SDFC settles for draw after allowing stoppage-time goal to LAFC

San Diego FC did not get the catharsis it wanted Saturday night.

But it did get something it badly needed.

SDFC played LAFC to a 2-2 draw at Snapdragon Stadium, snapping its five-match MLS losing streak but extending its winless run across all competitions to nine games after Ryan Hollingshead buried the equalizer in the 14th minute of stoppage time.

In front of a raucous crowd stoked by a burgeoning rivalry, San Diego looked more composed, more connected and more dangerous than it had in weeks.

Marcus Ingvartsen scored twice. Anders Dreyer, celebrating his 28th birthday, assisted both goals. The Blue and Chrome led 2-0 late in the second half.

Then, after spending almost the last two months finding trap doors in matches, SDFC (3-5-3) stumbled into another one.

Denis Bouanga pulled LAFC (6-2-3) within one in the 82nd minute. CJ dos Santos, making his long-awaited return in goal, exited injured in the 98th. Duran Ferree came on cold. And deep into stoppage time, Hollingshead gathered a corner kick from Mathieu Choinière and slid the ball past Ferree to steal a point for LAFC.

"The first 80 minutes we were really good," SDFC coach Mikey Varas said. "We really were, pretty much, where we've been at when we've been at our best.

"We weren't able to get the third goal, but we were up 2-0, and I think we were in complete control of the game. The boys showed a really great step in the right direction to who we want to be."

That made the ending sting even more.

A year ago, SDFC swept LAFC, broke its expansion points record and turned a regional matchup into a real rivalry almost instantly.

Saturday's meeting carried a different kind of pressure. San Diego entered buried in bad form, winless since March 11 and desperate for anything resembling forward momentum.

For most of the night, it found it.

Ingvartsen opened the scoring in the seventh minute after Dreyer whipped in a perfect left-footed corner. The Danish striker darted free at the near post and beat Hugo Lloris with a header for a 1-0 lead.

The second came in the 71st minute, again through the Dreyer-Ingvartsen connection, this time from open play. Dreyer delivered another clean final ball, and Ingvartsen finished from point-blank range to put San Diego ahead 2-0.

"We talked about there could be some opportunities in the first-post area," Ingvartsen said. "It was a perfect ball, perfect execution in the box. I was completely free getting in there.

"Very nice to get the second goal also from open play. We created that chance to make it 2-0. Two nice goals, nice personally to get them in also. I think as a team, we played at least 80 very strong minutes."

Those goals were only the fifth and sixth Lloris has allowed this season. The French World Cup-winning goalkeeper opened the year with a league-record 540-minute shutout streak, but SDFC repeatedly put him under pressure in dangerous areas in the first half.

Ingvartsen now leads San Diego with seven goals. Dreyer has a club-best 11 goal contributions, with five goals and six assists. On a night when SDFC needed its best attackers to look like difference-makers again, they did.

The problem was the final stretch.

LAFC coach Marc Dos Santos rotated his lineup with Wednesday's decisive second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals against Toluca looming, but the visitors still had enough firepower to make San Diego pay late. Bouanga's 82nd-minute finish, his fifth goal of the season, changed the temperature of the match.

"Things got a little bit difficult for us around that 80th minute," Varas said. "Of course, there's a bunch of things that happen in this game that are outside of our control that has to do with refereeing decisions and we end up getting scored on. And then we have a situation that CJ had to come out and we concede a goal late.

"We're going to look in the mirror, in terms of really pushing ourselves to be able to finish a little bit stronger."

CJ dos Santos' return was one of the night's more encouraging subplots before his exit. He had not appeared since Nov. 1, when he sustained a fractured cheekbone and orbital floor below his left eye during a playoff match against the Portland Timbers. The injury caused double vision and required surgery.

He finished with three saves Saturday, including a spectacular diving stop to his left that denied Tyler Boyd in the 87th minute and briefly looked like it might preserve the win.

Instead, SDFC left with one point and another missed opportunity.

San Diego finished with 52% possession, after controlling the ball 59% of the time in the first half, but was outshot 12-7, including 5-2 on target. LAFC only had a single off-target shot in the first half.

The draw leaves SDFC 11th in the Western Conference with 12 points, still below the playoff line and still searching for its first win since a 3-2 victory over Toluca in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16.

LAFC, meanwhile, stays near the top of the conference, sitting third with 21 points while continuing to juggle league play with its continental push.

SDFC travels next to Seattle, where it will take on the Sounders next Saturday.

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This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 9:19 PM.