San Diego FC Secures Second Straight Home Win with 2-0 Victory over St. Louis CITY SC
MLS San Diego FC

San Diego FC Secures Second Straight Home Win with 2-0 Victory over St. Louis CITY SC

Published on March 2, 2026 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
San Diego FC News Release


SAN DIEGO - San Diego FC (SDFC) defeated St. Louis CITY SC 2-0 at Snapdragon Stadium to remain unbeaten in the 2026 MLS Regular Season and earn its second consecutive home victory. Forwards Anders Dreyer and Marcus Ingvartsen scored in each half to secure three more points in the Western Conference standings.

Dreyer opened the scoring just three minutes into the match, finishing a left-footed shot from the right side of the penalty area for his first goal of the 2026 campaign. Dreyer later assisted Ingvartsen's goal in the 54th minute, helping seal the 2-0 victory.

SDFC will next travel for its first road match of the 2026 MLS Regular Season to face Sporting KC on Saturday, Mar. 7, at 5:30 p.m. PT at Sporting Park. SDFC then returns to international competition when it hosts Deportivo Toluca F.C. in Round of 16, Leg One of the Concacaf Champions Cup on Tuesday, Mar. 11, at 8:30 p.m. PT at Snapdragon Stadium. Tickets for the match are available atwww.SanDiegoFC.com/Tickets.

Goal Scoring Plays:

SD - 1-0 - Anders Dreyer (Marcus Ingvartsen, Onni Valakari), 3rd minute: Dreyer finished a left-footed shot past St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Bürki, first-timing a quick pass from Ingvartsen. The play began with Valakari breaking free downfield before finding Ingvartsen in space.

SD - 2-0 - Marcus Ingvartsen (Anders Dreyer), 54th minute: Ingvartsen doubled SDFC's lead with a left-footed finish off a through ball from Dreyer, who split a defender after beating his mark.

Postgame Notes:

- With tonight's 2-0 win against St. Louis CITY SC, SDFC is unbeaten in the 2026 Regular season with a 2-0-0 record and six points.

- SDFC has won two-consecutive home matches, equalizing the Club's record for consecutive home win in 2025.

- With tonight's shutout win, SDFC remains atop the Western Conference and Supporter' Shield standings.

- SDFC has outscored MLS opponents 7-0 in its first two matches of the regular season.

- SDFC is one of four MLS teams to have yet allow a goal this season (San Jose, LAFC and Vancouver).

- With tonight's 5-0 win. SDFC has scored 71 MLS regular-season goals and 81 combined regular season post season goals. The Club has scored 90 goals across all competitions, including five in Leagues Cup and four in Concacaf Champions Cup.

- SDFC is 9-5-5 All-Time at home in Regular Season play.

- SDFC is 16-7-4 against Western Conference teams all-time in the regular season.

- SDFC is now 2-0-1 against St. Louis CITY SC (1-0-1 in 2025).

- SDFC has outscored St. Louis CITY SC 7-1 in the club's three meetings.

- SDFC now has had 10 different players score goals this year across all competitions: (Christopher McVey, Amahl Pellegrino, Onni Valakari, Marcus Ingvartsen, Bryan Zamblé, Anders Dreyer in MLS play and Luca Bombino, Alex Mighten, Manu Duah and David Vazquez in Concacaf Champions Cup).

- SDFC had 772 passes completed compared to St. Louis' 399.

- SDFC out-possessed St. Louis 69 to 31 percent.

- Tonight's win is also SDFC's 21st MLS Regular Season win.

- Forward Anders Dreyer recorded his first goal of the 2026 Regular Season.

- Dreyer registered the second-fastest goal in SDFC Club history, scoring in the third minute tonight. Jeppe Tverskov scored the fastest (2nd minute) in a match against Seattle Sounders on April 5, 2025.

- Dreyer now holds four of the five fastest goals in Club history.

- Dreyer now has 24 goals with SDFC across all competitions.

- Dreyer also became the second-fastest player in MLS history to record 20 goals and 20 assists, doing so in his 36th regular season game (follows Lionel Messi, 26 games).

