Struggling San Diego Among MLS Western Conference Losers | OneFootball

MLS is temporarily on hiatus as the World Cup comes to North America. Since it’s the midseason break, there’s no better time to look at the top 5 winners and losers from each conference. We’ve already done the East and the Western winners so it’s onto the losers. As a reminder, these can be teams as a whole, specific aspects of a team, players, coaches, or anything in between. In other words, there’s no rules. Let’s get into it!

San Diego FC

The first season in MLS for San Diego FC was about as good as anyone could’ve asked for. The second has been anything but. It was always going to be hard to follow up on an inaugural year where they finished top of the West and reached the conference final, but this looks like a completely different San Diego team. SDFC are currently outside the playoffs in 10th place and were knocked out of the Concacaf Champions Cup in the quarterfinals. Their lowest point as a club came via a five game losing streak in April.

There are a lot of factors that have contributed to San Diego’s second season syndrome, but the one that demands the most attention is the Hirving Lozano situation. The Mexican winger was one of their standout players in 2025, scoring 11 goals and registering 11 assists. Despite this, San Diego decided to freeze him out of the squad in the offseason after a falling out with manager Mikey Varas. They’ve been looking for a transfer or loan move for Lozano, but nothing has materialized.

“Chucky” is the fourth highest paid player in MLS and he hasn’t played a single minute this year. The blame isn’t all on the club though. Lozano reportedly rejected a loan move to LaLiga club Real Oviedo in favor of sitting at home and collecting his paycheck. As a result of this, he’s lost his place with Mexico. Essentially, he chose money over the opportunity to play in the World Cup at home with the Mexican national team. SDFC have the talent to turn it around, but getting that $9 million off the wage book would certainly help.

Heung-Min Son’s Goal Scoring

LAFC’s South Korean superstar made the winners list because of his incredible 16 assists in all competitions. He’s also making the losers list because he’s failed to score a single goal in MLS. Despite finding the back of the net 12 times in 13 games in his first year with LAFC, Son’s goals have dried up and it’s affecting the team. They currently sit fifth in the West and eight points off the top. If they keep this position, it would be their worst league finish in five years. It’s been a puzzling development for Son, who hasn’t scored single digit goals in a season since his first year at Tottenham in 2015/16.

It’s not like the chances aren’t coming for Son. According to American Soccer Analysis, his -4.27 goals minus expected goals is the worst in MLS. The frustration is building up for the Premier League legend. In LAFC’s last game before the break, he took a match-high seven shots. Only two of them went on target. He missed two big chances in that game and wasted 1.08 xG. Once that first goal comes the floodgates will likely open, but until then it’s been a huge disappointment of a season for the second highest paid player in MLS.

Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Kansas City started the season on record pace. That record would’ve been for the worst MLS team of all time. They only won one of their first 11 league matches and lost five of them by at least three goals. After that start, they were sitting on a measly five points and a -24 goal differential. They were also knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup in embarrassing fashion, losing 3-0 to USL Championship side Colorado Springs Switchbacks. Things have slightly turned around as they’ve won two of their last three games going into the break but SKC are still rock bottom of the Western Conference.

It’s hard to pinpoint one player or position group to blame because everyone’s been bad. Striker Dejan Joveljić might seem like a bright spot with six goals but he has the lowest Goals Added of any field player in all of MLS. It’s a similar story on the other end of the pitch as John Pulskamp has the second lowest Goals Added (for SKC it should probably be called Goals Taken Away) of any goalkeeper and would’ve probably been the lowest if he didn’t get benched for 32 year old career backup Stefan Cleveland. Spoiler alert: Cleveland hasn’t been good either. Looking around the team it’s hard to find a player to build around and it’s such a shame for a club that was regularly winning trophies a decade ago.

St. Louis City’s Transfers

Sporting Kansas City’s biggest rivals aren’t much better. St. Louis City are down in 12th place in the West and would be lower if not for a good run of form going into the break where they won three of their last four league matches. The silver lining is that they have made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup, but other than that there’s not a lot to be happy about in St. Louis.

The main reason City have been struggling is the lack of goals. They’ve scored the third fewest in MLS with 16 and no player has more than three. The lack of attacking output makes the decision to trade star striker João Klauss in the offseason baffling. He was the club’s top scorer in all three of his seasons with St. Louis and has five goals in eight MLS games for LA Galaxy this year.

Sergio Córdova came in on loan from Swiss club Young Boys as a replacement but he’s only scored one goal. So does their other striker Ryan Becher. DP attacking midfielder Marcel Hartel has been the only semi-reliable goal scoring option, netting three times in MLS and another three times in the Open Cup. You have to wonder what the rationale was when the decision was made in the winter and what they’ll do to fix it when the summer transfer window comes around.

Zack Steffen

The fall from grace for former USMNT goalkeeper Zack Steffen over the last few years has been really sad to watch. Ever since that huge mistake against Liverpool in the FA Cup semifinal of 2022, it’s been disappointment after disappointment for Steffen.

It started with missing out entirely on the 2022 World Cup after losing his starting spot with the USA to Matt Turner. Then came a season on loan at Middlesbrough where he was a league average keeper in the Championship. Steffen decided it was time to return to MLS and proceeded to give up 11.6 more goals than expected in his first year with Colorado Rapids, by far the worst in the league. 2025 was a bit better, where he found some of his Columbus Crew form again and was one of the best keepers in the league.

After the good season last year, it’s been back to disappointment for Steffen. He’s made several high profile mistakes including a comical own goal against Toronto FC that went viral on social media and sparked an article from ESPN. His general play hasn’t been good either. He’s only kept two clean sheets and has a 65.1% save percentage. Steffen also has the fifth least goals prevented in MLS. Injury has been added to insult recently as a shoulder problem has kept him out for the last five games. Based on how bad he’s been, the Rapids could very well consider keeping him on the bench once he’s fit.