There was an inkling from the start that everything San Diego FC would achieve in this remarkable debut campaign was well within reach, that “expansion” tag be damned. There was an inevitability about it, maybe not this soon, but, sure, soon.

First-years usually struggle in Major League Soccer. Think FC Cincinnati or Austin FC, NYCFC or Vancouver, Inter Miami or, god forbid, Chivas USA. Rare are debuts such as the Seattle Sounders’, Atlanta United’s, LAFC’s or St. Louis City’s.

Rarer still, rarest: Chicago Fire’s. Yeah, sure, a different era, just 12 teams, not as much competition (a different world, 1998 was), but let’s extol the quality (and intelligence) of the side Peter Wilt and Bob Bradley constructed: Peter Nowak and the Eastern European bloc, of course, but also vintage Chris Armas and Jesse Marsch in midfield, C.J. Brown in front of Zach Thornton at the back, the likes of Chicago-bred Frank Klopas, rising Ante Razov and a young Josh Wolff on the attack. And let’s recall the triumphs against the explosive LA Galaxy and two-time champion D.C. United en route to the MLS Cup championship.

The Fire remains the only expansion team to do so in its first go — the only true expansion team to do so; Houston Dynamo was a very different breed — but history gets lost in the progress. So when Mikey Varas, ahead of San Diego FC’s postseason debut in Sunday’s best-of-three, first-round opener against the Portland Timbers, was asked about the prospect of becoming this league’s first expansion champion, he responded in kind. Nobody in the room thought to correct the misassumption. Many (most? not all, surely?), we might assume, did not know.

No matter, the possibility of a debut-season championship, first or otherwise, is so tantalizing and, like the rest of what Varas’ side has accomplished, fully within reach. Within grasp? We’ll soon find out.

San Diego FC seemed to land in MLS fully and uniquely formed, which was sort of the point. There’s a mission within all of this: the whole philanthropic/beautiful game credo at the heart of Right to Dream and the belief, the insistence, in a collective system that defines each role, rewards risktakers, and emphasizes an aggressive, possession-heavy attacking approach that, when wielded properly, offers delightful entertainment.

Success, unanticipated elsewhere, followed. Anchored by a vibrant attack reliant on Danish winger Anders Dreyer and his countryman Jeppe Tverskov‘s organizational flair in midfield, SDFC used two impressive bursts — a season-opening 4-1-2 run, starting with a dominant road romp over reigning champion LA Galaxy, then an 8-1-2 response to three successive April losses — to surge atop the Western Conference by July.

It would relinquish the No. 1 spot just once, for a week during this month’s international break, before leapfrogging Vancouver on Decision Day for the regular-season crown at 19-9-6. Rookie records for most post-shootout-era victories, points (63), and points-per-game average (1.85) were set, and, more vital, home field through at least the conference final, should they advance so far, was snared.

‘I knew we’d eventually have success’

Those behind San Diego FC’s construction knew it would happen. They didn’t know when. They had their suspicions.

“How fast everything has come together [is a bit surprising],” general manager Tyler Heaps told Soccer America as playoff preparations kicked off. “I knew we’d eventually have success. I knew we’d be successful, whatever that [might be], but I think we have a really good group, and I could see that right away in preseason.”

Club CEO Tom Penn, an architect of Los Angeles FC’s hugely successful launch seven years ago, also believed. He’d become involved at the earliest stages, before there was a club — before billionaire businessman Mohamed Mansour, Right to Dream’s owner/steward since 2021, was approached to join the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation’s bid — and shepherded the path from “Hey, let’s start a club” to “Welcome to MLS.”

Mansour’s involvement provided San Diego FC’s defining identity, mission, and system of play.

“I saw the processes that we were following and the character of people that we were onboarding,” Penn told Soccer America. “And while we were fresh and brand new as an expansion club, we had the Right to Dream way, and we had the Right to Dream clear identity. And, in a way, that’s an advantage as a decision-maker, because you have to put everything through a clean filter, where every decision has to fit within that Right to Dream vision. That gives you clear direction.”

It led to Heaps, who spent two years as Right to Dream’s group head of recruitment and insights after analytical stints with U.S. Soccer and AS Monaco. And then to Varas, a former Luchi Gonzalez assistant at FC Dallas who worked under Gregg Berhalter with the national team after the World Cup and guided it before Mauricio Pochettino took charge 13½ months ago.

“All the credit goes to Tyler and Mikey and the players, the way they’ve coalesced as a group,” Penn said. “We were good from the beginning. And pleasing, the way we’re playing football. … The way we control the ball, the way we play possession-oriented football, attacking football, and we value and go after goals.

“We got really good people and really good players — not only on the field, but also off the field — and they are completely bought into what we’re trying to do.”



Right to Dream, founded by Manchester United’s former chief African scout Tom Vernon a quarter-century ago in Ghana, was designed to provide educational opportunities for underadvantaged youth in top-tier Academy settings. Mansour, a 77-year-old Egyptian-born, American-educated, British-knighted businessman and sometimes politician, fell in love with the concept and purchased the organization for $120 million four years ago. He joined Sycuan’s MLS bid a year later — SDFC was approved a year after that — and chiefly funded the league-record $500 million entrance fee.

MLS’s 30th club was quickly Right to Dream’s signpost club, representing its vision and providing a footprint in a ripe American market ahead of a home World Cup that, like 1994’s, aims to transform our game’s presence (and with it, MLS’s) within the global culture. The aim is considerable.

“Mohamed Mansour is a global guy,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. “He brings to our league an international perspective — as a fan, as an investor, as an international business person that’s connected to other parts of the world — that I think has him aspiring that this club isn’t just another MLS team, but can be one of the great soccer clubs in the world.

“And I hope they’re able to achieve that.”

‘What they’re building is unprecedented’

SDFC last month officially opened its Academy, the fourth under the Right to Dream umbrella, and it could be the gamechanger. The club’s recruitment area extends into Baja California, providing unprecedented reach onto Mexico’s verdant fields. The first class of players, mostly approaching adolescence, have moved into residence halls at the club’s headquarters on Sycuan land in unincorporated Dehesa, east of El Cajon, and are taking classes in the amply provided school sitting next to training fields. All are guaranteed a place in the program until they’re 16, whether or not pro soccer is in the future.

“What they’re building here is unprecedented in our country,” Garber said after touring the facilities at the Academy unveiling. “Frankly, it’s unprecedented in most of the world. It’s taking kids in residence and developing them as players, but also developing them as young men. And I think the measure of success isn’t just whether they go on to pursue a professional career. It’s going on to an Ivy League education and being the contributor to society in ways so many of these kids have been.

“I met a bunch of them last night, and they’re inspiring for who they are, as opposed to what they were as soccer players. That’s what Right to Dream is about, so there isn’t anything in MLS that it can be compared to.”

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