SAN DIEGO (Saturday, April 12, 2025) – San Diego FC (SDFC) suffered its second-ever loss falling 3-2 against the Colorado Rapids at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park. With tonight’s loss, SDFC is now 2-2-0 on the road.
Luca de la Torre scored for SDFC (4-2-2, 14 pts) to tie the match 1-1 early in the second half and Tomás Ángel scored his first-ever goal for SDFC in the 89th minute but Colorado Rapids (4-2-2, 14 pts) survived a late SDFC surge. It was the second goal of the season for De la Torre, but Colorado answered with a pair of goals scored by Darren Yapi and Rafael Navarro in the second half.
Next up, SDFC will travel to North Carolina to face Charlotte FC on Saturday, April 19 at 4:30 p.m. PT at Bank of America Stadium live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Goal-Scoring Plays
1-0 COL – Djordje Mihailovic (Penalty Kick), 37th minute: Mihalovic converted a penalty kick with a right-footed shot to the left of SDFC goalkeeper CJ dos Santos, who dove and got a piece of the shot with his leg but not enough to keep out the opening goal of the night.
1-1 SD – Luca de la Torre (Hirving “Chucky” Lozano), 50th minute: De la Torre buried a right-footed shot to the upper right corner of the net after Lozano fed him with a quick pass from the left side of the box in between three defenders to tie the match 1-1.
2-1 COL – Darren Yapi (Chidozie Awaziem), 53rd minute: Yapi sent in the go-ahead goal off a corner kick after getting to a ball headed into the box by Chidozie Awaziem.
3-1 COL – Rafael Navarro (Cole Bassett), 60th minute: Navarro volleyed a shot out of the reach of CJ dos Santos and off the right post to extend the Colorado lead off a pass by Bassett to the center of the box.
3-2 SD – Tomás Ángel (Anders Dreyer) 89th: Ángel blasted a left-footed low shot to the right side of the Colorado net to cut the lead after taking a quick ball from Dreyer just inside the 18-yard box to cut the Colorado lead.
Postgame Notes:
· SDFC suffered its second loss of the season falling 3-2 to the Colorado Rapids, conceding three goals for the first time in Club history.
· SDFC is now 4-2-2 with 14 points through eight games this season and currently seats in third place of the Western Conference standings. SDFC is now 2-2-0 on the road.
· Midfielder Luca de la Torre scored the first goal on the night for SDFC, registering his second MLS career goal. De la Torre now has two goals, and one assist in eight appearances.
· Forward Tomás Ángel replaced Hirving Lozano in the 84th minute of the match, scoring his first SDFC goal just five minutes later (89th minute) to bring the score 2-3. Tomás' 89th minute goal also featured his 2nd MLS career goal and now has one goal and two assists this season.
· SDFC is now 3-1-2 when wearing the Club’s Primary Kit.
· Winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano tonight added his second-straight assist in consecutive matches and now has four assists in 2025.
· Defender Hamady Diop made it on to the pitch for SDFC for the fourth-straight match coming on as a substitute.
· Anders Dreyer has now contributed to six scoring plays for SDFC in 2025, totaling three goals and three assists in eight matches played.
· Goalkeeper CJ dos Santos, defender Chris McVey and midfielder Jeppe Tverskov have all started and played a full 90 minutes through the Club’s first eight matches, each totaling 730 minutes played.
· Forward Milan Iloski made his SDFC debut, replacing Ánibal Godoy in the 69th minute, marking his third career MLS appearance. He made the game day roster for the first time since being sent on loan to SDFC by sister club FC Nordsjaelland on April 2.
· SDFC has had 11 different players score a goal this season (Anders Dreyer, Onni Valakari, Marcus Ingvartsen, Christopher McVey, Alex Mighten, Franco Negri, Jeppe Tverskov, Luca de la Torre, Aníbal Godoy, Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and Tomás Ángel).
