San Diego Fc drop third straight in 3-1 loss against Real Salt Lake
San Diego FC star forward Hirving “Chucky” Lozano corrals a pass with his chest in the first half of SDFC’s 3-1 loss against Real Salt Lake. Photo By Emmanuel Alonso.
San Diego FC is starting to slump.
San Diego FC lost their third-straight match of the MLS season with a 3-1 loss against Real Salt Lake at Snapdragon stadium in front of an announced crowd of 28,116.
“We’re working really hard, every week. These guys are showing up and training well, but we’re still a young club, and things aren’t where we want them to be, obviously,” said head coach Mikey Varas in a statement to start the post match press conference.
The Chrome and Azul dominated the first half in possession, chances created, shots taken, but lacked a strong finish to put them on the scoresheet.
Real Salt Lake scored their first goal against the run of play in the first minute of first half stoppage time after taking advantage of a mistake by SDFC defender Willy Kumado.
While playing out of the back in SDFC’s typical style RSL employed a high press to apply pressure to the back line. Willy made a backward pass toward the middle that RSL standout Diego Luna intercepted easily. Luna moved the ball into the box before threading a perfect strike between two SDFC defenders and past a diving CJ Dos Santos to make it 1-0.
SDFC maintained their compusure and equalized only a couple of minutes later with a penalty kick. SDFC earned a corner kick which was taken by Anders Dreyer. The service went over most players right into the foot of midfielder Anibal Godoy. Godoy attempted to make a second touch, but was being held by an RSL player and went down due to the contact.
The referee immediately awarded the home team a penalty which was taken by Hirving “Chucky” Lozano. Lozano took a slow runup and shot it to the right past the diving RSL goalkeeper to equalize at 1-1 just as the first half ended.
“We’re a good team that’s losing games right now,” Varas said. “It’s a first team level, when you don’t play a complete game, you’re going to lose games. The first half was really good. Their goal comes completely against the run of play, but there’s just so many good things. The second half is totally different. We got shaken when we go down 1-2.”
The goal that shook the home side came in the 54th minute in a penalty for Real Salt Lake. The visiting side made a run against the run of play and put forth a shot just outside the 18-yard box directly into SDFC Captain Jeppe Tverskov. The ball seemed headed for his face so he instinctively put his hands up to cover his face. The deflection landed in front of CJ Dos Santos then after a minute of play the referee paused to check with VAR.
It was clearly a handball inside the box resulting in a penalty. Luna took the shot and scored it easily to make it 2-1.
SDFC continued to falter and couldn’t overcome what Varas described as potentially a mental hurdle following the second goal.
In the 66th minute Sam Junqua added on with a shot of his own from far outside the box. An SDFC player had just deflected the ball away and left the center back with too much time to take a shot to extend RSL’s lead to two.
San Diego FC made multiple substitutes in the coming minutes, but it was too late leaving the final score at 3-1, marking the first time the team has lost at home.
SDFC will have the chance to breakout of their slump as they play at home in a week on Saturday, May 3 against FC Dallas.
