David Vazquez and Bryan Zamblé scored as SDFC heads into the international break
SAN DIEGO (Saturday, May 23, 2026) – San Diego FC (SDFC) played to a 4-2 loss against Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Snapdragon Stadium as the team heads into the summer international break. SDFC goes into the pause with a 4-6-5 record and 17 points.
SDFC Forwards David Vazquez and 18-year-old rookie Bryan Zamblé scored in each half for SDFC on the night, but Vancouver scored a pair of goas in each half. Brian White had a brace for the visitors while Bruno Caicedo and Ralph Priso also scored for the Western Conference rival. SDFC finished with 10 men after defender Luca Bombino was ejected in the 72nd minute after a second yellow card.
Before kickoff, SDFC honored the victims and families of the Islamic Center of San Diego with a moment of silence. At halftime, the Club also recognized the children and families of Bright Horizon Academy and presented a charitable donation check in support of the community.
SDFC now has a break in MLS action until July 22 when the Club visits Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. PT. Goal
Scoring Plays:
VAN – 0-1 – Brian White (Thomas Muller, Tristan Blackmon) 30th minute: Defender Tristan Blackmon lifted a ball over the top of the San Diego defense into the path of captain Thomas Muller, who took one touch and squared the ball centrally for forward Brian White, who finished first time with his left foot past Dos Santos.
VAN – 0-2 – Brian White (Jeevan Badwal, Kenji Cabrera) 45th minute: White scored his second goal of the half after midfielder Kenji Cabrera crossed the ball into the box over the head of White and into the feet of midfielder Jeevan Badwal. Badwal then laid the ball off for White who finished with his left foot into the bottom left corner.
SD – (1-2) – David Vazquez (Anders Dreyer) 53rd minute: After receiving the ball just outside the 18-yard-box on the right side of the pitch, forward Anders Dreyer found forward David Vazquez in open space at the top of the box. Vazquez fired a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer into the bottom right corner from 20 yards out, putting the home side on the board.
VAN – (1-3) – Bruno Caicedo (Thomas Muller, Brian White) 67th minute: After a giveaway in midfield, White drove towards the San Diego center backs and into the box, with Muller and substitute Caicedo on either side of him. White played Muller in on the right, who then found Caicedo first time across goal on the left, who finished first time at the near post.
VAN – (1-4) – Ralph Priso (Brian White, Thomas Muller) 74th minute: White appeared to have his hat trick with a header inside the box slowly headed for the bottom right corner, but Priso made sure it got across the line.
SD – (2-4) – Bryan Zamblé (Anders Dreyer) 91st minute: Substitute forward Bryan Zamble scored his second career MLS goal early into stoppage time after Dreyer played a through ball from the center of the pitch to the Right to Dream Academy product on the left wing. The 18-year-old then finished across goal with a low-driven shot off his right foot.
Postgame Notes:
- With tonight’s 4-2 loss against Vancouver Whitecaps FC, SDFC snaps a four-match unbeaten streak.
- SDFC went 1-1-3 during that span, outscoring opponents 13-10.
- SDFC has now scored 24 goals at home this season.
- SDFC now has a 4-6-5 2026 MLS Regular Season record with 17 points.
- SDFC is 20-13-8 all-time against Western Conference teams in MLS Regular Season play.
- SDFC now holds a 23-15-11 all-time MLS Regular Season record.
- SDFC is 3-3-3 at home in the 2026 MLS Regular Season.
- SDFC completed 566 passes compared to Vancouver’s 513 tonight.
- SDFC had 51 percent possession compared to Vancouver’s 49 percent.
- SDFC is now 6-8-5 across all competitions in 2026 (MLS Regular Season 4-6-5, Concacaf Champions Cup 2-2).
- SDFC is now 1-2-1 All-Time against Vancouver, including a 3-1 loss in the Western Conference final Nov. 29, 2025.
- Forward David Vazquez scored his third goal of the MLS Regular Season. He now has four goal contributions (3 goals, 1 assist).
- Forward Bryan Zamblé scored his second goal of his professional career. The 18-year-old Right to Dream Academy product came off the bench in the 86th minutes and found the net five minutes later.
- Anders Dreyer recorded two more assists tonight, this time on Vazquez’ and Zable’s goals. The Danish winger now has nine assist this season.
- Dreyer has 62 goal contributions (30 goals, 32 assists) for SDFC in 60 MLS appearances.
- Forward Anisse Saidi recorded his second career MLS assist tonight during Zamble’s goal.
- Saidi now has registered an assist in back-to-back matches.
- Defender Oscar Verhoeven recorded his second assist of the season, also contributing during Vazquez’ goal.
- Defender Kieran Sargeant made his sixth start for SDFC, and his eighth appearance this season.
- Valakari and Dreyer are the only players to play in all 49 of SDFC’s regular season and five post-season matches for a total of 54 MLS career appearances each.
- Midfielder Alejandro Alvarado Jr. made his sixth appearance for SDFC this season, coming on as a substitute for Vazquez in the 71st minute.
- Goalkeeper CJ Dos Santos returned to the Starting XI tonight, seeing action for the first time since suffering an injury against LAFC on May 2.
