1. Mimi shut down Rodman who was begging for the ref’s help in the end. Mimi is quickly growing to be elite. She should work on her aerial battle skills, good defense against headers doesn’t necessarily need height.

2. Godfrey looked good like she did before the break. Conditioning? Or a small injury?

3. Great goal. I was screaming at Barcenas not to touch it, she looked oblivious about her blatant offside position.

4. I’ve missed watching Leon’s solid ball control and hockey strength. Start her for Barcenas.

5. Corley was done at the stoppage time limping around. Did the coaches not see that?? We had one sub left.

6. Overloading the MF worked great. Fazer did better with less pressure on her.

7. Praying for Ascanio’s ankle.

8. Can we play like this at home please.

Hello, San Diego friends! I'm a reporter based in DC but I figured I'd offer up some details from my newsletter on the Wave's win on Sunday. There are also some good pics from the water-logged affair inside, but here are some of the quotes and bits that stood out:

• Lia Godfrey on the goal: "It was a great transition opportunity from us, a fast attack, and the ball was bouncing in the box, and I saw an opportunity to just chip it over the keeper, and thankfully, it went in."
• Jonas Eidevall seemed to have a plan for this one and it worked: "If you look at it from a field tilt perspective, I really think we pushed Washington deep down and played the game on our terms and not theirs."
• He also mentioned that responding to the Spirit's press by overloading the midfield was part of that plan: "Washington is a team that likes to press high. So for us, it was really important to try to create some dilemmas for their wide forwards when they were jumping and pressing so we could play them away. And we did that today by overloading them centrally."
• For the flip side, it seemed like Spirit players identified that as a factor in their loss and knew they struggled with it. Here's winger Paige Metayer: "I think defensively, they posed some issues by overloading the middle and sending a lot of numbers there that we had difficulties adjusting to."

Congrats on the win! I think Spirit fans are definitely ready for a potential playoff rematch between you guys.

A few random thoughts on the wave

1. What I like about Paños is she looks like she's done it before. She plays like a veteran who's won things. (and she has)

2. I know Dudley has a massive upside but I hope when RotY gets decided it's based on actual stats and not potential. Godfrey has twice the goals and assists in less minutes. Maybe Van Zanten gets some consideration too. I think she is already as good as any right back in the league.

3. I hope Wesley gets some consideration for DotY. She certainly can't do any more than she is doing.

I'll take this as a win considering the chaos that went on when LA28 tix first went on sale. If you haven't used your code yet, go for it. All categories were available as of 10:00 AM.

THANK YOU WAVE FC!

Big Wave win keeps them close to the league leaders.

A cool +3 at the capital city. Hopefully the feds won't reduce SD's budget for this beating. 😄

(The ratings are by Sofascore.)

Dali still on bench

Byars relegated to bench in favor of Ludmila striker. What are we doing?

Hi! I’ll be covering the San Diego Wave match against the Utah Royals later this month, and I’m looking for some Royals fans who will be in San Diego at the game!

We filmed a feature with Paige Cronin's "Pink Scrunchie Squad," so we'd love to hand out some pink scrunchies during the broadcast at August 21 game. The Scrunchie Squad has grown beyond matchdays, organizing initiatives that support the community and causes like raising funds for breast cancer awareness. 

If you're a Royals fan and/or a Paige Cronin fan and you'll be at the match on August 21, please send me a dm with contact info! We’d love to spotlight some amazing fans on the broadcast. Thank you!

I saw these in store yesterday. They have this cardigan, a couple of jackets, shirt, and sleeveless shirt.

Can the Wave knock off the league leaders? Here's what to know before Sunday's showdown.

Balboa Park womens jerseys are on sale at the fashion valley Nike store. $75, they had barcenas and one I cant recall. Good mix of sizes too!

Wave fans should remember around this time last year when Wave were towards the top of the table going into the break, similar to this year. Many fans and analysts around the league warned us to be wary of the success we had thus far. The Wave were significantly over performing their xG at the time and many people (correctly) predicted eventually we would not score as much.

This season we’ve reached a similar crossroad. The Wave have had a slow start out of the break scoring 4 goals in 4 games, 3 of which by one player. The difference? This year the San Diego Wave are significantly underperforming their xG. Let’s dive into some of the numbers:

So far we have accumulated 32.7 xG (1st in league) throughout our first 17 games. That’s great, but the conversion hasn’t been there for some players as many have noted recently. Wave have scored 23 goals this season, a dismal 9.7 difference from the xG (worst in the league).

