SDFC notebook: Injured goalie flies home with team; start time set; ‘Chucky’ shines

C.J. dos Santos flew home with his San Diego FC teammates after suffering an apparent head injury in the first half of Saturday night’s first-round MLS Cup playoff loss to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park.

Dos Santos was injured in the 29th minute following a collision near the net. He was carted off the pitch and taken to a nearby hospital, but was discharged in time to travel home with the team.

Pablo Sisniega replaced dos Santos in net, marking his first appearance in an MLS match since July 5. Sisniega surrendered Gage Guerra’s goal in stoppage time, then gave up three penalty shots in the shootout. Portland won the penalty shootout 3-2 after the teams played to a 2-2 tie in regulation. 

It’s been a painful year for dos Santos, the club’s starting goalie. He suffered a deviated septum following a similar collision near the goal on July 5, an injury that required surgery to fix and cost dos Santos a month of his season.

Start time set

The winner-take-all Game 3 between SDFC and Portland will start Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. from Snapdragon Stadium. The match will air on AppleTV+.

SDFC coach Mikey Varas said the match will be “a fantastic opportunity to play, like, a final-type of feel, to do it at home.”

Asked what it will take to beat Portland again, Varas looked inward.

“You know, we don’t fall into that trap of focusing on other people. We haven’t done it. We won’t,” he said. “So, it’s just about making sure that we, right now, recover, and that we use this little bit of pain we have as motivation to get to go home and close this out in front of our fans playing our best football.”

‘Chucky’ shines in return

Hirving “Chucky” Lozano returned to San Diego FC’s lineup for the first time in nearly a month.

It didn’t take him long to make an impact. Lozano struck with a go-ahead goal in the 51st minute of Saturday’s match, five minutes after checking in for the first time since Oct. 4. Lozano, one of the club’s two designated players, now has 10 goals and 10 assists on the season.

Lozano last played on Oct. 4, when, according to sources, he threw a tantrum at halftime of a match against Houston. He did not play the second half that day, and missed SDFC’s regular-season finale and playoff opener.

Lozano also delivered in Saturday’s shootout, delivering the second penalty kick goal in franchise history. The strike gave SDFC a 2-1 lead in the shootout, but Portland connected on two PKs and SDFC’s Onni Valakari and Marcus Ingvartsen and Jeppe Tverskov were all too high with their attempts.

Lozano replaced Corey Baird in the lineup, giving the club an attack featuring Lozano, Amahl Pellegrino and Anders Dreyer for a time. Ingvartsen replaced Pellegrino in the 69th minute.

Pellegrino said of Lozano: “Yeah, it’s nice to have him back, and everyone knows what kind of amazing football player he is. So, I don’t think people will be sad to have a player like that on their team.”