- Defender Luca Bombino will miss SDFC’s next match after being ejected in the 72nd minute tonight after being shown his second yellow card of the game.
- SDFC’s next MLS Regular Season match is July 22 at Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at 6:30 p.m. PT.
Match Information
2026 MLS Regular Season
San Diego FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Saturday, May 23, 2026 – Snapdragon Stadium (San Diego, Calif.)
Scoring Summary:
VAN (0-1) – Brian White (Assisted by Thomas Muller, Tristan Blackmon, 30’)
VAN (0-2) – Brian White (Assisted by Jeevan Badwal, Kenji Cabrera, 45’)
SD (1-2) – David Vazquez (Assisted by Anders Dreyer, 53’)VAN (1-3) – Bruno Caicedo (Assisted by Brian White, Thomas Muller, 67’)
VAN (1-4) – Ralph Priso (Assisted by Brian White, Thomas Muller, 74’)
SD (2-4) – Bryan Zamblé (Assisted by Anders Dreyer, 90 +1’)
Misconduct Summary:
VAN – Brian White (caution, 51’)
SD – Luca Bombino (caution, 55’)
VAN – Jeevan Badwal (caution, 63’)
SD – Luca Bombino (ejection, 72’)
SD – Oscar Verhoeven (caution, 88’)
VAN – Bruno Caicedo (caution, 90 +2’) Lineups:
SAN DIEGO FC: GK CJ Dos Santos; D Kieran Sargeant (D Luca Bombino, 46’), D Manu Duah, D Christopher McVey, D Oscar Verhoeven; M Pedro Soma, M Onni Valakari, M David Vazquez (M Alejandro Alvarado Jr., 71’); F Amahl Pellegrino (D Ian Pilcher, 71’), F Marcus Ingvartsen –C– (F Bryan Zamblé, 86’), F Anders Dreyer
Substitutes Not Used: GK Duran Ferree; M Bryce Duke, F Lewis Morgan, F Alex Mighten
TOTAL SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 13; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 7
VANCOUVER: GK Isaac Boehmer; D Tate Johnson (D Mihail Gherasimencov, 84’), D Mathias Laborda, D Tristian Blackmon, D Edier Ocampo; M Sebastian Berhalter, M Jeevan Badwal (D Nikola Djordjevic, 84’), M Aziel Jackson (F Bruno Caicedo, 63’), M Kenji Cabrera (D Ralph Priso, 74’), M Thomas Muller –C–; F Brian White (F Rayan Elloumi, 84’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Adrian Zendejas; D Ranko Veselinovic, M Liam MacKenzie
TOTAL SHOTS: 20; SHOTS ON GOAL:11; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDES 2; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 1
Referee: Drew Fischer
Assistant Referees: Micheal Barwegen, Lyes Arfa
Fourth Official: Calin Radosav
VAR: Younes Marrakchi
AVAR: Karsten Gillwald
Weather: 64-degrees, partly cloudy
Attendance: 23,906
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
SDFC HEAD COACH MIKEY VARAS
On how he would describe tonight’s match, both the positives and the negatives:
“Yeah, I think we all feel that, yeah, we play against the best team in the league. This is the standard right now. They're flying. Metrics show it, the eye test shows it, the standings show it, and then you see them play and you can see that they're very good. So, ultimately I think we start the game pretty stable and we show that we can hang with them, but losing too many duels, too many individual actions that they don't miss, we miss, and this is the difference when you play against really high-quality teams. It doesn't take a lot for that to change, right? And then I think ultimately we come out of the second half a little bit, little bit sharper and we unfortunately, in a moment where we have a lot of momentum, we then concede against that momentum, which is always making it a much harder situation. And then, the referee makes two yellow cards in 25 minutes on a player who had two fouls, and I think the league has to take a serious look at what's happening with our team and across the league, because you have multiple teams on five red cards, 15 games through a season. And we've played 230 or 240 minutes with a player down, in a lot of situations that don't look clear and obvious that you should be playing a man down. And we need to do something about that, because here we're trying to build football in this country. We want to play football, and to play football, of course, we need to make sure that there's player safety involved. So, if there's clear red cards, like we have to take care of that, but we also need to play as much 11 v 11 as possible. When you look around the world, this situation is not happening. And we need to take a close look at that, because it's just really unfortunate that not only us, but I think there's some other teams in the league that could be a little bit frustrated with, with how that's going.”
On how he would qualify the first half of the season:
“Yeah, the first half of the season has seen us go through ups and downs, you know? We came into a short rest, into a short preseason. We knock Pumas out of Concacaf Champions Cup in our first season. We beat Toluca at home, who's an absolute juggernaut, with red cards. We go there, we give it our all, so we make a good run. We also start the league very strong, with the three wins and not conceding. And then all of a sudden, we start to hit some adversity, where I think a number of factors, including red cards, just our level dropping, travel, a lot of situations, where we hit a lot of adversity, and we're not playing at our best. Then, I think you see the group claw their way back to better and better form recently, while still being unhappy that we're not closing games as well as we should be. But you can see us clawing back, and ultimately the reality is we got 17 points on 15 games, we got 18 games in the second half of the season, and we got to go after those as best we can.”
