San Diego FC’s stars will be available for Monday’s critical playoff match

San Diego FC’s attack will be full-strength — or close to it — when Minnesota United visits for Monday’s Major League Soccer Western Conference semifinal playoff game at Snapdragon Stadium.

Goal-scorers Hirving “Chucky” Lozano (hamstring) and Anders Dreyer (illness) both returned to the club from their national teams this week and have been training ahead of the key playoff match. Coach Mikey Varas said Thursday that both will be available when the Loons visit.

Playing for Mexico, Lozano exited Saturday’s friendly against Uruguay with “muscle overload,” according to the federation, and did not play Tuesday against Paraguay.

Dreyer missed Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier loss to Scotland after catching a virus that spread through Denmark’s national team.

FIFA’s two-week international break came in the middle of MLS playoffs, which wasn’t ideal for a coach trying to keep his best players healthy and rested.

But Varas, himself a former interim U.S. Men’s National Team coach, said he understands the demands placed on both the federations and MLS. It probably helps that MLS announced Thursday that the 2026 playoffs will begin after the international break, avoiding any delays; and that the league is poised to play a summer-to-spring schedule starting in 2027.

“We don’t overthink it,” Varas said. “Because the international window comes and goes, and life’s going to throw at you what life throws you, and the most important thing is you can be hopeful and prepared for the best-case scenario, but you have to be ready to deal with whatever life throws at you at any given moment.

“The good news is, both (Lozano and Dreyer) are healthy and available, which is the best-case scenario.”

MLS’ Newcomer of the Year and a finalist for the Landon Donovan MVP award, Dreyer leads SDFC with 19 goals and 18 assists.

Lozano, the team’s other designated player, has nine goals and nine assists. He has come off the bench in his last two matches.

Amahl Pellegrino, who is expected to start over Lozano on Monday, said the Mexican star makes SDFC better.

“He’s a goal-scorer, he’s an assist-maker and he’s a really good player, and that’s why he was one of the first signings for the team,” Pellegrino said. “We just hope that he will bring everything he has for these games, and that it will benefit us.”

‘No-brainer’

Varas described SDFC’s decision to exercise its permanent trade option to keep defender Luca Bombino “a no-brainer.”

It’s hard to argue with the coach.

The 19-year-old Bombino started 24 regular-season matches after being loaned south from LAFC, becoming a stalwart at fullback.

SDFC initially gave up an international roster slot for the right to borrow Bombino for the season. To keep him, the club gave up $200,000 in general allocation money to LAFC, which will retain a future sell and trade percentage if San Diego parts ways with Bombino. LAFC could receive up to another $900,000 in general allocation money.

Expansion SDFC offered Bombino a shot at playing time after he spent eight years in the LAFC Academy system, including two with LAFC2 of MLS Next Pro. Varas has not shied away from starting young players; fellow starting defenders Manu Duah and Ian Pilcher are 20 and 22, respectively.

“The confidence from the coaches, the other players and the fans as well, they know that age is just a number,” Bombino said. “If you can do what’s required of you on the field, then you can do it.”

Schedule released

San Diego FC will open the 2026 season with two straight home matches, part of a split schedule that will allow MLS to break for the World Cup.

The chrome and azul open  Feb. 22 against CF Montreal before taking on St. Louis City SC on March 1.

Following its May 23 match against the Vancouver Whitecaps, SDFC will take nearly two months off for the World Cup, returning July 22 at the Colorado Rapids. Among matches to watch: home games against LAFC (May 2) and LA Galaxy (Aug. 29) and a Sept. 20 match against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in Florida.