SAN DIEGO (Tuesday Feb. 3, 2026) – San Diego FC (SDFC) made its Concacaf Champions Cup debut in explosive fashion with a 4-1 win against Liga MX’s Pumas UNAM in the Round One, Leg One match of the international competition.
Pumas took a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute when Robert Morales scored the first goal of the night on a bicycle kick from inside the six-yard box off a floating pass from Adalberto Carrasquilla. It was Pumas’ only shot until after SDFC scored its four goals, as San Diego consistently pressured Pumas into its own territory.
SDFC’s four unanswered second-half goals came from Manu Duah (68th minute), David Vazquez (76th minute), Alex Mighten (81st minute), and Luca Bombino (86th minute), earning the club its first-ever win in the competition.
SDFC will now visit Pumas on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at Estadio Olímpico Universitario for Round One, Leg Two of the home-and-away series.
SDFC opens the 2026 Major League Soccer season against CF Montréal on Saturday, Feb. 21 at Snapdragon Stadium, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. PT.
Goal Scoring Plays:
UNAM– 0-1 – Robert Morales (Adalberto Carrasquilla), 11th minute: Morales opened the scoring with a right-footed half scissor kick after getting behind the SDFC defense and connecting on a floating cross from Carrasquilla.
SD – 1-1 – Manu Duah (Anders Dreyer), 68th minute: Duah equalized with a powerful header off a Dreyer corner kick, sending his effort off the bottom of the left post and past Pumas goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
SD – 2-1 – David Vazquez (Wilson Eisner), 76th minute: Vazquez gave SDFC the lead with a header after beating his defender in the air on a cross from Wilson Eisner.
SD – 3-1- Alex Mighten, 81st Minute: Mighten extended the lead by finishing a rebound from point-blank range after Pumas goalkeeper Keylor Navas blocked an initial shot by David Vazquez.
SD – 4-1 – Luca Bombino 86th minute: Bombino capped the scoring by tapping in the ball from close range after it slipped between the legs of a Pumas defender attempting to clear it off the goal line.
Postgame Notes:
- SDFC made its Concacaf Champions Cup debut tonight with a 4-1 win against Pumas UNAM.
- SDFC has now faced six Liga MX clubs across official competitions and exhibition matches (CF Pachuca, UANL Tigres and Mazatlán F.C. in the 2025 Leagues Cup; and Club Tijuana and Club America in an exhibition matches last season).
- Defender Manu Duah scored his first professional goal and his first with SDFC tonight to tie the match 1-1.
- Forward Anders Dreyer recorded his first goal contribution in the Concacaf Champions Cup when he assisted on Duah’s goal tonight.
- David Vazquez scored his first goal with SDFC in official competition and his first in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Vazquez scored his first goal with SDFC in a friendly against Club Tijuana last September. He now has two goal contributions in international competition. He assisted Onni Valakari’s goal in a 2-0 win against Mazatlán F.C. in Leagues Cup play on Aug. 5, 2025.
- Defender Wilson Eisner earned his first goal contribution in his SDFC debut when he assisted on Vazquez’ goal.
- Forward Alex Mighten found the net for the second time in official competitions for SDFC tonight. He had previously scored against LAFC on March 29, 2025. Mighten also scored in a friendly against Club Tijuana on Sept. 16, 2025.
- Defender Luca Bombino scored his first goal in the Concacaf Champions Cup and his third with SDFC in official competitions. He scored in MLS, Leagues Cup and now Concacaf Champions Cup.
- SDFC’s four goals scorers on the night were all under the age of 23: Manu Duah (20), David Vazquez (19), Alex Mighten (23), Luca Bombino (19).
- Defender Kieran Sargeant made his SDFC debut coming on as a substitute for Amahl Pellegrino in the 84th minute.
- Newcomer Osvald Søe appeared in the SDFC 20-man roster for the first time.
- SDFC is now 2-2 against Liga MX clubs in official competition (beat Mazatlán F.C. in Leagues Cup action, Pumas UNAM in Concacaf Champions Cup) and 4-2 overall across all competitions (beat Club Tijuana and Club América in friendlies).
- Goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega made his third start against a Liga MX team in official competition (vs. CF Pachuca, UANL Tigres in Leagues Cup, Pumas UNAM tonight).
- Sisniega also started in the Club’s exhibitions against Club América and Club Tijuana last year.
- Forward Anisse Saidi made his second appearance for SDFC tonight, coming on as a substitute for Anders Dreyer (90+4). He made his club debut against Austin FC on March 23, 2025.
- SDFC secured its first Champions Cup participation after a first-place finish in the MLS Western Conference during the 2025 MLS regular season, its inaugural season.
- SDFC is the 52nd club from the United States to participate in the Concacaf Champions Cup and the 26th from MLS.
- SDFC held 73 percent possession compared to Pumas UNAM’s 27 percent.
Match Information
Concacaf Champions Cup Round One
San Diego FC vs. Pumas UNAM
Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026 – Snapdragon Stadium (San Diego, Calif.)
