Snapdragon and San Diego prepare for city’s biggest ever soccer day

It’s the moment San Diego soccer’s population have been waiting for.

Even since the failed MLS to San Diego campaign of 2017, the dream of bringing Major League Soccer to San Diego has bubbled away in the hearts and minds of many in this hotbed of soccer fandom.

For years, San Diego regularly showed the highest level of MLS TV viewership of any city without a franchise. Now that honour leaves the city because MLS has finally arrived.

Tonight San Diego FC (SDFC) will make history once again as it hosts St. Louis CITY SC in its highly anticipated MLS home debut at Snapdragon Stadium.

A historic night for San Diego should be marked by a record attendance at the stadium.

The current record for a soccer match at Snapdragon Stadium stands at 34,248, set during the Wrexham vs. Manchester United match in July 2023. That figure surpassed the stadium’s debut attendance of 34,046 when San Diego State football hosted Arizona to open the 2022 season.

It’s not SDFC ‘s opening fixture. The league’s 30th and newest club defeated defending MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy 2-0 on the road in its inaugural match.

With the victory, San Diego became just the second expansion team since 2019 to win its opener joining St. Louis CITY SC in 2023 although Seattle, Portland and Vancouver Whitecaps all won theirs.

St. Louis set a new high bar for expansion success in 2023, recording 17 wins and finishing atop the Western Conference – the most successful inaugural season in the last two decades.

Birthday boy Joao Klauss
Photo: St Louis SC

San Diego now looks to carve out its own history. A win on Saturday would make SDFC just the fifth expansion club to start its MLS journey with back-to-back victories (excluding the league’s debut season in 1996).

The visitors tied their opening game 0-0 with Colorado Rapids but today is a special day for at least one St Louis player.

Brazilian Designated Player Joao Klauss celebrates his 28th birthday today

Anders Wins Player of the Matchday

SDFC Forward Anders Dreyer was voted the Major League Soccer Player of the Matchday for Matchday 1 of the 2025 MLS season.

In SDFC’s inaugural game, the Dane scored both goals as part of the club’s 2-0 victory.

In doing so he became the first player to score multiple goals in a club’s inaugural game since the legendary Eric Hassli for the 2011 Vancouver Whitecaps and is just the seventh in MLS history to do so. The Danish international was one of seven players to score multiple goals on Matchday 1 and joined Tai Baribo (Philadelphia Union) and Brian Gutiérrez (Chicago Fire FC) as the only individuals to do so on the road.

Dreyer is the first player from an expansion club to be named MLS Player of the Matchday after the club’s inaugural game since Fredy Montero for Seattle Sounders FC in 2009. San Diego is now the 33rd different club in MLS history to have a player earn MLS Player of the Matchday honors. Dreyer is the first Danish player to earn the honor since Philadelphia’s Mikael Uhre did so on Matchday 9 of 2023.

The visitors also have a Scandinavian connection as their head coach is Swede Olof Mellberg.