- Dreyer now has three assists this season.

- Overall, Anders Dreyer has recorded 42 combined goals and assists (20 goals, 22 assists), accounting for 59 percent of San Diego FC's 71 regular-season goals.

- Dreyer has 26 assists across all competitions and 24 in MLS play (Regular and Postseason).

- Dreyer now has a combined 41 MLS career starts with SDFC.

- Forward Marcus Ingvartsen scored his second goal of the season, becoming the first multi-goal scorer for SDFC in the 2026 MLS Regular Season.

- Ingvartsen scored his fourth MLS and SDFC career goal. He also added an assist on a goal by Dreyer, his third assist with SDFC.

- Ingvartsen now has four goal contributions (2 goals, 2 assists).

- Ingvarsen has registered a goal and an assist in the first two matches of the MLS Regular Season.

- Ingvartsen also scored in the season opener last week. His last goal prior to last week was on Aug. 17, 2025 against the SJ Earthquakes in the 2025 regular season.

- Winger and Right to Dream Academy graduate Bryan Zamblé made his second-straight appearance for SDFC. He came on as substitute for Amahl Pellegrino in the 88th minute.

- Dreyer and Valakari are the only two players to feature in all 36 of SDFC's regular season and five post-season matches for a total of 41 MLS career appearances.

- Goalkeeper and San Diego native Duran Ferree made his second career MLS and SDFC start. He made his first MLS start in last week's 5-0 win against CF Montréal, registering just his third appearance for the Club tonight. In his first-ever MLS appearance for SDFC, he came on in the 80th minute of the 2025 Audi MLS Playoffs Western Conference Final against Vancouver Whitecaps on Nov. 29, 2025.

- Ferree, SDFC's first-ever player signing, had his second career clean sheet tonight with three saves. He now has a total seven career MLS saves. He recorded two saves in the Western Conference final against the Vancouver Whitecaps FC.

- Defender Kieran Sargeant made his second-straight start for SDFC. He made his MLS debut last week against CF Montréal as part of the Starting XI and made his fourth appearance for the Club. Sargeant made his SDFC debut in a 4-1 win in the Concacaf Champions Cup Round One, Leg One match on Feb. 3 as a second half substitute. He also came on as a substitute in the second leg of that series on Feb. 10.

- Midfielder Bryce Duke made his SDFC debut when he came on as a substitute for Onni Valakari in the 79th minute.

- Defender Manu Duah made his 19th MLS start and 21st MLS appearance for SDFC. He has a total of 27 appearances with the Club across all competitions, including three 2025 Leagues Cup and three Concacaf Champions Cup matches.

- SDFC wore its 2026 Unprecedented Unity Kit for the first time this season.

Match Information

2026 MLS Regular Season

San Diego FC vs. St. Louis CITY SC

Sunday - Snapdragon Stadium (San Diego, Calif.)

Scoring Summary:

SD - (1-0) - Anders Dreyer (Assisted by Marcus Ingvartsen and Onni Valakari), 3'

SD - (2-0) - Marcus Ingvartsen (Assisted by Anders Dreyer) 54'

Misconduct Summary:

STL - Chris Durkin (caution, 45+1')

Lineups:

SAN DIEGO FC: GK Duran Ferree; D Luca Bombino, D Christopher McVey, D Manu Duah (Ian Pilcher, 88'), D Kieran Sargeant; M Onni Valakari (Bryce Duke, 78'), M Jeppe Tverskov -C-, M Aníbal Godoy (Pedro Soma, 64'); F Amahl Pellegrino (Bryan Zamblé, 88'), F Marcus Ingvartsen (Alex Mighten, 79'), F Anders Dreyer.

