San Diego FC's two-match road trip ends in back-to-back league losses, falling 1-0 at Shell Energy Stadium on Wednesday night, stretching to a four-game losing streak.
Coming off a 4-2 loss on the weekend in Sandy, Utah, against Real Salt Lake, San Diego's third consecutive loss, SDFC's winless period grew to six matches in all competitions.
It was the road teams that saw success in this matchup last season, splitting the two-match series, as both clubs ended their road visits with four-goal scored victories in 2025.
After a calm offensive start into the game, it was Houston that got onto the scoresheet first off a lethal long ball attack in the 35-minute with forwards Ondřej Lingr and Ibrahim Aliyu connecting for the 1-0 score.
Starting from an overhead pass falling for Ondřej Lingr between two SDFC defenders, the Czech forward held the ball up at the top of the penalty box and laid off a through ball pass into the area for Ibrahim Aliyu, whose first timed shot blasted into the net, giving the Dynamo the advantage.
Although taking a dominant 65%-35% ball possession lead into the halftime break, SDFC still trailed with their offense unable to create chances off those possession spells, ending the period with zero shots on target.
Dynamo's Lingr had a chance to ice the match in the 74-minute, being played through on goal and rounding SDFC goalkeeping Duran Ferree, only for his shot to be double denied by both goal posts, keeping the match at 1-0 with 15-minutes of regular time remaining.
SDFC's period of bad luck continued to grow with a 79-minute red card given to forward Amahl Pellegrino after catching the head of Dynamo's Felipe Andrade with a high kick, as the seemingly unintentional but dangerous play confirmed the red card decision, leaving San Diego a player down while chasing a result.
Even after putting an end to a four-match sending-off streak last matchday, SDFC's 2026 red card nightmares continued, as Pellegrino's first career MLS red card brought the club's season total to six in all competitions.
In the 84-minute, San Diego looked to have leveled the match at 1-1 with substitute Marcus Ingvartsen's shot hitting the back of the net, but immediately, referee Rubiel Vazquez called the potential equalizer back with fellow substitute David Vazquez being offside on the setup pass.
Despite the nine minutes of added stoppage time and a Dynamo red card for Ondřej Lingr's kickout foul on SDFC's Ian Pilcher in the 90+7-minute, the Chrome & Azul were unable to find the tying score as they ultimately fell 1-0.
SDFC's losing streak totals grew after their slim 1-0 loss at Shell Energy Stadium, now on a four-match MLS losing streak, having gone their last seven matches in all competitions winless.
Following the 1-0 defeat on Wednesday night to the Houston Dynamo, San Diego FC head coach Mikey Varas reflected on his side's performance at the postgame press conference, focusing on the squad's progress despite the result.
"We dominated a lot of the game, played away from home on two days' rest and put them very deep. We didn't concede very many chances. They took the chance that they got. This is football."
"We're going to take that, and we're going to make sure that we don't take any steps back, because we need to keep taking steps in the right direction. Because ultimately, we're here to win games."
"The team is starting to play better, starting to not give up the big chances that we were giving up, and we're headed in the right direction. And what I would say is we're going to be there when it counts."
"I would say the silver lining is that we're starting to play better. We're getting more players back and the group is very, very hungry to get back to our best."
San Diego FC are back at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday night following their two-match road trip, hosting the Portland Timbers on April 25 at 6:30 p.m. with eyes on snapping the losing and winless period at the club.
A more than familiar foe for SDFC, having faced the Timbers five times in 2025, with three victories, including an MLS Cup Playoff Round One series win for the Chrome & Azul.
