Finally scoring — and winning, too — the San Diego Wave will take on NJ/NY Gotham FC on Friday with a chance to turn a good start into a great one.
The National Women’s Soccer League club is 4-2-2 following last weekend’s 1-1 tie with the Portland Thorns. San Diego has scored 15 goals, the second-most in the 14-team NWSL. Only four teams have allowed fewer goals than the Wave, who have given up 10.
It’s not just that first-year coach Jonas Eidevall’s team is winning. It’s how.
Eleven different Wave players — Delphine Cascarino, Kimmi Ascanio, Gia Corley, Kennedy Wesley, Kenza Dali, Hanna Lundkvist, Maria Sanchez, Adriana Leon, Trinity Armstrong, Melanie Barcenas and Chiamaka Okwuchukwu — have scored goals this season. Cascarino, Ascanio and Corley lead the club with two goals apiece.
Compare that to Gotham (3-3-3), which has received seven goals from star Esther González — and just four from everybody else combined.
“We are combining with each other,” Lundkvist said, “and just having fun when we’re playing.”
Why the parity when it comes to scoring goals? Start with the Wave’s style, which Lundkvist described as “always seeking numerical advantages.”
To do that, the Wave — a lot. The club’s 4,152 es over eight matches is by far the most in the NWSL. Gotham FC is second with 3,711 es; only two other teams have more than 3,500.
Additionally, Cascarino is tied for the league lead with three assists.
“We are really playing our type of football and how we want to play it,” Lundkvist said, “and we’re developing that from game to game … We’re all on the same page on the team.”
The resulting numbers have been eye-popping, especially in light of last season’s scoring struggles. The Wave didn’t score their 15th goal of 2024 until last Sept. 8, and tallied just 20 goals all season. (The total would have been even lower had San Diego not scored three times in their Nov. 3 season finale against Racing Louisville.)
A win Friday would mark the club’s fifth victory of 2025; the Wave didn’t get win No. 5 until Sept. 28 of last year.
The rest of the league is adjusting to the Wave’s new style. Eidevall said Portland “adapted and did something differently that they haven’t done so far this season … because they felt they needed to do that in their defense to deal with our structure.”
Expect Gotham and future opponents to throw their own wrinkles at a Wave team that’s been the surprise of the NWSL so far.
“Teams will be adapting to solve that,” Eidevall said, “and it just means that weneed to create the San Diego Wave 2.0 version of dealing with those situations.”
San Diego Wave (4-2-2) vs. NJ/NY Gotham FC (3-3-3)
When: 4:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Sports Illustrated Stadium, Harrison, N.J.
Streaming: NWSL+