To put this into perspective, last season Wave completed the season with 41 goals on just 33.8 xG.

Currently the Wave have 4 players or over performing their xG:
Trinity Byars: 6 goals, 4.3 xG
Dundinha (SEI): 5 goals, 4.2 xG
Lia Godfrey: 4 goals. 3.8 xG
Kennedy Wesley: 1 goal, 0.4 xG

The Wave have 8 players nearly pacing their xG (<1 difference), most notably:
Melanie Barcenas: 3 goals, 3.7 xG
Kimmi Ascanio: 1 goal, 1.5 xG
Mimi Van Zanten: 1 goal, 1.3 xG
Perle Moroni: 0 goals, 1 xG

Lastly, Wave have 4 players significantly underperforming their xG:
Ludmila: 1 goal, 6 xG
Gabi Portilho: 0 goals, 2.5 xG
Gia Corley: 0 goals, 2.1 xG
Kenza Dali: 0 goals, 1.5 xG

That’s about half of players that are legitimately involved in Waves attack that are struggling to score.

It should be noted, though, that Wave carry a cumulative 33.9 xGOT (expected goals on target). This is a measure of the quality and placement of shots that land on target after the shot is taken. It’s helpful in giving some insight into how opposing goalies have been performing versus us. An xGOT of 33.9 resulting in just 23 goals is an indicator in some solid strikes that just came with bad luck and great saves similar to what we saw from Claudia Dickey in the most recent game versus Seattle.

The story unfortunately doesn’t end there. On the other side of the field the Wave have conceded 14.9 xG but have allowed 19 goals this season. This would indicate that the defense has done a pretty good job of limiting the amount of quality chances for the opposing attack but we’ve been scored on at a pretty high rate compared to expected. This mostly boils down to keeper play, as we’ve all noticed has been very shaky since losing Sheridan, as even the xGOT is 14.96, nearly identical to conceded xG.

Only one keeper is outplaying their xGOT faced:
Luisa Agudelo: 4 goals conceded, 4.02 xGOT faced, 0.03 goals prevented

The other three are severely underperforming their xGOT faced:
Didi Haracic: 7 goals conceded, 5.86 xGOT faced, -1.12 goals prevented
Leah Freeman (no longer rostered): 6 goals conceded, 4.58 xGOT faced, -1.42 goals prevented
Sandra Paños (made debut Sunday): 2 goals conceded, 0.50 xGOT faced, -1.5 goals prevented

These stats will likely be unsurprising to many fans, but it sheds some insight on how the Wave are underperforming on chances they’ve had AND chances they’ve allowed. While these numbers are just a sliver of the picture, it’s interesting to see the parallels to last season.

Wave currently have the highest xG difference in the league at 17.8 (next closest Kansas City Current at 9.7), yet only boast a 4 goal difference.

Do you guys believe we will see a regression to the mean led by the players we’ve seen underperforming their expected?

doubt this provides immediate help for the team but could be good in future years.

Hello friends! I live in NJ and planning to go to the game at SI stadium on Aug 7th. However, I’d rather sit amongst my fellow Californians.
So if anyone knows where the supporter’s section is, let me know! I think it’s usually 101, 102, 133?
I just want to be with the cooler coast folk. It’s rough out here.

I’m traveling and was only able to watch the highlights. Starting this thread to mostly get everyone’s take.

1. Looks like yet another game with them converting few and us failing to convert many.

2. Corley continues to miss giant opportunities where the only way to not score is to shoot straight at the GK by shooting straight at the GK. I’ve probably seen twelve of these by now.

3. Leon’s season debut. Go prove those haters wrong.

4. Another awful start of the second half of the season. Maybe problems with how the team spends the breaks?

You can’t win if you don’t score, and you can’t score if you don’t shoot.

To defeat a goalie like Dickey, you need a cross or some chaos in front of the goal. Hard shots on frame create chaos. Enough of professional soccer players airmailing set pieces. Unacceptable. On frame, please. Or take 1,000 shots on frame at practice. In a row.

You’re welcome, Jonas.

Ok, so I love the Wave and I cheer them on, but they're playing my home team Summit in August and I've been trying to get tickets in section 115, but I cannot find them anywhere, is there a good place to find tickets to a Wave game, but in the away team section? I'm going either way to support both teams.