Substitutes Not Used: GK CJ Dos Santos, GK Pablo Sisniega, D Osvald Søe, D Oscar Verhoeven

TOTAL SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; FOULS: 10; OFFSIDES: 4; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES; 3

ST. LOUIS CITY SC: GK Roman Burki, D Dante Polvara, D Daniel Edelman, D Timo Baumgarti, D Jaziel Orozco, M Chris Durkin, M Rafael Santos (Tomas Totland, 46', Lukas MacNaughton, 72'), M Miguel Perez (Brendan McSorley, 58'), M Conrad Wallem, F Simon Becher (Cedric Teuchert, 64'), F Sang Bin Jeong (Cielo Pompeu, 58')

Substitutes Not Used: GK Ben Lundt, M Mbacke Fall, D Josh Yaro, F Mykhi Joyner

TOTAL SHOTS: 6; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 12; OFFSIDES 2; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 4

Referee: Drew Fischer

Assistant Referees: Micheal Barwegen, Lyes Arfa

Fourth Official: Victor Rivas

VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero

AVAR: Jonathan Johnson

Weather: 78-degrees, Clear

Attendance: 21,969

All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial

SDFC HEAD COACH MIKEY VARAS

On the club's strong start to the season and the connection of SDFC's Danish Duo:

"Yeah, I would say that it's a good start to the season. You know, that's a, that's a good St. Louis team, and really well coached. You can see how different they are from last year and, you know, my prediction is, that they will be a very good team in the league. And so, you go against a team that you knew was going to challenge you and what kind of mentality do you have in the preparation? And what we said is, we show up every day, in terms of making sure we have a no regret mentality. From the moment we get out of the car, to the moment we get back in our car, we make sure we do everything possible so that we're as prepared as possible to give ourselves a chance to win the game. And we've asked ourselves, why do we do that? Of course, we do that because we like to win, and individual players do that because they want to have a career, but for us, it's deeper than that. We do it because we love it. We love each other, we love our football, we love our city, we love our club, and so we feel that extra responsibility and when you do that over and over again, you have chances, to do this. Now the challenge is, how do you maintain that and progress it, right? This should only be the beginning for us if we maintain that mentality. And then, of course, I'm so happy for Marcus [Ingvartsen] to get another goal, and for Anders [Dreyer], who's been so good for us...I think he's the 10th goal scorer for the team so far. And then Marcus [Ingvartsen] getting this double digit. And then we do that at the facility, players and staff, but it goes further, because you can see the environment with the fans and how it continues to grow and evolve, and how they bring that energy to help us in these moments and really making this a very difficult place, I think, for teams to come. And then huge credit to our grounds crew, because the pitch is flying right now, you know. And when you have a pitch like that with guys like this, as committed as they are in an environment or fans like that, I think you have the possibility for special nights."

On what the team does to start each half fast:

"Wanting to play with initiative and always going after the game to score goals and having that mentality that we want to impact the flow of the game right away, and we want to get after it early and often."

On what led to the decision to start Duran Ferree with all three goalkeepers healthy:

"Yeah, I think it's kind of the culture that we've set here. You know, if you play well, you know, you have opportunity to keep playing. So, circumstances open the door for Duran. He had a fantastic game. I think he had another fantastic game now. I think teams that want to come and press us man to man, he's got a special quality with his composure, his range of passing and his ability to help us solve that puzzle pretty calmly. At the end of the day though, Pablo is still a top goalkeeper and he's going to be fighting. And for us, one of our values is to embrace competition, so we want to be in the high pressure moments, competing against the best. But also within our environment, we love it when other guys are stepping up, because it means that now you got to out do somebody who's doing really good. And that healthy embracing of competition is only going to lead to the team being stronger and the squad being bigger."

On any differences he has noticed in how teams have played SDFC this year compared to last year:

"So far, both opponents played us the way that I think both opponents are going to play the whole year. With Montreal being a man marking team, and then St. Louis being a team that will man mark on your goal kicks, but then go more into a zonal, but we also knew that's a trend in football a little bit, to on goal kicks go man for man against teams that are good at trying to play through, right? So, a little bit, yes and no, but I think the course of time is going to see more clearly the trends that are going to emerge against us."

SDFC WINGER ANDERS DREYER

On both scoring plays tonight:

"First of all, I think good first goal. We started, very, very good. I had a chance after six or seven minutes as well to make it 2-0 But no I saw Marcus gets the ball, and I called for the ball, and he played it. And I, without thinking, just hit it and went in good start. And then, of course, the second goal, I heard Marcus saying, play it. And I played it, and he was free, and good finish from him, and two and two. And that's nice."

