San Diego FC taste defeat for the first time, falling 2-1 to Austin FC

AUSTIN -- San Diego FC’s unbeaten streak came to an end at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas on Sunday afternoon after falling 2-1 to Austin FC claiming the club’s first-ever loss and the first of the 2025 MLS regular season. 

San Diego FC came into the match unbeaten in their first four matches with two victories and two draws. Their latest match finished 1-1 against the Columbus Crew last Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium.

A chance for San Diego FC to extend their unbeaten streak to five matches, tying the MLS expansion record held by St. Louis City SC.

Austin FC defeated LAFC 1-0 on the road in their last match, recording two wins and two losses to start their 2025 MLS campaign. 

With four changes seen from their opening day starting 11 due to injuries and international duties, San Diego FC had to utilize their inexperienced bench and youth players against Austin FC on Sunday afternoon. 

At the ten-minute mark, Austin FC took advantage of a San Diego turnover in the midfield as Austin forward Diego Rubio found forward Brandon Vázquez making the run in behind in the attacking half.

Austin FC’s 10 million dollar signing found himself in a one-on-one opportunity as he dribbled around San Diego FC’s goalkeeper CJ dos Santos and slotted in his first goal for Austin FC into the empty net for the 1-0 lead.

A negative recurrence for San Diego as they have conceded first in their last three matches, comebacks in all three with two draws and one victory. 

With San Diego conceding a foul around mid-pitch, Austin FC midfielder Owen Wolff rushed to restart play, catching San Diego's backline sleeping to get back into their defensive positions.

Austin FC defender Jon Gallagher made the darting run into an attacking position and with no defenders in sight, he finished off another one-on-one opportunity to extend the Austin lead to 2-0 with only 19 minutes played. 

Following the early 2-goal deficit, San Diego FC midfielder Luca de la Torre pulled a goal back at the 27-minute mark.

From inside the penalty area, Midfielder Onni Valakari passed the ball back with de la Torre waiting on top of the box. 

De la Torre's shot attempt took an Austin defender deflection with Austin FC goalkeeper Brad Stuver unable to track the ball as it found the back of the net with the score reading 2-1.

Luca de la Torre marked his first goal for the club and of the 2025 MLS season.

While San Diego controlled the first half statistically with a dominating 70%-30% possession advantage, Austin FC found the net twice from their ability to punish San Diego turnovers from dangerous areas and their highline leading to poor defensive positioning. 

The second half saw a continuation of the first 45 minutes with San Diego pushing for the equalizing goal as Austin FC found most of their success taking advantage through their counterattacks with San Diego players higher up the pitch.  

Austin FC forward Osman Bukari was on the end of one of those goal-threatening opportunities in the 68-minute as a long over-the-top ball pass found him one-on-one against dos Santos.

CJ dos Santos made a goal-saving play pushing Bukari’s near post attempt out for a corner, keeping his squad in the match with that slim one-goal deficit.

The remaining 20 minutes and added time saw Austin set up defensively to protect their slim lead with San Diego unable to find the equalizing goal as their unbeaten streak came to an end on the road finishing at 2-1 for the Austin FC victory. 

After the match, San Diego FC head coach Mikey Varas spoke on the result and his young players’ contributions against Austin FC. 

“The things that I'm proud about is we had a lot of guys, young guys, step in,” Varas said. “We were still us right, true to our style of play, playing with initiative. 

“We do have to take a reflection, last couple games, slower starts and how we can start faster games,” Varas said. “But I agree that they settled in well and the lessons learned are the same things that we’ve been thinking all season.”

The match concluded with San Diego holding the possession advantage of 69%-31%, creating more total shots with the 17-10 victory.

San Diego’s offensive struggles continued against Austin only finding the net once within the 90 minutes after dominating the tempo and possession of the match. The lack of quality chances for San Diego was the difference with only four of the 17 shot attempts being on target. 

“Football is football, when one team were ready to play more in transition and defend low, our job was to solve the puzzle,” Varas said.

The turnovers for San Diego added to the aggressive Highline were responsible for Austin FC creating more quality chances, scoring both goals off turnovers and counterattacks catching the San Diego backline out of positions and setting up one-on-one opportunities. 

“Obviously a special moment,” San Diego FC midfielder Luca de la Torre said on his first goal scored for the club. “It's something I've been working hard to add to my game, to arrive more in good positions and to finish. So obviously happy with the goal, disappointed with the results.”

“Football is controlling the ball with the ball but also controlling the position when you have the ball and we weren't perfect at that today so we also have some work to do,” San Diego FC midfielder Jeppe Tverskov said. 

San Diego FC remains at eight points in the MLS Western Conference standings with two victories, two draws and a loss. 

Next Saturday sees the birth of another Southern California rivalry in the MLS as San Diego FC hosts LAFC at Snapdragon Stadium on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. San Diego hopes to get their first victory in front of their home fans.