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Facing Liga MX's top team Club America at the old Azteca Stadium in Mexico City as a first match of the tournament certainly didn't do San Diego FC any favors as far as putting them into a prime position to move on to the knockout rounds in Leagues Cup.
Nevertheless, SDFC did the job of beating Tijuana Xolos in the second match to stay in the fight and give themselves a chance at advancing.
Certainly, many things have to go right for San Diego to move into the top four MLS spots and there are too many scenarios to calculate all the possibilities but let's examine the obvious.
1 - Beat Puebla in Regulation
The one thing SDFC absolutely have to do is beat Puebla in regulation time. Leagues Cup rules state that if a team wins on a penalty shootout, that team only receives two points as compared to if a team wins in regulation, they receive all three points.
Therefore, SDFC would finish with six points which would put them right into the mix with the other contenders looking to advance.
2 - Goal Differential
Leagues Cup tiebreaker goes to the team with the highest goal differential.
Puebla currently sits as the last place team in the Liga MX side of the Leagues Cup standings. They enter the match with a 0-2-0 Leagues Cup record after falling 5-2 to Portland on Aug. 6 and 3-0 to Austin FC on Aug. 9.
San Diego has a goal differential of -1, meaning they will have to beat Puebla by as many goals as possible to help their case.
3 - Other Teams Need to Lose
Tough matchups await a few of the MLS team currently at the top of the standings. Number one Austin battles number one Club America. Dallas goes toe-to-toe with Toluca. While Chicago squares off against the always-tough, Cruz Azul.
LAFC currently have five points, while Real Salt Lake has four. Both teams are still ahead of SDFC in the standings, meaning San Diego needs some help from both clubs to have a realistic path into the top four.
LAFC need to lose in regulation, while RSL need to avoid a regulation win. If either team picks up three points, it becomes that much harder for SDFC to climb into one of the four knockout-round spots, even if San Diego takes care of business against Puebla.
Although San Diego's chances to make it into the next round are fairly slim, they are not impossible. The main objective will be to take care of business at home against Puebla by a significant margin between goals scored and goals conceded. If there is one thing fans can count on, it's that SDFC will play with the mindset of going for it.
"We're here to win... getting the six points and giving ourselves a chance, you just never know what can happen in these types of tournaments so that's the idea to be aggressive" said head coach Mikey Varas ahead of the match on Tuesday.
