San Diego’s summer of soccer wraps with Thursday’s Dortmund-Loyal match at Snapdragon Stadium

San Diego’s summer of soccer continues Thursday night with the fourth international match in six weeks when Germany’s Borussia Dortmund plays the San Diego Loyal at Snapdragon Stadium.

It might be a case of saving the best for last.

The game figures to be the least attended of the four — nothing approaching the near-capacity crowds that watched national teams from Mexico and the United States or Tuesday’s sellout for Manchester United against Wrexham AFC — but should offer the highest level of soccer.

One reason is the quality of the other three games was underwhelming. The worst Mexico team in a generation (or five) needed a late goal to tie Cameroon and a week later fired the coach. A U.S. B team was knocked out of the CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals by Panama (population: 4.4 million) in a penalty shootout following 120 lackluster minutes. And Man United fielded its under-21 team in a 3-1 loss against fourth-division Wrexham while its regulars flew to Houston ahead of Wednesday’s clash against Spanish giant Real Madrid.

Another reason is Dortmund. It’s not defaulting to the youngsters Thursday despite, at least on paper, facing inferior competition.

“For us, it’s a crucial time of the season,” coach Edin Terzic said Wednesday at the Grand Del Mar, where a 30-player roster is based for the week. “We don’t have too many opportunities to get back to our level. We are here with our full squad. Everybody who is ready to play will be part of the game.

“We’re going to approach all the three games we have in the U.S. with our strongest teams.”

Another reason: Terzic isn’t particularly pleased with their current form.

They opened the preseason with a 7-0 win against fifth-division Westfalia Rhynern on July 12. A week later, they struggled to beat fourth-division RW Oberhausen 3-2. On Saturday, before jetting to the States, they needed a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes to salvage a 2-1 victory against another fourth-division side, RW Erfurt.

“We haven’t been happy with all the performances we’ve shown so far, so we want to improve our performance,” said Terzic, whose team plays Man United in Las Vegas on Sunday and Chelsea in Chicago on Aug. 2. “We want to show that we are here to win all the games.”

Yet another: The second-division Loyal is playing its best soccer, coming off 2-0 and 5-0 road wins. It also had 12 days to rest and prepare.

So expect to see Marco Reus, Emre Can, Mats Hummels, Thorgan Hazard, Nico Schlotterbeck, Julian Brandt, Karim Adeyemi and the rest of the crew that came so agonizingly close to ending Bayern Munich’s 11-year reign as German champions, missing a penalty kick in the season finale and tying Mainz 2-2 when a win would have clinched the title.

“We will never forget it, because it was a very bad experience for everyone,” Can, the club’s newly promoted captain, said. “I think we have to take it as motivation.”

One player you won’t see on the field Thursday is Gio Reyna, who isn’t fully match fit after suffering a calf injury with the U.S. national team in June.

It’s been a rough year for the 20-year-old midfielder. He played only twice, both as a substitute in the World Cup last fall, prompting his mother to dreg up decades-old allegations that coach Gregg Berhalter abused his future wife while they were at the University of North Carolina. Berhalter’s contract expired and there was speculation he wouldn’t be re-hired, only he was.

Then Reyna returned to Dortmund and the heartbreak of the season’s ending. A couple weeks later, he limped off with a calf problem and hasn’t played since.

Reyna said recently that he’s spoken with Matt Crocker, who oversees U.S. Soccer’s national teams, and received assurances that he’ll have “an important role in the program for many years going forward.”

On Tuesday, he added: “I always love playing for my country. It’s always an honor. Right now, I’m focused on Dortmund and getting 100 percent fit. … I think it’s pretty simple. We came really close last season to winning the league and (want to do anything) I can help the team get over that edge. I think every single other player would say the same thing.”

That starts Thursday night at Snapdragon Stadium.

How serious are they? There have held double-day training sessions at the San Diego Jewish Academy’s immaculate soccer complex since arriving in San Diego.

Terzic also admitted to watching film of the Loyal.

“We know they are in midseason form, they are well prepared, very aggressive style of play, very good in the offense, scoring many goals especially in the last couple of games,” Terzic said. “We are expecting a very tense game.”