San Diego Wave FC holds multiple attendance records despite just being in their second season as a club. They just set another one with an announced crowd of 30,854 at Snapdragon Stadium, an NWSL home opener record.
Oh yeah, and the team won 3-2 against the Chicago Red Stars with a late goal to maintain an unbeaten streak across four matches at Snapdragon Stadium.
The Wave ended the Red Stars’ season last year in the NWSL playoffs that went into extra time ending with a goal from Alex Morgan. The rematch? Morgan again scored a goal in the final minutes of the match to bring San Diego the win.
“We’re a team that’s never beaten, we’re a team that always wants to win and we're hungry for those three points everytime we step out there,” head coach Casey Stoney said.
The first half began with slow play with neither side putting a shot on goal until the 16th minute by Chicago which gave them momentum in the opposing half. In the 18th minute, quickly during a corner kick set piece with chaos in the box, Yuki Nagasato scored Chicago’s first goal for the lead.
Then just two minutes later San Diego equalized. The opportunity was started by a back heel by Jaedyn Shaw to Morgan. Morgan sent it in the box for Megan Dougherty Howard who shot it right at Alyssa Naeher pushing it up to deflect it right in front of the goal for a patient Amirah Ali to put it in for the finish.
Ali said after the match that she has felt much more comfortable in her second season with the club being more fit and with less nerves relying on the veteran presence in the club.
The crowd propelled momentum after the home side’s first goal allowing San Diego to keep the pressure on. During a corner kick set piece a ball sent into the center was deflected by a Chicago defender right outside the box for Jaedyn Shaw who put a perfect strike on the ball to take the lead.
Shaw was playing as a ’10’ in a box midfield system according to Stoney which used Dougherty Howard for 45 minutes instead of Taylor Kornieck. Because Dougherty Howard has some lingering injuries they would only allow her to play one half.
The second half saw much more turnovers, said Stoney, leaving the two teams for quite some time in what would be a 2-2 draw. That was until the 88th minute when during a strong run by Morgan as she entered the box to put a shot on goal, her shot deflected off the arm of Arin Wright, defender for the Red Stars resulting in a yellow card and a penalty for the Wave. Morgan took the penalty sending it to the left just past her USWNT teammate and Chicago goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to seal the win with a 3-2 result.
“Just getting the win at the end of the game, I felt like we were the better team today but we kind of were a little sloppy here and there,” Alex Morgan said. “I’m glad we were able to clean it up and get that final goal, and I’m just proud of the team overall.”
Wave FC will play another home match next week on April 1, against the North Carolina Courage, a team they have never lost against, at 7 p.m. at Snapdragon Stadium.