Next Game
Next up, SDFC will travel to face Charlotte FC at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday, April 19 at 4:30 p.m. PT live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Match Information
2025 MLS Regular Season
San Diego FC (4-2-2, 14 pts) vs. Colorado Rapids (4-2-2, 14 pts)
Saturday, April 12, 2025 – DICK’s Sporting Goods Park (Commerce City, Colo.)
Scoring Summary:
COL (1-0) – Djordje Mihailovic 37’ (Penalty Kick)
SD (1-1) – Luca de la Torre 50’ (Assisted by Hirving “Chucky” Lozano)
COL (2-1) – Darren Yapi 53’ (Assisted by Chidozie Aweziem)
COL (3-1) – Rafael Navarro 60’ (Assisted by Cole Bassett)
SD (3-2) – Tomás Ángel 89’ (Assisted Anders Dreyer)
Misconduct Summary:
COL – Chidozie Awaziem (caution 90’)
Lineups:
SAN DIEGO FC: GK CJ dos Santos, D Franco Negri (Hamady Diop, 46’), D Paddy McNair, D Christopher McVey, D Jasper Löffelsend (Willy Kumado, 69’), M Luca de la Torre (Alex Mighten, 69’), M Jeppe Tverskov -C-, M Aníbal Godoy (Milan Iloski, 69’), F Hirving “Chucky” Lozano (Tomás Ángel, 84’), F Onni Valakari, F Anders Dreyer
Substitutes Not Used: GK Pablo Sisniega, D Andrés Reyes, D Ian Pilcher, D Alejandro Alvarado Jr.
TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 6; OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES; 5
COLORADO RAPIDS: GK Zack Steffen, D Sam Vines (Ian Murphy, 75’), D Andreas Maxso, D Reggie Cannon (Keegan Rosenberry, 46’), D Chidozie Aweziem, M Djordje Mihailovic, (Omir Fernandez,75’), M Oliver Larraz, M Josh Atencio, M Cole Bassett (Ted Ku-Diprieto, 84’), F Darren Yapi (Kévin Cabral, 66’, F Rafael Navarro.
Substitutes Not Used: GK Nico Hansen, F Wayne Frederick, D Michael Edwards.
TOTAL SHOTS: 21; SHOTS ON GOAL: 9; FOULS: 15; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 2
Referee: Sergi Boiko
Assistant Referees: Cory Parker, Ben Pilgrim
Fourth Official: Ricardo Montero Araya
VAR: Ramy Touchan
AVAR: Fabio Tovar
Weather: Cloudy, 77 degrees
Attendance: 15,694
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
SDFC HEAD COACH MIKEY VARAS
On what are the positives the team can take from this result:
“The positives are, you know, yeah, we played with initiative, which is something that we want to do all the time, so that's important. And then I think that we created plenty of chances. We created chances, you know, and we weren't probably ruthless enough with the chances we created, and then we also gave up too many chances. We'll have a lot of learning lessons from this game, but I would say the positives are we're going to learn something from the game and take that into next week's away game, and we did play with initiative. The boys fought till the end. Could have made it three, three, even not playing our best.”
On the first goal conceded tonight:
“As a team that was trying to catch us in transition, and we made a mistake in the buildup, two mistakes in a row, which, again, is part of who we are. So, it's not a problem that we try to play through on those but we made some uncharacteristic mistakes today in terms of just technical, technical executions. And then at the end of the day, I think it's, it's a tough first goal to concede. To be honest, I watched it back a few times, and I think the only thing that I asked for is just consistency from week to week, because last week I was told that that they wouldn't give anything soft in the box when Luca [de la Torre] got pushed from behind in the box. And I can take that logic, but then today is a bit tough,
On facing Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen who has been playing well:
“I think it's more on us, to be honest. I think that if we have the quality that we usually have, even not playing our best, I think we can still score the third and the fourth.”
