At the tenth attempt, Wave end Seattle’s Reign .. but what can San Diego FC learn from the Wave?
San Diego Wave 1 : 0 Seattle Reign
San Diego Wave opened their 2024 account with a 1-0 win over Seattle Reign. It was the Californian side’s first win in ten attempts against their illustrious opponents with seven losses and just two draws until this pulsating win.
Substitute Emily van Egmond scored the decisive goal in second half stoppage time on a night where the Wave had many stand out individual performances.
The Reign were coming off a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Red Stars while the Wave had lost their only previous outing this season 1-2 to the Kansas City Current.
Those nine winless games seemed initially to have engendered a sense of inferiority as the visitors dominated the early exchanges with South Korean Ji So-Yun looking a cut above anyone else on the field creatively.
But the momentum began to shift around the 26th minute when Swedish international Sofia Jakobsson produced a beautifullu skillful turn to leave an opponent flat-footed before haring down the right wing and delivered a cross that fell behind Alex Morgan who could not direct her second opportunity of the night goalwards. It fell to a team mate who shot weakly at Claudia Dickey in the Reign goal.
Seconds later, Jakobsson herself tried a long range effoer which again Dickey collected easily. It was the Wave’s third effort as earlier Morgan had produced a looped effort in the 7th minute.
Jakobsson’s moments of magic inspired the home crowd and their side was the better thereafter. The outstanding Savannah McCaskill timed a superb tackle to deny Ji a shot on target, and masterfully kept the Korean quiet all night in a superb defensive performance.
In fact, the midfielder nearly opened the scoring with a rasping drive which was deflected onto a post with Dickey stranded.
Just before the hour mark, Wave coach Casey Stoney made the change that was to alter the game, inserting Emily van Egmond for Jaedyn Shaw who had been given little supply by her colleagues.
From that moment, the home side bombarded the Reign penalty area without overworking Dickey whose rearguard protected her well. The Australian substitute van Egmond shaved the top of the Reign bar with a cross on 3′ and shot wide a minute later, but her moment was yet to come.
Deep into the eleven minutes of stoppage time, van Egmond was the beneficiary of some penalty box pinball and slotted home a loose ball to give Wave a deserved victory.
Although the crowd did not match the sell out of the home opener, with the Padres opening night as competition, the atmosphere was buoyant throughout and the crowd fully recognised the significance of their team’s first ever win over Seattle.
No-one should be surprised.
Women’s football has nothing left to prove to anyone, least of all in the USA. And most certainly, it has nothing to prove to male football writers seeking to act pleasantly surprised.
Would that this well established status were universal.
Partick Thistle’s Ava Easdon was subject to misogynist abuse online from a former Rangers player
Photo: Partick Thistle FC
The loathesome sexism displayed by former England international Joey Barton towards 17-year-old Ava Easdon after the Scottish Cup final last week is England’s problem – as is Barton, whose misogyny has reared its head regularly on social media.
What was comforting though was the flood of support for the Partick Thistle women’s goalkeeper from all corners of Scottish football and many beyond.
But in the USA, especially the hotbed of soccer that is San Diego, the days are long past for the sport to feel it has to justify itself.
The same cannot be said yet for the city of San Diego as it awaits the arrival of Major League Soccer.
32,066 watched the Wave’s home opener last week but the diehard soccer fans of the town remain sore from two recent episodes.
In 2018, the voters of the city overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to allow a consortium to build on land to create an MLS Side for the city. The bid seemed to have been sabotaged by many a local interest notably well connected property developers and SDSU, but it left bruises.
More recently, the USL side San Diego Loyal was forced to fold after concluding it could not compete with the arrival of Major League Soccer.
The new side, imaginatively named San Diego FC, has done some decent local marketing and made some good hires, notably Ricardo Campos as EVP, Club Operations.
Campos, a Brazilian by birth, was involved in both the putative attempt to bring MLS here in 2018 and the Loyal. It seems to be widely thought that nothing ‘soccery’ can succeed in this city without him.
There is much to be learned from the success of the Wave.
Matchday here was proof you can mix the competitive environment of soccer with a family atmosphere, a balance that the San Diego FC will be weighing up as they consider issues such as the relationship with the Supporters Groups who are fairly influential in MLS, how much adult chanting to allow and how to handle the proximity of a competing club in Tijuana.
Campos is known to be a regular attendee at Wave games and will surely be keen to glean as much information from the Wave’s marketing success as he can.
On the field, the NWSL is facing increasing competition from Europe especially England as the wealthier clubs seek to spread their global brand via the women’s game. In the USA, it is a sign of the strength of the game that the well supported sides like the Wave and the Reign don’t need to be an afterthought of a male club.
Next up for the home side is a visit to Racing Louisville on April 13 while the Reign return to the Golden State to visit Bay FC a day later.
Savannah McCaskill was our MVP
Photo: Calvin Greenberg/Prost Amerika
PROST AMERIKA MVP
A superb night out for many of the Wave women but McCaskill, the 27 year-old midfielder stood out as tonight’s MVP.
Attendance: 16,746
Soccer in San Diego