San Diego Wave clinch playoff berth in dominant 6-1 win over Chicago Stars
San Diego Wave midfielder, Kenza Dali celebrates the team’s sixth goal in their 6-1 victory over the Chicago Stars. The win clinched a berth in the 2025 NWSL Playoffs and was their largest margin of victory in club-history. (Emmanuel Alonso/Sandiego.Futbol)
San Diego Wave clinched a berth in the 2025 NWSL playoffs with their 6-1 victory against the Chicago Stars.
The six goals were the most in any game by the Wave and the five-goal margin of victory marked the largest ever in club history, beating out their first ever regular season NWSL match in 2022 when Alex Morgan scored four goals against Gotham FC.
The Wave benefitted from what head coach Jonas Eidevall called the “ketchup effect.” Eidevall said when you reach the end of an old fashioned ketchup bottle and begin to smack it to force the ketchup to come out usually nothing comes out at first, then it all comes out at once.
The Wave had been struggling to score or win matches having only broken a seven-match winless streak last week against the Utah Royals. On Saturday night the Wave scored four in the first half, the most in a half by the Wave in their past four seasons, and added two more in the second half.
“(Making playoffs) means everything. I think we set a really high standard our first year and that’s what we expect of ourselves every year. So falling short last year was a disappointment and we knew coming back this year we had to make the playoffs,” said Kristen McNabb who has been with the club since its inaugural season. “That was our goal from the beginning. Our first goal of many, so it was just ticking that box off and I’m super proud to be part of the club.”
Wave forward Dudinha had the most goal contributions at the end of the night with three, assisting the first goal with a shot that deflected off the goalkeeper right to Delphine Cascarino at the back post in the seventh minute.
Dudinha went on to score twice, once in the 18th minute to make it 3-0 and another in the 57th minute to make it 5-0. Both were developed with the Wave’s strong press then great individual play by Dudinha to create one-on-one opportunities.
The second goal came in the 15th minute by an own-goal after a strong cross by Hanna Lundkvist deflected off Stars centerback, Sam Staab. The fourth goal came from Kristen McNabb who ran well past the Chicago back line during a set-piece and headed in a perfect cross by Kenza Dali to make it 4-0 in the 44th minute.
The Wave nearly held on for a shutout, but Chicago’s forward Bea Franklin just managed to get past Kennedy Wesley in the 71st minute to make it 5-1.
Kenza Dali went on to score the final goal thanks to an assist by Adrianna Leon to cement the result as the largest margin of victory in the club’s history with a five-goal advantage over their opponent.
“All-in-all an important game for us. It was a good night, it was nice to be able to go back and both score a lot of goals, and also win here at Snapdragon,” Eidevall said. “We met and qualified for playoffs which was our initial goal of the season, which is really nice and a compliment to everyone’s really hard work and effort doing that and now we look forward and ahead for the next challenges.”
Many Wave players will leave the team following this match during the FIFA international window through the weekend of October 24. Their next match will be on Saturday, November 1, against the Kansas City Current which will decide their final seeding for the NWSL playoffs.