On what Tomás Ángel coming off the bench and contributing tonight mean for the team:
“I think it sets the mentality of the whole group, really, that, we're willing to make changes, right, because we have a big squad we trust the guys that are on the bench to come in and help us change the game and then at the end of the day, we have a fighting team spirit so we're down three, one, and really, I think we're unfortunate not to make that three at the end. That’s something that I think was positive as well. The group definitely didn't give up and they fought util the end and we were almost able to turn it around.
SDFC MIDFIELDER JEPPE TVERSKOV
On coming short of tying the match despite a late effort:
“Yeah. I think, just to take a step back, I think that it wasn't our best game. We thought we had good opportunities here, coming, playing a lot, but we never really got the rhythm during the game. They were good at pressing us higher, and they were good at their long balls, picking up second balls, and, yeah, and testing our defense. So yeah, a couple of boxes we couldn't take off today, and that's why we get no points.”
On the penalty call against CJ dos Santos in the first half:
“Of course you would try to make the call go your way. And CJ [dos Santos] felt like he had a, I don't know if it was an arm to the head. We talked about the contact. It was if it was soft, that it was, like, actually on the foot, or he, like, pushed his hands in front. But I haven't seen it again, so I can't really say much. It's just the feeling on the pitch was just like, we thought, you thought kind of the ball would play through, and then suddenly he threw the penalty kick. And like, from my point of view, I didn't really know why. So, like, we just try to influence as much as possible. But yeah, if they check it and everyone's agreeing it's probably the right decision.
On what made it difficult for the team tonight:
“No, it's like it's tough every time you have to do the like 50-100 meters run up here. You can, you can fill it in your lungs and our goal was not to do that much as we did today. So, them being as effective as they were, and on the transitioning and making us run a lot back and forth, made, made the game not being as calm as we wanted and more of a chaotic game, which benefited them way more than it did for us. So yeah, we didn't. We didn't really control the second ball spaces when they hit the striker good enough which allowed them to keep the attack for a longer time. So yeah, I feel like, I also feel like, in football, once you get behind and you start, of course, playing a lot, sometimes it's also okay for them to set a little encounter. And, yeah, it was kind of that feeling we had today.”
On what can team take from this match to next game:
“We know our level, and think we have the feeling that when we play our level, we will win games. So, it's for us to work out. So, we maintain it every game. We cannot drop high and low in our level, not even during a game, because then we don't control as much as we want, and it's not on our terms. So yeah, for us, it's we know. We know what we want to do and what we have to do. So, it's a bit more of being consistent and in all the patterns and all the things we've been also good at. In some games and yeah also not forgetting that because, yeah, this is one game and there’s going to be a lot more.”
SDFC DEFENDER JASPER LÖFFELSEND
On departing Colorado and now facing them staring at right back:
“Always good to come back and get playing time, that was my personal goal here \At San Diego]. Now I am at another club and it's going well so far. Disappointed not to get a point or even three out of it. It was a good fight with good chances on both sides, but unfortunately, we couldn’t contribute at the end, and we don’t take any points in the end.”
On whether if playing at altitude is any different than playing at sea-level:
“Of course it is. A lot of the guys are complaining about it now. We faced it in Salt Lake (City) already a little but here it is a different level. Just trying to manage the game a little better, I feel like in the first half we didn’t do as good of a job as we did in the second half with the ball but that definitely helps to stay composed and keep your fitness higher. Yes, it's effective for sure.”
On being selected in the Expansion Draft and fitting into a new role at SDFC:
“I wasn’t not a huge surprise not being in Colorado because after the year that I had it was obvious we both wanted different things from that year. I was glad we had a mutual agreement that I could move on and find a new club. With San Diego approaching me and seeing me grow into this right back role that I am in now, I played in college a long time and in Germany so I feel very familiar with it and it gives me a lot of freedom to push forward and make those late runs in and be dangerous and make the one vs. ones on the side. It’s a role that I feel fits me and suits me and hopefully it can help the team win.”
