San Diego Wave comeback in 3-2 win against Racing Louisville

San Diego Wave players celebrate Kenza Dali’s game-winning goal in the 80th minute in a three-goal comeback against Racing Louisville. (Emmanuel Alosno/Sandiego.futbol)

San Diego Wave came back from down two goals to beat Racing Louisville FC 3-2 at Snapdragon Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 12,220. Trinity Byars scored a brace for the second game in a row, and Kenza Dali returned from injury to score the game-winner. 

The Wave completely dominated possession in both halves, but gave up careless transitional moments to Racing scoring two goals in the first 25 minutes of the match. 

Louisville’s first goal came in the 12th minute by Lauren Milliet during a fast counter attack. The Wave backline was left exposed with only Kennedy Wesley to defend forcing her to commit to one defender. With Wesley moving toward Louisville forward Emma Sears passed the ball to her left to Milliet who shot it easily over Wave goalkeeper Sandra Paños to make it 1-0. 

The second goal came in the 23rd minute starting with a foul by Mimi Van Zanten against Kayla Fischer outside the penalty area on the left wing. Louisville was successful with a set piece opportunity earlier in the match, and punished the Wave’s defense this time. 

Louisville defenders were scattered near the center of the penalty area, but the service went perfectly to Fischer at the back post who put it back toward the middle in a dangerous area. From that dangerous area the former Wave star Taylor Flint smashed the ball into the back of the net with her left foot making it 2-0. 

“I think we started really poorly,” said Wave Head Coach Jonas Eidevall. “We’re not on our toes, we’re not qualitative enough. We gave ourselves a really, really tough start.”

The Wave conceded less transitional chances the rest of the half, and continued to dominate possession, but didn’t generate any strong finishing chances. 

The Wave opened the second half quickly with a goal by their top goal-scorer, Trinity Byars. The Wave had a quick build starting from their midfield and found Byars open entering the final third. Byars had two defenders in front of her creating a small window of opportunity, but she managed to shoot through the defenders and wide of the goalkeeper to make it 2-1. 

The second goal came in the 78th minute after lots of offensive pressure, and numerous shots. During a corner kick opportunity taken by Lia Godfrey the ball went to the near post and ended up in front of Ludmila after an initial touch by Kennedy Wesley. Ludmila took a shot that deflected off the Racing goalkeeper, and went to the center of the box. Trinity Byars ran into the area and just managed to get a touch on it to make it 2-2. 

The result seemed all but guaranteed by that point as the shots continued to pour in and the Wave’s co-captain, Kenza Dali made it on the scoresheet only two minutes later. 

Dali had substituted in the 63rd minute making her return from injury and managed to dictate the tempo from the midfield and took a difficult shot from distance to make it 3-2. 

“I have people around me that tell me I don’t shoot enough, I always pass it, and I was like alright, maybe they’re right. I need to shoot a little bit more,” said Dali. “And even in the low block you kind of have to have some variety in the final third. So we love combining and stuff, but you need as well to shoot from distance.”

The Wave currently hold the second spot in the NWSL table with eight matches left in the regular season, and play their next match on the road on Sunday, September 6, against the Seattle Reign at Lumen Field.