San Diego FC "playing for their lives" in Game 3 | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

The New York Times once opined that “chaos is the resting state of Major League Soccer,” a tendency that gets dialed up that much further in the postseason.

San Diego FC got a dose of that last weekend in their first-ever Audi MLS Cup Playoffs away match, a wild 2-2 affair at Portland’s Providence Park decided by a penalty-kick shootout in front of the famed Timbers Army.

“I always knew this league was crazy from the outside, but when you're in it every single day, you really start to live it,” SDFC sporting director and general manager Tyler Heaps told MLSsoccer.com Thursday afternoon as his side prepare for Sunday’s must-win Game 3 of their Round One Best-of-3 Series with the Timbers at Snapdragon Stadium (9 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV).

“We are opposite teams, in my opinion. One team really wants to dictate the play with the ball and have the ball in play, and make it a game that's attractive, and the other team wants to not make it like that. And that's what makes this league so challenging, is that there are those disparities.”

Crunch time

San Diego took four of six points off Portland during their historic debut campaign, finishing 19 points and seven standings places ahead of the Timbers, with an expected-goals total 15 better than PTFC's and a superior goal differential by a whopping margin of 30.

Yet such is the nature of the playoffs that they find themselves locked in a dogfight with the Rose City side that now hinges on 90 tense minutes to extend their dream debut season.

“We have guys that have never played in playoffs in their entire life, because we have guys coming in from foreign leagues that don't know what this is about,” noted Heaps. “So now, after the first two games, I think they realize that it's about this heightened sense of urgency. There's people playing for their lives. That's the reality that we're in right now: every game is a final. You either win or you're done. And so that's going to bring another sense of stress, I think, to the group.

“But I truly believe, and we train it every single day, that if we just focus on us and do what we know that we're very good at, we can beat anybody at any given day. I think we've proven that this year. We've beaten every single team in the West already, and that says something.”

It’s a timely stress test for the SDFC project. The intricate, methodical possession style installed by Heaps, head coach Mikey Varas & Co. took the Western Conference by storm, powering them to first place and setting new MLS records for points (63) and victories (19) by an expansion club.

All that meticulous work got pitched into a back-and-forth slugfest when Timbers boss Phil Neville threw caution to the wind with a barrage of attacking substitutions and a hyper-aggressive high press that MLSsoccer’s Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle labeled “goblin mode,” culminating in a delirious 98th-minute equalizer from young reserve Gage Guerra.

“What Phil did on the weekend was, in my opinion, suicidal,” said Heaps. “Yes, it worked, but going 1v1 all over the field, there's moments in that game where they’re 1-v-2 at the back, and I feel like we're always one pass away from a breakaway, but we just weren't sharp enough on the day, and that's on us.

“But yeah, chaos is a good word to use in this league, especially when it comes in the playoffs, and we just need to try to control that as much as possible.”

Team-first model

Heaps is quite aware of the MLS conventional wisdom about team-oriented systems like SDFC’s and Supporters’ Shield winners Philadelphia Union, which runs to the effect that in the postseason, they are vulnerable to moments of brilliance from elite – and expensive – Designated Player talent. Recent MLS Cup winners like Riqui Puig, Gabriel Pec, Cucho Hernández and Denis Bouanga are often cited as cases in point.

“You still need that talent to shine through, but I believe our collective is among the strongest,” said Heaps, pointing to the Columbus Crew’s Game 2 rout of the more expensively assembled FC Cincinnati in the East side of the bracket.

“That collective, I don't think you can say that it won't work in the playoffs. I think the sample size is small, and normally, as somebody that's watching the game, you realize and you remember the individually brilliant moments, but also a collective team can put together a run of games very easily.

"I think, that allows you to be successful, especially in the playoffs. And so that's what we're going to lean on.”

Successful start

In the bigger picture, even a high-leverage occasion like Sunday night won’t shake San Diego’s faith in what they’ve built so far.

Beyond that effective, attractive game model, Los Niños made a raft of clever signings like MLS Newcomer of the Year and Best XI selection Anders Dreyer, linchpin holding midfielder Jeppe Tverskov and MLS veterans Chris McVey and Aníbal Godoy, and brought local product Luca de la Torre home to good effect. A reported locker-room spat with Mexican star Chucky Lozano last month was handled with a brief suspension that reinforced team principles while keeping the winger onside and committed, if his clutch goal and badge-kissing celebration in Portland is any indicator.

The local community has embraced the squad, with consistently strong turnouts at Snapdragon and a sellout crowd expected for Sunday’s decider. Most remarkably of all, SDFC have shown unprecedented faith in youth, making it a centerpiece of their fledgling organization’s culture.

There’s the lavish residential academy and school that welcomed its inaugural class several weeks ago, crafted in the model of their global affiliate, Right to Dream. And they’ve accrued top prospects from elsewhere and put them to good use, like 19-year-old fullbacks Luca Bombino or Oscar Verhoeven, as well as Manu Duah, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft who's been converted from center mid into a highly promising center back.

“That's, for sure, what I'm most proud of,” said Heaps. “On Sunday, it'll sting if you lose, but I can still look back and say, wow, we built something really special here, and I don't think this is a short-term thing. We built this for the long term.”