🔬 The Debrief across a historic Sunday night of action in MLS | OneFootball

MLS action returned for the first-ever edition of 'Sunday Night Soccer' after a brilliant start to the new 2025 season across all the fun yesterday, including Lionel Messi hitting the ground running for Inter Miami.

The Sunday program started with Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps clashing at Providence Park in another installment of the Cascadia Cup.

In the second of just two games on the docket, San Diego FC made their long-awaited debut against MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy as California gains another top-level club and a potential rivalry in the making.

What happened

Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps got the party started in their hotly-contested rivalry, with Vancouver having the last laugh after a huge 4-1 win.

Despite the ever-present influence of Portland fans maintaining their voice as one of the best fanbases around, Timbers defender Kamal Miller would see a straight red just 11 minutes into the new season, which provided the Whitecaps with the perfect springboard away from home.

Goals from Ryan Gauld, Pedro Vite, Sam Adekugbe, and Jayden Nelson would do the damage on the night, with the Canadian international announcing his return to MLS in scintillating fashion.

In the second match of the night, LA Galaxy's brilliant home form during the 2024 season was unable to carry over against budding expansion outfit San Diego FC during a historic 2-0 win at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The absence of key man Riqui Puig was surely felt despite Marco Reus featuring in the starting XI, with Anders Dreyer and Hirving Lozano combining to open the scoring what was ultimately the match-winner in the second half to bag the club's first-ever MLS goal.

Dreyer would complete his brace in the dying embers of added time with a brilliantly curled effort when SDFC hit the Galaxy on the counter as the home side desperately pushed for an equalizer.

It was the first home loss for the Galaxy since the 2023 season after posting a 17W-0L-3D record in 2024, as SDFC was the better of the two sides across the balance of play after 90 minutes on a night that will go down in league history.

Player of the day

The buck stops at Vancouver's Jayden Nelson, and the numbers speak for themselves.

At just 22, MLS could have another budding star on its hands as Nelson matched a club record alongside none other than Canada and Bayern Munich superstar Alphonso Davies.

Nelson also became just the third player in MLS history to record four goal contributions during a debut appearance, following in the footsteps of iconic league names Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario.

Stat of the day

A historic marker on day one for San Diego FC while becoming just the second expansion team to win their inaugural match since 2019, with St. Louis achieving the same feat two seasons ago.

Danish winger Anders Dreyer's debut goal and subsequent brace to become the club's first-ever MLS goalscorer could have made for a more perfect night for SDFC. What a way to close out the opening weekend of the 2025 MLS season.

What this means

Vancouver and SDFC fans will party long into the night as both clubs end the weekend level on points with San Jose, Dallas, LAFC, and Austin atop the Western Conference pile.

Questions surrounding Portland's defensive woes continue in the post-mortem after the Timbers shipped 56 goals in 2024 before narrowly missing out on the post-season, with the club unable to stop the bleeding after being reduced to ten men.

As for LA Galaxy, the long-term loss of Riqui Puig is, thus far, proving to be cataclysmic as Greg Vanney's side lacked real invention in transition and moving into the final third.

With the former La Masia graduate out for much, if not all, of the 2025 campaign, Galaxy fans will hold out hope that tonight's performance will be the exception to the rule.

What comes next

MLS action returns next weekend with a full fixture program, while second-leg CONCACAF Champions Cup fixtures return in midweek, with Inter Miami, Sporting Kansas City, LAFC, Colorado, Cincinnati, Real Salt Lake, Seattle, and Vancouver all looking to progress to the second round.

📸 Alex Gallardo-Imagn Images