Struggling San Diego FC hopes for better play, red card-free game vs. Real Salt Lake
Harald Bohr might well be the greatest mathematician to ever play soccer.
Before he invented the concept of almost periodic functions, Bohr played midfielder and defender for the Denmark team that won silver at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Later, Bohr - the brother of famed physicist Niels Bohr - served as a visiting professor at Stanford and founded what's now known as the Bohr–Mollerup theorem.
San Diego FC plays Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in Utah, and, well, you don't have to be Harald Bohr to understand that 11 is greater than 10.
"We all know we want to finish with 11 (players); that's goal No. 1," coach SDFC Mikey Varas said. "If we finish with 11, we give ourselves the best chance of winning. We're here to win."
SDFC players keep getting red-carded, upending their matches and putting the following game's roster in peril. Red cards carry an automatic dismissal and a mandatory one-game benching.
Saturday, the team will be without defender Christopher McVey, who received his Major League Soccer-leading second red card in the 46th minute of last week's loss to Minnesota United at Snapdragon Stadium. SDFC has played a man down at some point in five of its last six matches across all competitions.
SDFC has already seen more red cards in MLS play this season (3) than all last season (2) - and the 2026 schedule is barely one-fifth over. Couple that with a rash of injuries, and it's easy to explain why the club hasn’t won a match of any kind since March 11 or an MLS match since March 7.
SDFC's red-card trouble began in the Concacaf Champions Cup's Round of 16 opener against Toluca, when Marcus Ingvartsen and Manu Duah were sent off in the 12th and 88th minutes, respectively; SDFC held on for a one-goal win despite playing 9-on-11 for the final few minutes.
McVey was sent off during the 85th minute of SDFC's return engagement with Toluca. … and again in the 89th minute of the club’s March 22 match against Real Salt Lake. Duah got a red card SDFC's loss to San Jose two weeks ago, and McVey was sent off again last week at home.
So what gives?
"I don't know," midfielder Anibal Godoy said. "I don't understand what happened, I swear. It's more difficult to play with 10 guys … and the way we play, the way we press, you need all 11 players on the field, you know?
"I don’t know if it’s luck … It's difficult trying to explain that feeling.”
Defender Luca Bombino believes fortune plays a role.
"It's football; we're going to get unlucky sometimes,” he said. “Later in the season, we may get lucky with a few of the same calls for us."
Varas and SDFC's coaches have preached poise in training over the last few weeks. Players are focusing on being "more collected," Varas said, avoiding the isolated situations where red cards can materialize. Coaches have stressed taking better angles in what Varas calls "emergency situations" on the field.
But coaches can only do so much. And it’s not like you can practice not getting a red card.
"It's so tough, right?" Varas said. "If you put in their heads, ‘don't do this, don't do this, don't do this' sometimes in life, that just comes even more toward you."
Plus, there are bigger things to worry about - like wins. Since drawing with Real Salt Lake (4-1-1) on March 22, SDFC (3-2-2) has lost two matches in a row by a combined score of 5-1. They have been outshot 31-10 over those two matches, mustering just one look at the goal in a 3-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes two weeks ago.
Still, Varas saw enough from his club in last weekend’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota United to be encouraged.
Maybe it’ll add up to a win on Saturday.
“We got back to little, basic things really well,” he said. “Ultimately, if we can string more of those plays together and get a bit of consistency and really insist on that, we know that the tide will turn.”
San Diego FC (3-2-2) vs. Real Salt Lake (4-1-1)
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: America First Field, Sandy, Utah
TV: AppleTV
Radio: 760-AM
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