San Diego FC look to continue a stellar start to its inaugural season against the Colorado Rapids at Commerce City, Colo., on Saturday night.
The expansion outfit from Southern California has won back-to-back home matches while scoring three times before halftime in each, a 3-2 win over LAFC followed by a 3-0 shellacking of the Seattle Sounders.
And in the latter affair, Mexican star Chucky Lozano scored one goal and assisted two more in his first start since Matchday 2, having missed three games with a hamstring strain.
While San Diego (4-1-2, 14 points) had already impressed with both its early results and its ball-dominant playing style, the full fitness of Lozano — whom the club signed as its first Designated Player last June — gives manager Mikey Varas’ group a different dynamic.
“When you have a player that, in one half, can help you create three goals, I think it’s pretty clear how important that player is,” Varas said. “And then on top of that, I thought he did a good job of helping us defend in a low block. You saw when Seattle kind of pushed us back a bit at times, he was there.”
In Colorado (3-2-2, 11 points), SDFC faces an opponent that has alternated wins and losses over its last four matches, most recently falling 2-0 at Western Conference-leading Vancouver last Saturday.
That continued an early season of extremes. The Rapids have both scored multiple goals and allowed multiple goals three times this season. They’ve also kept a clean sheet and failed to score on three occasions each.
Rapids manager Chris Armas said the range in performances so far has had more to do with his team than the caliber of opponent.
“When we bring our good stuff, when we bring our ‘A’ game, when we’re really good at being us on the day, we’re hard to beat,” Armas said.
Djordje Mihailovic scored his first two goals of the season in a 2-0 home win over Charlotte FC two weeks ago. Rafa Navarro leads Colorado with three goals, but hasn’t scored since a 1-0 win over Austin FC on March 8.
–Field Level Media