Scoring Summary:
UNAM (0-1) – Robert Morales (Assisted by Adalberto Carrasquilla) 11’ SD (1-1) - Manu Duah (Assisted by Anders Dreyer) 68’ SD (2-1) - David Vazquez (Assisted by Wilson Eisner) 76’ SD (3-1) - Alex Mighten, 81’ SD (4-1) - Luca Bombino, 86’
Misconduct Summary:
UNAM – Alan Medina (caution, 67’) SD - Aníbal Godoy (caution, 67’)
SD – Alex Mighten (caution, 82’) SD – Pablo Sisniega (caution, 89’)
Lineups:
SAN DIEGO FC: GK Pablo Sisniega; D Luca Bombino, D Wilson Eisner (Ian Pilcher, 83’), D Manu Duah, D Christopher McVey; M Pedro Soma (David Vazquez, 64’), M Jeppe Tverskov –C–, M Aníbal Godoy; F Amahl Pellegrino (Kieran Sargeant, 84’), F Marcus Ingvartsen (Alex Mighten, 63’), F Anders Dreyer (Anisse Saidi, 90+4)
Substitutes Not Used: GK CJ Dos Santos, GK Duran Ferree, D Osvald Søe, D Leo Duro
TOTAL SHOTS: 22; SHOTS ON GOAL: 7; FOULS: 13; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 10; SAVES; 1
PUMAS UNAM: GK Keylor Navas, D Ruben Duarte, D Nathan Silva, D Tony Leone, M Cesar Garza, M Adalberto Carrasquilla (Jose Caicedo, 46’), M Jordan Carrillo (Alan Medina, 64’), M Pedro Vite (Uriel Antuna, 83’), F Jesus Rivas, F Robert Morales (Guillermo Martinez, 64’), F Alvaro Angulo.
Substitutes Not Used: GK Miguel Paul, M Rodrigo Lopez, M Ulises Rivas, F Juninho Vieira, M Angel Rico, F Santiago Lopez, D Angel Azuaje, M Dennis Ramirez
TOTAL SHOTS: 4; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 8; OFFSIDES 1; CORNER KICKS: 0; SAVES: 3
Referee: Mario Escobar
Assistant Referees: Luis Ventura, Humberto Panjoj
Fourth Official: Sergio Reyna
VAR: Benjamin Pineda
AVAR: Antony Bravo
Weather: 62-degrees, Clear
Attendance: 22,650
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
SDFC HEAD COACH MIKEY VARAS
Opening remarks: “First and foremost, I think the most important thing is just to take a second and recognize the moment that we just lived right now, because these boys had three and a half weeks of training. Their break got cut by a week, they had to come back a week earlier, and they played against a team who's four games into their season, and not one excuse dripped from a single pore of them. And, I think you're not always rewarded in life for having the right mentality, but when you are rewarded, how sweet is it. And then the other thing is, is our grounds crew here at Snapdragon, you know, we just had a monster truck here last week, and they had to turn field around. And that's not easy either. And the same, same mentality. No excuse, just get on with it. Really beautiful pitch out there.”
On the mentality coming out of the halftime unphased by being behind:
“Yes, what I said to the boys at halftime was, sometimes these games happen like this, right? Where you're dominating, they get in your box one time, they score a great goal, and then they're just really solid in the back and it's not so easy to score goals against a team like that. But the key was to continue to stay persistent in what we were trying to do, make a few little adjustments to see if we could open up the space on the back post a little bit better. And it's just huge credit to the guys, because we have every single person inside that locker room all pulling in the same direction. And again, it's the same thing. You don't always get paid, don't always get rewarded in life for that, but when you do it feels very good.”
On how the team's identity and continuity help the team get up to speed in a short preseason:
“Yeah, we have three and a half weeks of training, but we also recognize that we have one year of work together. Where we had a group that was all-in in training, and we talked about training matters, and this is why training matters. Because when the faces change a little bit, or you don't have as much training in this moment, you can lean into the experiences that you had here before and the boys did a great job of doing that. And then in terms of affirmations, I would disagree. I think that regardless of how this result would have went, I would have been quite happy with the game picture, because we dominated large portions of that game. Like I said, you're not always rewarded, tonight we were, so it feels a little extra good. But the most important thing is that we insisted on who we wanted to be, how we wanted to attack the game, and we got everybody pulling in the same direction.”
On the impact of Olympic Football coming to San Diego in 2028:
“Yeah, it's going to be amazing, and San Diego has completely earned this. It's a sports crazy city and region, and it's a region that loves their region and their city. I will say that our supporters, I've said it in the past, they're already the best supporters in the Americas. For me, that's clear. Ok, but what I'm starting to really appreciate, is the fact that I can feel their energy starting to become contagious around the stadium. We felt that really strong at the end of playoffs, and I can already see us starting in that direction now. That's going to be key, because when we get that and when everybody knows a song, and when everybody's singing the same notes, I promise you, we're going to be one of the top clubs in the world.”
