San Diego Wave outlasts Angel City

Once again, Angel City and San Diego Wave FC put on a show.

Facing each other for the second time in the NWSL Challenge Cup, this time in San Diego, Angel City and San Diego Wave again entertained not just the fans in San Diego, but also a national audience, as Saturday afternoon’s rematch between the two California teams was broadcast nationally on CBS.

The difference between the first match on March 19 and this past Saturday’s match; a winner emerged from this round, and it was San Diego that earned the honor of getting its first win in franchise history. Alex Morgan led the way for Wave FC with a brace in the match, and her performance was key in San Diego holding off Angel City 4-2 at Torero Stadium.

“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t frustrated,” said Angel City’s Jasmyne Spencer. “We’re all really competitive, and we want to win. We want to get points out of these games, but we also realize that this is our eighth week and fourth game ever together. Coming off of a three-game week is always tough, but we’re just going to continue building and growing. We’ll go back and see what we can fix and improve on and take it one week at a time.”

San Diego commenced things in the 18th minute. Tegan McGrady sent a cross into the penalty area, Morgan beat Vanessa Gilles to the ball, turned and floated a ball into the six-yard box, Jodie Taylor headed a ball towards goal, keeper Didi Haracic made the save, but the ball went back to Taylor, and this time she didn’t miss, as she buried the rebound shot with her left foot far post to stake San Diego to the lead. San Diego almost doubled the lead in the 23rd minute, as Morgan again found Taylor inside the penalty area, Taylor turned and fired a shot past an out-of-position Haracic, but Madison Hammond had Haracic’s back, as she stopped the ball at the goal line and and cleared over the end line.

Angel City was then gifted an equalizer in the 38th minute. Savannah McCaskill, making her return to the Angel City starting 11 after missing Wednesday’s match due to a red card suspension, played a ball forward that eventually got inside the San Diego penalty area, keeper Kalien Sheridan came off her line to get the ball, and McGrady also came in to try to get the ball, McGrady got to the ball first and passed it back to Sheridan, but McGrady put too much on the back pass, as the ball got past Sheridan and eventually crossed the goal line for a San Diego own goal that leveled the match. San Diego however got a fortunate bounce of their own to get the lead back just before halftime, as Kristen McNabb sent a ball into the penalty area, Ali Riley cut off the pass, but didn’t see Morgan inside the penalty area, and Morgan swooped in and slotted the right-footed shot past Haracic for her first ever goal as a San Diego Wave FC , and more importantly, the go-ahead goal just before the half.

“Ultimately, we have to be better defensively,” Angel City head coach Freya Coombe said. “We have to be more compact, we have to prevent the individual areas that we’ve got, and button it up.”

The drama continued well into the second half. Angel City leveled things up one more time in the 59th minute, as Spencer made a cutting move inside from the left side to evade McGrady, then crossed into the penalty area to Press, who then brought the ball down, and fired a right-footed shot in between two Wave FC defenders. Sheridan initially saved the shot, but unlike two weeks ago, when Sheridan got enough of her hands on a shot by Press to send the ball off the crossbar, Sheridan had no such luck this time, as the ball crossed the goal line at the upper net following the deflection for Press’ first ever goal as an Angel City player, and the match was tied once again.

“One of the reasons that I was brought here is because I’m very versatile and have the ability to play both positions,” Spencer said. “No matter where I am on the field, it’s about working towards implementing the style of play that we want and figuring out what our identity will be on the field.”

San Diego however had another response, and it was enough to put them ahead for good. Morgan regained the lead for Wave FC in the 72nd minute, as Taylor Kornieck back-heeled a ball to Christen Westphal, who then crossed into the penalty area and Morgan’s timing was spot on, as she one-timed a right-footed volley near the penalty spot past Haracic. San Diego then wrapped up the three points in the West standings in the 81st minute, as Amirah Ali dribbled down the left side of the field, turned Gilles, then evaded her slide tackle, Ali eveutally dribbled into the penalty area and fired a left-footed shot past Haracic far post to give San Diego the two-goal cushion it needed to ride out the remainder of the match.

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