Chucky Lozano scored his first MLS goal and added his second and third assists, and San Diego FC romped to a 3-0 victory over the visiting Seattle Sounders on Saturday night.
Jeppe Tverskov and Anibal Godoy each added their first goals for expansion San Diego (4-1-2, 14 points), which won its second straight at home and overall, and gave easily the best performance of its first MLS season. The hosts, who got four saves from goalkeeper CJ dos Santos, had a lead after only two minutes and had built their winning margin by halftime.
Seattle’s Pedro de la Vega came on as a late substitute for his first action in about a month after suffering a quadriceps strain. That was a lone bright spot for the Sounders (1-3-3, 6 points), who saw their winless run extended to four matches in their most lopsided loss since a 3-0 defeat at home to LAFC on July 20.
Seattle was off the pace from the opening seconds against Lozano, the longtime Mexico national team star who was making his first start since a hamstring strain forced him out early in San Diego’s home debut six weeks ago.
He helped his team to a lead in just the second minute when he received a short corner, darted right, cut back to his left to elude Jesus Ferreira and Cristian Roldan, then dragged a low cross toward Tverskov at the penalty spot.
Tverskov controlled the ball with his first touch, then drove a low finish with his second into the bottom right corner.
Next, Lozano sprayed a long diagonal ball to Anders Dreyer down the right to help set up San Diego’s second goal in the 41st minute.
Dreyer played another low cross back toward the oncoming Godoy, who hit an excellently timed left-footed finish with his first touch into the bottom right corner.
Lozano put things out of reach with his pace in the third minute of first-half stoppage time. Dreyer was involved again, recovering a loose ball deep in his own half, flying down the right to receive the return pass on a counter attack, then hitting an inch-perfect first-touch cross to the sprinting Lozano in the middle.
Lozano took a touch to collect, then hammered a low shot that overpowered goalkeeper Stefan Frei’s deflection on its way into the net.
–Field Level Media
