As the first team this season to secure a spot in Major League Soccer's playoffs, San Diego FC is still looking to pile on as many points as possible.
The playoffs aren't the expansion team's only goal.
Clinching a berth in 28 games, San Diego is the fastest expansion team to reach the playoffs since the 2009 Seattle Sounders did it in 29. SDFC secured its spot with a scoreless draw at home Saturday night against the Portland Timbers.
SDFC is also in a tight race for the Supporters' Shield for best regular-season record. Currently sitting at 53 points, the Western Conference leaders are a point behind the East's Philadelphia Union.
No expansion team has ever won the Supporter's Shield. San Diego is also on pace to set the points record for an expansion team, surpassing LAFC's 57 in 2018.
“Of course, qualifying for the playoffs, it’s amazing and it’s a nice accomplishment for the team. And to do it so early, it’s also nice,” midfielder Anders Dreyer said. “But we’re still aiming with six games left to keep getting a lot of points."
Dreyer is making a case for the season's most valuable player, with 13 goals and a league-leading 17 assists. The team's first signing, Mexican international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, has eight goals and eight assists.
“I think our feeling is right now that we are in the playoffs. So now the first step is complete and we are in a position where I feel like we can hold our chest high and say we want to go for it all,” midfielder Jeppe Tverskov said. "I think we have proven ourselves. I think we are confident. I think we still have a lot of respect for all the games that are in front of us, but I also feel like if we are confident and play the way we’ve done the whole season ... I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to compete with all the rest of the teams.”
San Diego is unique among the league's teams. It is owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Tribe, the first Native American tribe in the United States to have an ownership stake in a professional soccer team.
Mansour also owns the Right to Dream Academy, a development academy which started in Ghana in 1999 and has since spread to Denmark, Egypt and the US. San Diego's Right to Dream Academy and first-team training facility sits on Sycuan tribal land in El Cajon, California.
Coach Mikey Varas said the team's success starts at the top.
“When there’s clear vision, as players or staff or as a club, you have a target to reach for, and then you hire the right people, and you sign the right players, people who are overachievers. Now they have that target, and then you get enough people who want to go beyond that target, then you have the potential for something special to happen,” Varas said. “But it’s absolutely no guarantee. We can’t take for granted the season that we’re having because we’ve put a lot of hard work in.”
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AP freelancer Edward Elston in San Diego contributed to this report.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Anne M. Peterson, The Associated Press
