It wasn’t the result the San Diego Wave wanted after the National Women’s Soccer League’s international break. They struggled to find the back of the net Saturday night in a loss to the Kansas City Current at Snapdragon Stadium.
The visitors, meanwhile, showed why they remain undefeated four games into the 2025 season. Kansas City scored twice in a four-minute span early in the first half and held on for a 2-0 victory.
“I just think it’s a huge learning lesson for us that we have to be switched on from minute one,” Wave midfielder Savannah McCaskill said.
Kansas City started pressuring San Diego early, with the front three of Temwa Chawinga, Debinha and Nichelle Prince pushing the action. The trio gave Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan a lot of trouble early.
In the 16th minute, left back Izzy Rodriguez brought the ball up and sent a into the box that forward Debinha controlled with her right foot. She then blasted it past Sheridan for the opening goal, giving Kansas City a 1-0 lead.
In the 20th minute, the referee stopped the action during a Current corner kick to review a potential handball. After the check, he awarded a penalty to Kansas City for a handball by Wave defender Kristen McNabb.
Current captain and midfielder Lo’eua LaBonta shot a missile toward the top left corner and nailed the penalty kick to give her team a 2-0 lead in the 25th minute.
Nothing materialized for the Wave in the first half. They possessed the ball 57% of the time, compared to 43% for the Current. Yet San Diego had just one shot attempt to their opponents’ eight, with four of those being on target.
“We’re disappointed with our performance,” Wave manager Jonas Eidevall said. “We’re not good with what we were trying to implement, and that’s obviously very, very disappointing. Then that also leads us to being losing stepping into half time.”
Things changed in the second half. Starting in the 55th minute, the Wave put some pressure with two big chances that turned into corner kicks, but Current goalkeeper Lorena stopped both.
Those two sequences seemingly woke up the Wave. Their first shot on goal came from winger Delphine Cascarino, who took a shot from outside the box that Lorena had to make a great save to keep out of the back of the net.
Defensively, they were able to keep the Current away from their side of the field, as Kansis City failed to a second-half shot attempt. San Diego also held the ball for most of the second half, moving their shot attempts from one to six.
They created multiple chances after that 55th minute, but the goal never came.
Eidevall gave three players: Trinity Armstrong, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu and Favour Emmanuel their first career starts on Saturday night.
“It was a really valuable experience for all three players to get their first start, and it was well deserved for them because they worked hard for that to achieve that,” Eidevall said.
San Diego is now 1-2-1 on the season with four points and eighth in the NWSL standings. The Wave will travel to Kentucky next weekend to face 10th-place Racing Louisville.
