Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting San Diego FC 🔎

A busy month of May begins this weekend for FC Dallas as they travel west to battle the new kids on the block, San Diego FC.

The expansion side has done well in their opening ten games as a MLS club (4-4-2 overall), but have hit a bit of a rough patch in their last three games.

Let's dive into what San Diego brings to Saturday's game and how FC Dallas can continue to pick up points away from home.

Key Player: Hirving Lozano

It took Chucky a few games to really get going in MLS but he’s starting to hit his stride with two goals and four assists (most of that coming in the last four games).

Key Matchup: Lozano vs Shaq Moore

A classic US vs Mexico battle along the wings. San Diego spends a lot of time in the build up game on their left side with Lozano, which means Moore may have to sit back defensively a bit more in this one in order to keep Lozano in check.

Availability Report1:

Suspended: none
Out: Marcus Ingvartsen (lower body)
Questionable: none
On Loan: none
International duty: none

Quick Notes:

Spreading the wealth: San Diego has gotten goals from 11 different players, which is tied with Vancouver for the lead in MLS through ten games. FC Dallas sits behind those squads with eight different goal scorers.

How San Diego scores their goals: Due to that wealth spread, San Diego has gotten goals from all sorts of plays this season, with progressive passes being their most common.

Recent form: After picking up impressive wins over LAFC and Seattle earlier in the year, San Diego has crashed back down to reality as an expansion side and have lost three straight.

Potential Lineup:

Mikey Varas may have some familiarity with how FC Dallas may do things, but let’s look at what kind of lineup he has been working with:

Dos Santos, Bombino, McVev, McNair, Loffelsend; de la Torre, Tverskov, Godoy; Lozano, Valakari, Dreyer

Keys To Three Points over San Diego

1. Protect the wings: This was a problem against Miami this past Sunday. The Herons found loads of space along their right side (against FCD’s left) and exposed that space to the tune of a pair of first half goals. San Diego has also shown that they are dangerous in the penalty area at finishing chances, so the defending has to be better on crosses into the penalty box.
2. Long balls over the top: We know FC Dallas has players with speed, so why not use it more often? Against Miami in the second half, Dallas did just that with long balls over the Miami defense that Anderson Julio or Logan Farrington could get on the end of in space. San Diego is prone to defensive issues in space like this and Dallas needs to figure that out earlier in the match, rather than late.
3. Defend the set pieces: This was a point last week against Miami and it will be as well against San Diego. They’ve gotten a decent amount of their goals this season off set pieces. Dallas does well at winning balls in the air, but they’ll need to be extra mindful of crosses the come in low and toward the back post. That has been a danger area this season for them, defensively.

1 Note: MLS has a injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the day before each game. Our scouting reports will include last week's report and will be fully updated the day before with our injury report for FC Dallas.