Tom Krasovic: San Diego FC fans have bought into wacky, wild MLS -- and so have I

SAN DIEGO — For now I’m done talking here about Major League Soccer’s flaws.

MLS’ version of the world’s game is growing on me. And I’m far from alone, as Saturday night’s local match further affirmed.

In a midseason temperature check of the league’s suitability to San Diego, while SDFC’s game unfolded in Mission Valley, the ultra-popular Padres played in the East Village before yet another capacity crowd, this one numbering 43,297.

Would the local baseball giant squash the soccer newbies at the gate?

It would not.

Paying good money, an announced crowd of 28,231 gathered at 32,500-seat Snapdragon Stadium, meaning SDFC attracted about 6,000 more fans than MLS’ average and just 300 fewer than its own norm through the first 10 home matches.

While it may be true that SDFC and the Padres aren’t competing for the same fans and may even complement one another on the sports-entertainment scene, I came away from Saturday’s match with this belief: SDFC, just four months into its first season, has scratched out no less than a toehold in the local market.

Let’s get to the soccer and why it’s growing on me — and why Saturday’s match was no less entertaining than any Padres game I’ve attended this year.

A large part of the match’s reward owed to the wide variety of offensive tactics and goal-scoring sequences.

There were bursts of fine playmaking, befitting America’s top men’s league. A stunning display of sprint speed led to a memorable goal. Back-and-forth plots being a staple of sports theater that takes flight, this match saw SDFC take leads of 1-0 and 3-2 before allowing two late goals.

The 11th-place Houston Dynamo took a 4-3 victory, rewarding a performance their coach rated the team’s best this year.

The MLS schedule relented in recent days, affording proper rest to each team in the lead up to Saturday night. A night game in typical San Diego weather rather than in muggy Houston may have freshened the Dynamo, who brought their own heat through most of the late second half.

There were strange and spicy subplots — a ref who swallowed his whistle throughout the first half then showed Houston four yellow cards after the break; SDFC star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano shoving a Dynamo player during a stoppage; a high-speed collision that bloodied the nose of SDFC goalkeeper CJ dos Santos near game’s end and dos Santos refusing to come out.

Amending my comment, crazy MLS is growing on me.

MLS matches invariably serve up a handful of defensive breakdowns that are glaring. Some are head-scratching.

This alienates some football connoisseurs, for good reason, but increases scoring chances. And it often ramps up the zaniness.

Because there’s (barely) enough advanced offensive talent on many (not all) of MLS’ 30 teams, the league’s defensive gaffes get punished at rate that balances out the aesthetics.

This bad-good combination in SDFC’s debut season has already created wackiness such as Escondido striker Milan Iloski punishing sloppy Vancouver with four SDFC goals in just 12 minutes; and SDFC’s best player, Danish striker Anders Dreyer, lining a 54-yard shot over a raw 6-foot-7 goalkeeper for a goal.

Saturday’s match made it a recent trifecta, creating a stunning goal sequence that, all said, covered 90-plus yards in under 15 seconds.

From the top of Houston’s box, a Dynamo player clouted a clearance some 50-plus yards upfield before it took two long hops forward.

German teammate Ennali Lawrence ran 65 yards in pursuit so fast that the huge field — about 110 by 70 yards — looked less huge from the stadium’s second deck.

Blazing past two SDFC players, the 5-foot-8, 143-pounder headed the second bounce to a perfect spot near SDFC’s box, then netted a left-footed shot.

How fast is Lawrence, 23, who was starting his first MLS match since suffering an ACL tear last August in Los Angeles?

By my eyes, faster than anyone else SDFC tried to outsprint in its first 20 matches.

EA Sports assigns a 0-100 grade on sprint speed. Atop its world-football scale, at 97, is French great Kylian Mbappe. Lawrence checks in at 90. Lozano, whose urgent, 60-yard sprint in May overtook an LA Galaxy star and contributed to SDFC’s signature win, gets an 87.

SDFC can’t match that speed, but the expansion club’s breadth of offensive stumps many opponents.

Coach Mikey Varas talked in the preseason about his players becoming adept at picking and applying any of three solutions in real time — go through, over or around an opponent.

Acing the test in the second half Saturday, five SDFC players improvised a quality goal that tied it 2-2.

Dreyer pinpointed a diagonal left-to-right free kick beyond a larger group of players to 6-foot-2 teammate Paddy McNair, who headed it toward Onni Valakari high in the box.

The Finnish midfielder deadened the ball with a foot and quickly chipped it laterally over nearby defenders. Jeppe Tverskov, 6-foot-1, headed it backward, laterally, toward uncovered Luca Bombino, 18.

With a quick swivel, the rookie defender struck down on the hip-high bouncer with his left foot. The 11-yard grounder glanced off Houston’s goalkeeper and into the goal. Clever offense, mediocre defense. And with a lofted pass in tight traffic, Lozano set up SDFC’s third goal, making it 3-2.

The home team’s defense failed to close it out, making two large defensive errors — one of them a group effort that was embarrassing. Houston turned each miscue into a goal, earning the victory.

But as the 17 minutes of stoppage time wound down, the crowd told a bigger story for a first-year club playing in a league that can’t match the comprehensive skill of the European and top South American leagues.

Snapdragon Stadium was still mostly full, the fans still vocal.

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