San Diego FC Rolls Past Montreal in Season Opener

The stage for season two was set Saturday night as San Diego FC took on CF Montreal at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, CA. As the crowd rolled in, a sense of excitement was felt in the air.

Head coach Mikey Varas made three changes to the lineup since the last game against Pumas UNAM. Left back Wilson Eisner made the injured list and was replaced with Kieran Sargent, who made his MLS debut. Onni Valakari took his starting spot back from Pedro Soma in left midfield and Duran Ferree made his first MLS start in goal.

For CF Montréal, head coach Marco Donadel raised eyebrows by leaving DP midfielder Ivan Jaime on the bench. CF Montréal still rolled out their usual 4-2-3-1 setup.

Nerves of first game of the season were felt in the beggining of the match as things got a bit chippy. Amahl Pellegrino made a nice move on the edge of the box only to get his feet taken out from underneath him, which resulted in a free kick that SDFC weren't able to get much out of. Montreal midfielder, Victor Loturi was shown a yellow card for a hard challenge in the 5th minute of the match.

San Diego FC did not wait long to open the scoring. Chistopher McVey got his head on the end of a corner kick in the 14th minute of the match and redirected the ball into the opposite corner of the net.

As expected, SDFC led heavily in possession, 70-30 to be exact, in the first half. The second season version of the boys in Chrome and Azul looked refined, confident – in the opening 45 minutes. The young backline reeked of confidence on the ball, a byproduct of spending a full season working on being brave under pressure. The passing of the ball – more intentional. Every run was made with conviction.

San Diego frustrated Montreal, daring them to press in numbers knowing that the Canadian side didn't have the luxury to play patient after going down a goal early. Montreal played into SDFC's game, pushing numbers up and allowing San Diego attackers to get into space behind.

The strategy finally paid off after many close chances when Anders Dreyer got on the end of a headed pass into space behind Montreals defense. He quickly took on the goalkeeper by placing a low finesse shot into the left bottom corner which forced a diving save. Amahl Pellegrino got on the end of the blocked shot and added his name to the scoresheet in the dying moments of the first 45 minutes.

At the end of the first half, Varas' masterclass on the Right to Dream style was on full display.

The second half did not start well for Montreal. Defender Tomas Aviles was sent off with a red card due to a harsh challenge in the 50th minute. Moments later, Onni Valakari received a pass on the left side of Montreal's penalty area and slotted the ball into the bottom left corner with a well-placed shot to make it 3-0.

San Diego FC were flying.

Marcus Ingvartsen finally got on the scoresheet when Anders Dreyer slotted a pass into the penalty area. Ingvartsen got on the end of it with a neat one-touch finish under the top bar of Montreal's goal.

As SDFC grew their lead, Mikey Varas took to the bench. In the 59th minute David Vazquez came on for Valakari and Alex Mighten made his season debut for Ingvartsen.

Pedro Soma and Oscar Verhoeven also saw 20 minutes of play, replacing Anibal Godoy and Luca Bombino, respectively.

New signing, Bryan Zamble made quite the debut for himself when he scored from the left side of the box. The 18-year-old made a nice cut move on the left side of the goal and placed a hard shot into the back of the net to make the score 5-0.

The final whistle blew as San Diego rolled past CF Montreal in what could be the best display of form from Varas' team that we've seen to date.