Wave share points with Angel City in Southern California showdown

San Diego Wave forward, Makenzy Robbe, scored the Wave’s lone goal in their 1-1 draw against their Southern California rivals, Angel City FC. (Photo credit: Wave FC)

San Diego Wave FC played their first match at home since June 22, in a 1-1 draw against their Southern California rivals, Angel City FC in front of an announced crowd of 15,834.

The Wave have not beaten their Southern California rivals since April, 2023, and the draw extended San Diego’s winless streak against Angel City FC to eight matches.

We’re getting pretty sick of (ties,) and we’re pissed off at the result,” Wave defender Kristen McNabb said. “We 100% should have come out with a better result. We just need to worry about not being more clinical in the box and also not giving up goals.

The Wave played a strong first half dominating possession and created better chances than Angel City but couldn’t put forth a final touch to find the back of the net. 

The second half saw Angel City play better as they took advantage of transitional moments shifting the momentum to their favor. 

“The second half is not a good half of football for us. We are sloppy in possession, we turn over the ball. They have a term in tennis I like, it’s ‘unforced errors’  and I think we have a lot of that,” San Diego Wave head Coach Jonas Eidevall said. 

It wasn’t until the 85th minute that San Diego managed to get on the board with some solid play from their substitutes. 

Jordan Fusco and Makenzy Robbe came on in the 68th minute for Gia Corley and Adrianna Leon providing fresh legs to the offense that by that point needed a new look. 

Fusco sent a ball through the the Angel City defense toward Robbe making a run into the box along the right channel. Robbe tried to make a cross back to Fusco in the center of the box, but the pass deflected off an Angel City player back toward Robbe.

Robbe had moved into a better position with a clearer angle and sent a bullet with her left foot that curved past the goalkeeper toward the outside post to make it 1-0. 

Then an “unforced error,” as Jonas Eidevall put it, gave Angel City a strong chance to score only minutes later during added time. 

The Wave gave up a corner kick to Angel City after a wonderful save by Kailen Sheridan just barely kept San Diego in the lead. 

The Wave were unable to clear the initial corner kick chance leaving Angel City the opportunity on the opposite side of the pitch. Sveindís Jónsdóttir was left wide open and sent a cross right in front of the goal for a jumping Alanna Kennedy. Savannah McCaskill was defender her, but unable to keep her contained and when Sheridan jumped in to punch the ball away McCaskill was in her way. 

Kennedy’s jump allowed her to redirect the cross easily with her head, thus finding the back of the net to make it 1-1. 

The Wave will play on the road for their next match against another California rival on Saturday, August 16, against Bay FC.