On his assessment of his squad after calling Vancouver a “barometer test” on Thursday:
“Yeah, it's tricky, because if you look at the final score, you probably think that we're very far away, right? But then you take into account that we played the last 25 minutes with a man down, it's a little bit tough. You also, so you look at it like this, I think. One, we're at 2-1, and we create a huge chance for the 2-2, huge chance. Okay, then of course we end up losing 4-2, and we're down 2-0 at some point. So, we're close, but we're not so close either, you know? And what we need right now, I think we all agree on, is our style of play and our game plan, we're good. Everybody's committed, everybody knows what to do, and we can see that we can cause teams trouble, but we all need to really focus on coming back fresh and ready to increase our quality in every single action. Because if our individual actions start to, to be made at a higher level, where I think you see a Vancouver especially in the first half, pretty much punish you with that quality in those decisive moments, then we can be there with them. But I think as a team we're close, but we all need to push ourselves. And that's that starts with me, right? I got to come back and make sure that I'm the best coach possible for these guys. What I do believe is, that we're going to make a run in the second half. I got no doubts about that.”
SDFC MIDFIELDER ONNI VALAKARI
On tonight’s matchup with Vancouver:
“We know it’s one of the best teams in the league. I think today we had good actions, but then it was followed by a bad action. So, too many inconsistencies and to play a full 90 minutes against a really good team, you cannot allow, because the game of football is a whole, so you cannot allow, like bad moments to be so big for them and give them so many chances. So, it was just overall not good enough today. I think it's a team that we can learn from, it's a really good team. So, this was a test for us and now we take this three weeks and we really believe in the group, that the second part of the season we can make a good run.”
On what he’s looking to do more successfully when they return for the second part of the season:
“I know this game is, or this period we've been, is going to hurt for a while, so I think it's a good time now to take a break, try to get your mind off it. Obviously, as a football player, it's hard, and you're going to think about a lot of stuff, but this is the game of football, it goes up and down, and now it's a tough moment. So, we take this break, we reflect, recover, everybody has to do what they have to do, and we come back really strong for the second part of the season, and inside the group we really believe in that, and that's the only thing that matters to us.”
On how they can clean up some of these inconsistencies and move forward:
“Yeah, in a game of football, mistakes is never on one player, it's part of the whole collective. We put somebody in a bad situation that's impossible to get out of, or we're not in good positions to. Because mistakes happen in football, it's just how we can recover from them, and how our positioning is, and everything, so it's a whole collective thing. It's never on one player, and those are things that we've been working on, and, like I said, we're going to reflect on them, work on them, and we really believe in the group that, we know what we're capable of. And the second part of the season, we know where we are at the moment, but we're going to attack it with full force.”
SDFC DEFENDER MANU DUAH
On the difficulties playing a team like Vancouver:
“I just think Vancouver is a good team, they're really good. They played good, we also a good team. I just think there was only a few things, just one step that we have to clean up, and then I think we would have been good, you know? They're like, simple details that we just needed to take actions on, and that would have been better for us, but overall, already a good team.”
On the differences from last season to the first half of this season on the backline:
“Yeah, like I said at first, there's just a few things that we have to clean up, and few things that we need to pick up real fast. It's not like a really big gap, it's just like this, that we have to just clean up. We just have to be a little bit decent and sharper on the line, and I think this the first half of the season, and we're going to come back strong on the second half.”
On how they rally together to hit the ground running in the second half:
“Look, Mikey is a guy that we all have so much trust in, you know? He knows that we, again, he's always behind us every single time, you know? And we know the fans are always behind us, you know? It's just the few things that he always say we just need to clean up, you know? And we have so much trust in Mikey and we know he's going to come back with a really different style, and everything. You know, he's always there for us, and we're always there for him.”
SDFC FORWARD ANDERS DREYER
On how he felt the team played tonight:
“Yeah, it was a tough game, Vancouver were a good team. They made it hard for us and I think we struggled, especially in the first half. I think we came out strong for the second half, and we have a big chance for making the equalizer, for 2-2, and maybe the game will be different then, but we never know. But yeah, I think still we created some chances, but of course conceding four goals, it's too many at home.”
On where he thinks the team stands after the first half of the season:
“That we have some things to work on and I think the holiday is arriving on a perfect time. For me personally, but also for the team. I think we played a lot of games in a short period, there was an international break as well, and a lot of travel. So now, of course, we have some holiday, and then we can hopefully...I know we all will come back with a mindset that is ready to attack this second half of the season, which will be also very tough, a lot of games. But yeah, then we now have the break and can prepare for that.”
On what adjustments they can make to improve going into the second half of the season:
“Yeah, of course, I think, like you said, I think we arrived in good positions, but then the last pass or shot, or whatever it was, was not as good as the work before that action. So, of course, that's something we will look at when we come back from holiday and work on that. Because I think, like you said, I think we come in very good situations in the game, and creating, and could create even more, so that's also positive. But yeah, right now it's of course tough, it's been a tough period, but, yeah, now we have a break and can look forward.”
