Wave end tumultuous season with 3-1 win against Racing Louisville

San Diego Wave players celebrate a goal by Jaedyn Shaw in the third minute of the match in the team’s 3-1 win against Racing Louisville. (Photo credit: San Diego Wave FC) 

San Diego Wave ended their 2024 season on somewhat of a positive note earning their strongest road performance of the season in a 3-1 win against Racing Louisville. 

The match was originally scheduled to be a home game for the Wave, but was relocated to Louisville because of poor field conditions at Snapdragon Stadium.  

“There are a lot of things you can’t control, and so the beauty of playing in Concacaf for all these years is you get used to these situations and you just don’t bat an eye…,” Donovan said. “Ultimately, it makes you more resilient and it’s good for you. So the next time something like this happens, they can all look at each other and say, hey,  remember when we had to go to Louisville on 36 hours notice and we still won the game?”

In total the Wave ended with six wins, seven draws and 13 losses leaving them at 10th place out of 14 teams in the standings only a year after they won the NWSL Shield for the best regular season record.  

The Wave got the scoring started early in the third minute with a great goal by Jaedyn Shaw who was away with the United States Women’s National Team for two weeks, and played on Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Shaw’s goal came from what seemed to be an intended cross into the goal box, but found the back post after the goalkeeper was forced to cover her nearside with Kyra Carusa making a run to attempt a header.

The 19-year-old star played in three matches in three different states in one week with the national team, traveled to San Diego where she stayed for less than 48 hours before going back to Kentucky to play for the Wave. 

San Diego also managed to get goals from two of their forwards who contributed greatly to the team, but had not yet scored in the regular season. 

The first came from María Sánchez in the 22nd minute as she stood to take a free kick from outside the penalty area. Sánchez has the most goal contributions for the Wave all season and has been great in set piece opportunities. She sent a perfect ball around the opponent’s wall that curved into the goal to make it 2-0.

The Wave’s third goal came in the 76th minute for Savannah McCaskill who subbed on for Sánchez less than 10 minutes prior. French international forward Delphine Cascarino sent a cross high to the center of the goal box that McCaskill jumped to head in easily to make it 3-1.

On the defensive end, the Wave conceded a goal in the second half after a header by Bethany Balcer, and were beneficiaries of a seemingly incorrect offside call by the referee that could have been deemed a penalty kick for Louisville.

“I am so incredibly proud of them, what we’ve started building here is really special, given the circumstances,” interim head coach Landon Donovan said. “It’s a group that had to become really resilient given everything that’s gone on, and I’m just really proud of their effort and how they handled everything and just got themselves going. They were in a great place before the game, and then they performed really well.”

It is unclear whether Donovan will stay with the Wave as permanent head coach, and he said after the match to reporters in Spanish that he will have a conversation with the new ownership, Wave President Jill Ellis and General Manager Cammile Ashton about the future.