San Diego FC advances in MLS playoffs with dominant 4-0 win

San Diego FC defender Christopher McVey celebrates after advancing through the first round of the MLS playoffs Photo by Gregory Bull Associated Press San Diego FC dominated and devastated the Portland Timbers Sunday during a - home conquest that ended the Timbers season and earned SDFC a trip to the MLS WesternConference semi-finals A sold-out crowd of fans watched SDFC keep a historic debut season alive at Snapdragon Stadium Our ecosystem has been unbelievable SDFC head coach Mikey Varas explained after thematch SDFC now faces Minnesota United FC in the Western Conference semifinals beginning Nov as they look to become the second expansion club to win the MLS Cup It didn t take long for San Diego to give the fans something to cheer during the decisive matchin this best-of-three series The first goal came in the fifth minute when SDFC right wing and league MVP-candidate Anders Dreyer scored his first of two goals with a left-footed shot from the center of the scoring box to the net s lower left zone off an assist from Onni Valakari Just minutes later left wing Amahl Pelligrino scored his first of two goals with a right-footed shot Like Dreyer s first it came from the center of the box and was delivered to the lower left zone of the net SDFC led - at the half after possessing the ball for nearly of the opening minutes The club generated shots during the first half six of which were on goal and two of which located the net Portland on the other hand generated eight shots three of which were on goal and none ofwhich detected the back of the net For the full match SDFC maintained possession time and had shot attempts including nine on goal Portland had nine shot attempts with just three on goal But SDFC didn t take its foot off the gas pedal In the rd minute Pelligrino again scored on a right-footed shot from the center of the box but this time into the upper right central zone of the net Center forward Corey Baird was credited with the assist I feel like I m starting to show myself Pelligrino who had a slow start to the season but has six goals in his last five matches commented during the post-match press conference If you traingood and have a good relation ship with your teammates it s easy to play on a crew like this I m happy for him that he scored two Dreyer mentioned of Pelligrino Dreyer collected his own brace during the th minute when he nailed a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the lower right portion of the net It s easy with teammates like I have here he noted We scored four beautiful goals It s a good feeling It s amazing With San Diego leading - frustrations started to show for Portland in the latter portion ofthe match Less than a minute after Dreyer s second goal Portland center back Juan Mosquera elbowed midfielder Hirving Chucky Lozano in the neck knocking Lozano to the ground Mosquera was shown the red card and disqualified from the remainder of the match forcingthe Timbers to play on for the remaining -plus minutes Lozano had just checked into the championship nine minutes before being struck He was once againwas used in a reserve role for San Diego entering the match during the th minute with SDFC nursing a - lead The company s second-leading scorer and one of the highest-paid players in MLS Lozano losthis starting role and temporarily any role at all with San Diego following a verbal altercation with the coaching staff after he was pulled at halftime during an Oct match against the Houston Dynamo He then sat out the following two matches before being brought back as a reserve during the three-game playoff series against Portland Under the MLS playoff format the semifinals are single-elimination matches with the winners advancing to the conference finals the following weekend SDFC s match against Minnesota United FC is scheduled for pm at Snapdragon Stadium on Nov San Diego and Minnesota split their two matches in the regular season with SDFC winning - in June and United FC prevailing - on the road in September Notes On Tuesday Dreyer was named Newcomer of the Year by Major League Soccer Dreyer is the first San Diego performer ever to earn a year-end award and the first Danishplayer named Newcomer of the Year Earlier in the season he was named to the MLS All-Star company and was also named Athlete of the Month in both June and August