San Diego FC head coach Mikey Varas has challenged his side to keep climbing the Major League Soccer standings after they returned to winning ways with a commanding 3-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids.

The result snapped a three-match winless run that included a 3-1 defeat to the Portland Timbers, and lifted San Diego to 11th in the Western Conference on 27 points — just one point behind the playoff places.

“It was a great team win,” Varas said of the Colorado victory. “It starts from a foundation of everybody committed to running hard, to tackling, to pressing, to making big recovery runs because we play against a very good team defending low like warriors, and all of that is the foundation.

“When we do that with all the guys committed to it, and we do it at a high level, then the football comes from there. We have to keep pushing. This is something that we enjoy, but you can never take the points for granted at first-team level, but we’ve got to keep pushing because we’ve got a mission to get on with.”

Galaxy struggling for form

San Diego’s next test comes against the LA Galaxy, who sit 12th and are one point behind them in the table. Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney is under increasing pressure after just one win in his team’s last eight matches — a 1-0 success over the San Jose Earthquakes followed by a 2-2 draw with CF Montreal in which they surrendered a late lead.

Players to watch

Onni Valakari scored for San Diego in Saturday’s win, adding to a club record that sees 53 of their 101 all-time regular-season goals scored by Scandinavian players — a mark matched only by the Galaxy, whose 74 such goals were led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 52.

For the Galaxy, Maya Yoshida netted his seventh MLS career goal on Saturday, his first not scored via a header. Notably, all four of Yoshida’s goals over the last two seasons have come on the road.

Match prediction

This will be the first meeting between the two sides in 2026, with San Diego winning both encounters last season (a 2-0 away win and a 2-1 home victory). San Diego have also triumphed in each of their first three regular-season meetings with FC Dallas and Los Angeles FC, and the Colorado win made it four straight home victories at Snapdragon Stadium — tied for the longest home winning streak in the club’s two-year history.

The Galaxy have collected 13 points at home (W3 D4 L4) and 13 on the road (W3 D4 L3) this season, making them one of six MLS teams with as many points away as at home.

According to Opta, San Diego hold a 51.4% win probability, with the draw at 22.3% and LA Galaxy at 26.3%.