Wave lose 2-1 against Angel City; extend winless streak to 10
New Wave signing, French forward Delphine Cascarino moves into the final third. Cascarino was one of few bright spots for the Wave attack in their 2-1 loss. (Photo courtesy of San Diego Wave FC)
San Diego Wave FC returned to NWSL action on Saturday, August 24, with a 2-1 loss against their Southern California rivals, Angel City FC.
The result extended the Wave’s NWSL regular season winless streak to 10 matches and helped Angel City jump to one point away from the final playoff position, while the Wave are left in 11th place out of 14 teams in the NWSL.
“Judge the performance, not the result. The problem is we need results now, because we’re at the point of the season for it,” interim head coach Landon Donovan said. “It hurts to not get anything out of the game, but there’s so much that they’re going to learn from feeling this, things they did well, things they didn’t do well and were going to grow a lot from a game like this. Now ideally you do it when you win, but we kind of gave away two sloppy goals and that ended up hurting us.”
The Wave had seven players on their injury report ahead of the match including Wave mainstays like Naomi Girma, Jaedyn Shaw, Danielle Colaprico and Savannah McCaskill. The depleted defense and midfield was noted as Angel City moved with ease into dangerous scoring positions.
Angel City’s first goal came in the 20th minute with the help of former Wave midfielder Meggie Dougherty Howard. Dougherty Howard moved up the midfield and sent a through ball for Angel City behind the Wave backline.
Hanna Lundkvist stood in the path of the pass, and attempted to control it with a touch but ended up passing it forward. 19-year-old Alyssa Thompson jumped on the opportunity and ran the ball down the pitch with no defenders in front of her. Thompson was patient and waited for Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan to commit to a tackle, which allowed Thompson to pass the ball easily into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
The Wave didn’t manage a shot on goal the entire first half, and less than 10 minutes after the first goal Thompson scored again.
Thompson, seemingly with more speed than anyone on the pitch, ran the ball into the box with ease from the halfway line. She was given space by Wave defenders to cut to her right with ease and make a strong shot on target. Sheridan just managed to hit the shot, but the shot was too strong and found the back of the net to make it 2-0
The Wave continued their offensive struggles through the second half struggling to manage Angel City’s pressure.
Then one of the Wave’s newest signings, French national team forward Delphine Cascarino substituted on for Melanie Barcenas in the 62nd minute as an individual firecracker to the offenses that Angel City struggled to contain. She managed to create multiple great chances and strong shots on target, but none found the back of the net.
“You look a lot better as a coach when you have players like her on the field,” said Donovan of Cascarino.
Her pressure in the final third did eventually help lead to a goal for the Wave. In the seventh minute of stoppage time Cascarino drew a foul at the top of the box for a free kick. María Sánchez took the free kick and sent it to the center of the box for a running Abby Dahlkemper who headed it in with ease to make it 2-1.
The Wave play their next match at home on September 1, in another tough NWSL matchup against the Washington Spirit who are currently third in the NWSL standings with 37 points, while the Wave have 15.
