How new MLS franchise San Diego are creating history

San Diego finished top of the Western Conference in their debut season

One of the first issues posed when creating a new football club is how to create your own, organic identity.

For many, it takes years to develop. However, for Major League Soccer's newest club, San Diego FC, there was a simple answer.

It already existed.

The team's culture stems from the Right to Dream football network, which originally started as an academy in Ghana before adding Denmark's FC Nordsjaelland and then expanding into Egypt after it was bought by the Mansour Group.

San Diego were the next club to be added to the ever-growing system of clubs and coaching academies, and with that came a successful blueprint to follow.

"I told the boys at the start that we might be an expansion team in MLS, but we have a lot of rich history with Right to Dream, and it is our job to continue that legacy," said head coach Mikey Varas.

"Every decision you make as a first-team coach within Right to Dream is about winning, but how we win and who we win with matters, and I think I was hired because we're completely aligned with that vision," added Varas.

That vision has helped San Diego go from their successful bid to become an MLS expansion team in 2023 to making their record-breaking debut in the competition this season.

Varas had a two-game interim spell in charge of the US national team before Mauricio Pochettino was appointed head coach

In Varas' first job as a men's head coach, he led the Californian side to the top of the Western Conference with a record-breaking tally of points, wins and away wins for an expansion team.

And he did it all while deploying a style that has been inspired by Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova's Barcelona.

Varas said: "I love football. I think the best thing in life is playing football. And if you can't do that, the next best thing is to be working in football. And if you can't do that, I think the next best thing is to be a passionate fan of football.

"And I know there are many ways of playing football and I respect all of them and all of them have tremendous value and you can win any way.

"But deep in our hearts and in our DNA, we feel this type of exciting football, and it makes it all the more special a journey when we play this way."

It is this style that bonded a group of 30 strangers and helped them outperform MLS giants such as the Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps and both Los Angeles clubs in the Western Conference.

But despite everyone having to develop relationships with team-mates during pre-season, often through card games and the odd trip to watch Major League Baseball side San Diego Padres, the fresh start for staff and players felt like an advantage.

Midfielder Anders Dreyer said: "It was nice to get into a dressing room where every player wanted to be at the same place.

"Sometimes you come to a club with history and there is stuff carrying over from last season where people want to leave because they didn't play enough or were unhappy.

"But here, there was a group of players who would just want to be a part of this journey.

"I've been in a lot of different teams with a lot of history and then to try a whole new team with no history, was something I would love to do."

San Diego have an average home attendance of 28,000 this season

Danish midfielder Dreyer, who joined from Anderlecht, was one of the players who was aware of Right to Dream, having played in Denmark and faced Nordsjælland during his time there.

Despite having no way of knowing what playing for San Diego was like, his experience of the project in his homeland helped him decide to join the MLS club.

Dreyer said: "I always played against Nordsjaelland and I was like, 'that would be nice to play like this'. And I got the chance to play like that and I love it.

"Now with the way that we play, the Right to Dream way, it just makes it easier to perform and it's easier to get into the team and show yourself.

"Because when you have a certain style, I think that helps everybody on the team be a part of it as you know what you must do when it's your chance."

Dreyer looks to be one of the players who has excelled the most in this model. Only Inter Miami's Lionel Messi has more goal involvement than the midfielder's 39 this season.

The Dane's most recent strike - his 19th MLS goal of the season - was arguably the most historic as it secured San Diego's first-ever play-off win and gave them the advantage in their best-of-three tie against Portland Timbers.

It is this opportunity to write brand new history that has appealed to so many of San Diego FC's staff and players, in a city that is one of the most passionate about football in the whole country.

The Californian city had San Diego Loyal, a USL club that disbanded in 2023, and the NWSL club San Diego Waves, but this new club has given the whole county a feeling of community.

Steve Cabrera, chairman of Frontera SD, a San Diego supporters' group, said: "We have everybody coming to meet up in a parking lot before games and bringing food to share, people are bringing beers and we kind of throw this party.

"That's when people see that and then they see it transfer over into the game, where we're all as one and we're chanting and singing for the club and bringing energy to the club."

As the team continues to push boundaries, aiming to match Chicago Fire as the only expansion team to win the MLS Cup, the fanbase will get stronger.

But San Diego and Right to Dream are looking beyond this being a new-club bounce and aim to cement themselves among MLS's elite long-term.

Varas said: "It's important that we create a sustainable project.

"One that embodies the idea of having high-level talent around, high-level characters around, all with the same purpose and mission."