Stars shine for San Diego FC in 1-0 win over Nashville SC

San Diego FC once again looked like the best team in MLS last night, securing a win in somewhat-dominant fashion against Nashville SC at Snapdragon Stadium. Mikey Varas found the right mix of youth and experience for his lineup and the guys played a great game, living up to the moment and keeping hold of 1st place in the Western Conference.

Game Recap

This game was 0-0 at halftime, but that doesn't mean the first half lacked action. In fact, the referee did a pretty good job early (yes, I understand he decided against giving a red card to a Nashville player) of keeping this physical game from getting too ugly. It was obvious that Nashville SC came in with a plan to be physical and push around SDFC, with the home team keeping its cool through it all.

In the second half, SDFC scored two absolutely gorgeous goals (although they'll only get credit for one) and Pablo Sisniega was once again perfect. Let's go through some of the highlights, starting with maybe the prettiest goal in SDFC history:

Yeah, let's take one more look at that:

That's just beautiful. The team made it a priority all game to get Hirving "Chucky" Lozano going, as it had been about a month since he had last scored a goal, and this was the moment that he finally broke through.

Before we move on, let's talk about the goal that wasn't. SDFC was once again the victim of a quick whistle by a referee at the end of the match, because that's the only thing that could've kept this Anders Dreyer empty-net attempt from counting.

Like Chucky, Dreyer had also struggled to put the ball in the back of the net over the last couple of weeks. Even though this seemed to count in real-time, it even showed as 2-0 win for SDFC on the MLS website, it was later ruled that the referee had blown his whistle before the ball had gone in.

Stars of the Match

Let's start with some of the veteran guys that we've already discussed.

Hirving Lozano was brilliant, taking a pounding from the Nashville SC defenders and continuing to put pressure on their backline and keeper. It felt like it was only a matter of time before he put one in net.

Anders Dreyer, despite the goal that was taken away from him, was dishing out insanely good passes throughout the match. According to the statsheet, Dreyer created 4 scoring chances for SDFC. No other player in the game created more than 2, and no other player for SDFC had more than 1. Dreyer was the engine of the offense in the attacking third.

Pablo Sisniega rewarded Mikey Varas' choice to put him back in goal with another clean sheet, and it wasn't easy for him. He blocked four shots on target and played without fear. Just look at how he throws his body at the Nashville attack:

CJ dos Santos is the keeper of the future for San Diego FC, but Sisniega is making it nearly impossible for the coaching staff to put him back on the bench right now.

"The Kids"

While I know that it will look different when Chris McVey is healthy, there's a part of me that wants to give some sort of nickname to this backline. As Darren pointed out on the podcast this week, it was the youngest defensive backline in MLS history when they played against Vancouver last week. The group showed up then and also against Nashville last night.

Luca Bombino and Oscar Verhoeven continue to contribute, on both sides of the pitch, as if they were long-time MLS veterans. They're both 19-years old.

But the two guys that I want to focus on, yet again, are Manu Duah and Ian Pilcher, the two 1st round picks for San Diego FC in this year's MLS SuperDraft.

Duah (98) and Pilcher (101) ranked 2nd and 3rd in touches in this match behind All-Star midfielder Jeppe Tverskov (104), which is crazy by itself. They both completed at least 89% of their passes, which shouldn't be possible. Oh, and they played outstanding defense on top of it, especially Duah.

Let's take a quick break to bask in the glow of all of the things Manu Duah is doing with this starting opportunity:

That's Duah showing off the dribbling. We already talked about his passing. He also led the entire match in defensive actions, clearances and headed clearances. At one point, he dove at a ball and created an interception with his head instead of his feet, an action that Luca Bombino copied a few minutes later.

I'm starting to wonder if there's anything the 20-year old rookie can't do on the pitch, because right now I'm not seeing a ceiling on his potential. It's easy to see why he went #1 overall in the MLS SuperDraft.

Duah has added that bit of unpredictability, a wrinkle into the SDFC attack, that the team seemed to be missing once Milan Iloski was no longer with the team. It's different, for sure, because Duah is playing on the backline and Iloski was playing up front. However, both feel like they're the chaos agents that force the opposing team have to take their eye off of Jeppe or Chucky or Anders, opening up opportunities to strike.

Next Match

San Diego FC doesn't play another MLS match until August 9th, but they have their first Leagues Cup game on Tuesday night against Pachuca.