On communicating with Ingvartsen on the field:

"Yeah, exactly. And I think especially also in the beginning when I arrived, of course, speaking Danish, he taught me how to press and all that kind of things. And it's a little bit easier to understand when it's in Danish and not in English all the time. So, he was a key factor. Also, when he was out a lot last season, I think he was in meetings, in attackers meetings, and all that stuff, he was available. And you could ask him, he played this system before and he knows what to do. So, yeah, it's nice and like, like he said, I think it feels like normal. It feels like he hasn't been away. So yeah, I'm happy for him."

On how the locker room is feeling tonight after the win:

"No, it's good, but we also know that we cannot be too satisfied with what we're doing so far. It's a long season. We have only played two games now in the MLS [regular season], and yeah, we have six points and two clean sheets and two wins. But we are humble, and we stay focused on what we can do to win games. So now we have six days, and then we play again, but it's nice. We play a lot of games, and with the Concacaf [Champions Cuo], we also know against Toluca, it's going to be tough. It's a good, good team, and we're looking forward to it." On becoming second fastest player in MLS history to record 20 goals and 20 assists in 36 regular season games: "I think it all starts, of course, with my teammates. They know where to find me, in the pocket or in behind, and then I'm also lucky that they, they kick it into the goal when, when they get the chance, and I play them, but yeah, it's, of course, it's nice. I'm happy with that. But yeah, it's, it's early, and I know last season was, was very, very good. So, this second year is going to be even harder. Teams will start focusing maybe more on how we play and all that kind of stuff. So, we know this second year at practice every day, we have to be 100-percent ready, otherwise we will lose games in this league. Because I think if you're not there 100-percent you Yeah, you lose points."

On playing with younger talent pushing the older guys this season:

"I think that's nice. That's how it should be in football. That's how I learned it as well. It doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are. It's, it's about what you do every day at practice and what the staff and the, of course, the coach, Mikey [Varas], he thinks so. Yeah, it's, it's how it is. It's, it's a tough competition like life. You have to be ready every day, otherwise, there are young kids that are ready to take your spot. On how to replicate the success the team had on the road last season: hopefully we can continue what we did last year away from home. It's nice that we are like making it tough for the opponent to come here and get points, but we know how important it is to get the points away from home as well. And now Saturday, we play in Kansas [City], and it's going to be, I remember from last year, it was a tough game and a game that could go both directions. But yeah, we are ready, and now we have to, yeah, go back home and relax a little bit, and then we're ready for Saturday."

SDFC FORWARD MARCUS INGVARTSEN

On both scoring plays he was involved in tonight:

Yeah. Career game, and some good goals. I think the first one was I felt I had a lot of space in between the central defenders, and only is driving the ball and like keeping it until last moment, getting that pass in my thoughts first was to go, go on goal, touch a little bit behind, and then I get on us, there on the side. So, great connection again, also on the second goal. He managed to work his way through the side. And I'm, I'm turning around on his right side. And again, this, this look away pass that kills the defensive line. So great to building on that relationship. Great to be out on that field again and, yeah, it's, it's, it's just great to play those games."

On being able to contribute in his second season:

"Yeah, amazing. It was a tough last season. We were as a team, doing so well, but personally, coming in and out of the team, being out for way too long, and now this preseason, I had a good talk with the club, and we have been building my fitness up and doing it in the right tempo. So, I'm still running a little bit behind, but I feel my rhythm is getting better and better. Felt much sharper and dynamic today, so it's starting to look pretty good."

On how he felt physically and mentally:

Yeah, as I said, I think my physical feeling is getting better and better. In the preseason, I've been managed a little bit in the load and how we have been building it up. So now I'm starting to feel, I got close to 80 minutes today, feeling fresh in those 80 minutes, being able to move and play as I'm used to. So, that's amazing. And mentally just trying to put last season behind me. It was tough, but, but also, like some learning points that I think that we have been taking care, good care of both as a team and me personally."

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