San Diego v St Louis City SC: Lozano aiming to leave a legacy at newest expansion team

San Diego play their inaugural home game against St. Louis City at Snapdragon Stadium this weekend.

MLS' newest expansion team beat the LA Galaxy 2-0 on the road in their opening match.

Lozano has enjoyed success in the Netherlands and Italy, but the Mexican said the move to California was about more than just him playing football.

"I experienced part of my career in Pachuca in a similar way, so the possibility to help young kids be able to achieve their dream, and for me to be the motivator for them to come to San Diego, is part of my choice," he said.

"I want to leave a legacy, a footprint for future generations."

Lozano has already contributed an assist in San Diego's victory over the Galaxy, but club CEO Tom Penn has been delighted with the impact the winger has made on a human level.

"He's got a smile that lights up the room," Penn said of Lozano. "He loves his fans and people. Our supporters came to a training one day; he came out and surprised the fans at the training ground. Chucky hugged every single one of them!

"You can only be the foundational player once, right? Properly executed, there’ll be a statue of him out here someday. That’s the goal, is to come here and do what he’s done at other places: That’s win trophies.

"This is a remarkable and amazing city. They’re going to love him once he’s scoring goals and everybody sees him wearing San Diego across his chest."

Largest. Crowd. Ever.We’re anticipating the LARGEST crowd in Snapdragon Stadium history for the Club’s historic Inaugural Home Match on Saturday, presented by @DIRECTVLimited tickets still available…1/2 pic.twitter.com/0eZE1YIByq

— San Diego FC (@sandiegofc) February 26, 2025

Lozano provided an assist for Anders Dreyer for what was San Diego's first MLS goal in their history.

He had also provided four goals and two assists for PSV before transferring to the new team in January, so he is in sharp form in the final third.

Hartel contributed eight goal contributions in just nine matches for St. Louis in the 2024 season.

The German signed from St. Pauli in the summer of 2024 and ended the campaign with more assists than any other St. Louis player for the season (five).

Just two of the last seven MLS expansion teams have lost their inaugural home match (W4 D1), while 14 of 16 expansion teams have scored in their home opener – only Austin FC (2021) and Charlotte FC (2022) have failed to do so.

But having said that, only four expansion teams have ever won their first two matches in MLS: Chicago Fire in 1998, Seattle Sounders in 2009, Los Angeles FC in 2018 and St. Louis City SC in 2023.

St. Louis City won only one of its 18 away matches in all competitions in 2024 (D8 L9), with that victory coming over league-worst San Jose. In fact, after winning its first three away games as an MLS club, St. Louis has won just four of 35 on the road in all competitions since (D11 L20).

The visitors, though, faced only two shots in its first match of the season, which was a 0-0 draw with Colorado. That is the fewest shots any team has faced in a season-opening match since the Union faced only two shots against Colorado to begin the 2015 campaign.

San Diego – 34.3%

Draw – 25.8%