San Diego FC defeats Portland Timbers for franchise’s first MLS playoff victory

San Diego FC earned its first ever playoff win Sunday night with a - success over the Portland Timbers continuing an inaugural season in which it has defied predictions and expectations to become one of Major League Soccer s best teams A sellout crowd of over fans filled Snapdragon Stadium to see the top seed in the Western Conference take the first competition in the best-of-three series SDFC moves to the next round with one more win The scoring began in the rd minute when San Diego midfielder Onni Valakari connected with a left-footed shot from in front of the goal to the net s central bottom zone SDFC struck again in the th minute when the unit s leading scorer and league MVP candidate Anders Dryer hit a header to make the number - SDFC players celebrate goal by Onni Valakari second from left in the first match of playoffs Photo by Chris Stone Times of San Diego com Portland did not lay down Timbers left wing Kristoffer Velde scored during the th minute to keep the match in reach But SDFC went into the half with a - lead that wound up being the final margin of conquest In the th minute Timbers left back Jimer Fory was shown the yellow card for the second time and was ejected with nearly minutes remaining The ejection also means he ll also be unavailable for the second match in the series Saturday in Portland San Diego dominated statistically in both halves with ball possession in the initial minutes and nine shot attempts five on goal compared to three shots for Portland all of which were on goal San Diego controlled possession for a whopping of the match and took a total of shots eight of which were on goal Portland had just five shot attempts throughout the match Portland remains winless against SDFC in three matches this season SDFC won - on Oct in Portland and the clubs played to a scoreless draw on Aug in San Diego SDFC competitor Luca Bombino celebrates a goal by Andres Dreyer right in the first match of the playoffs Photo by Chris Stone Times of San Diego To play so well when it really mattered it means a lot to us midfielder Luca de la Torre a San Diego native mentioned during the post-match press conference Tonight was a festival of football Not in the lineup for the match was SDFC star forward Hirving Chucky Lozano who according to current reports faced disciplinary action after getting into a verbal altercation in the locker room after he was pulled at halftime during a road match against the Houston Dynamo on Oct The band came out with tremendous focus SDFC head coach Mikey Varas disclosed All in all I think it was a really good match This is a good first step But this is just one step in the journey Lozano also didn t play against the Timbers on Oct making this the second consecutive contest that he was not listed as a starter or substitute On Friday he posted an apology on social media regarding the locker room occurrence I didn t react in the right way and I ve already taken responsibility addressed it and moved forward the announcement read ONNI VALAKARI WITH OUR FIRST-EVER POSTSEASON GOALLETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pic twitter com CDnkPaangM San Diego FC sandiegofc October Lozano has nine goals and assists across appearances for SDFC this season second only in goal contributions to Dreyer who has goals and assists We revealed that we would take it day by day week by week Varas noted of the Lozano situation We ve already communicated to him that as long as there s no setback he ll be back next week I think Chucky is a top player and he s essential for us Dreyer declared in the post-match press conference Hopefully he s back soon SDFC travels to Portland for Championship of the series on Nov at Providence Park in Portland If the series is tied after that the deciding match would take place Nov at Snapdragon Stadium with the winner advancing to the Western Conference semifinals which kick off the weekend before Thanksgiving