San Diego FC youth shines in 1-1 draw against Vancouver Whitecaps FC

In what was one of the most thrilling games of the season, San Diego FC held Vancouver Whitecaps FC to a draw and, as such, held onto 1st place in the Western Conference for at least a little bit longer.

SDFC is not the healthiest of squads right now, with four regular starters missing this game due to injury, making the recent exits of Milan Iloski and Jasper Löffelsend that much more painful. One thing it did do, though, is give SDFC no option but to rely on some of the youngest players on the roster.

Luca Bombino and Oscar Verhoeven, both of them 19 years old, continued to lock down the LB and RB positions on the back line. Each of them had a great game, contributing on both offense and defense in a myriad of ways.

Manu Duah, all of 20 years old, had a real standout performance. There were large swaths of this game where it felt like he was the best defender on the field and carrying the SDFC offense to wherever it was going to go. The #1 overall pick in this year's MLS SuperDraft showed why the organization is so excited for him and his future.

Ian Pilcher, who was the only member of the SDFC backline that could celebrate with an alcoholic beverage tonight (he's 22 years old), scored the team's only goal and played very strong defense to go with it. Him and Duah joined MLS All-Star Jeppe Tverskov as the only players with 100+ touches and 90+ passes, with the young guns completing 96% and 98% of their passes.

Pablo Sisniega, getting his third consecutive start in goal, was nothing short of brilliant. He stopped every shot that came his way, except for the rebound off of a save that bounced to a Vancouver player, who ricocheted it off of Manu Duah's feet and into the net (I believe it officially went down as an own goal). I had some concerns about Sisniega in place of CJ dos Santos heading into this matchup, but I don't know that it's possible for anyone to defend the goal better than he did tonight.

Now, onto the bad stuff. Yes, the team still misses Milan Iloski. Tomás Ángel and Alex Mighten have made no strides when given the opportunity with Iloski gone. Defenses have been able to focus more on stopping Hirving "Chucky" Lozano and Anders Dreyer as a result, which has made life more difficult for them both. Chucky came close to brilliance a few times in this game but wasn't able to get the ball into the net.

Finally, I swear I'm trying hard not to be a "refs guy", but the calls have simply not been going SDFC's way for the last month. In this one, there was a clear penalty outside the box that went to VAR to see if it was a handball and then somehow there was no handball and no foul and Vancouver got the ball back. It made absolutely no sense, but these things (usually involving a handball and VAR) just keep happening to San Diego.

Chucky Lozano, Anders Dreyer and Jeppe Tverskov will travel to Austin this week for the MLS All-Star Game. Those three should, in theory, be back for SDFC's next game on Friday at Snapdragon Stadium against Nashville SC.