usually, you'll have an expansion team come in or a team start hot, and then you'll start to see the wheels kind of fall off. I haven't even seen a sign of the wheels starting to fall off in San Diego. Even if they go down a goal, they end up being able to turn it around, and they're not winning one-goal games. They are smashing teams.”
Two of their wins have come over the clubs in Los Angeles, which were both expected to contend for another championship. Or, as Kyle puts it: “They're the daddies of California right now. It's their spot to lose and everyone else is the little brothers or the sons.”
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Put that on a T-shirt and sell it at Snapdragon Stadium.
