San Diego Wave comeback in second half for fifth straight win
San Diego Wave players celebrate in the second half of their 3-2 comeback against Denver Summit FC (Photo credit: San Diego Wave FC)
San Diego Wave came back from down two goals in the first half to an impressive 3-2 victory in their first meeting with Denver Summit FC in front of a sold-out crowd of 16,932.
The victory marks the fifth straight win for the Wave continuing to break the record for the longest winning streak in the club’s history. The longest undefeated streak for the Wave is six which was set last season.
“It’s definitely a game of two halves, I think we were very poor in the first half,” Wave head coach Jonas Eidevall said. “Denver was equally good in the first … We become too open, too expansive and we just give them too much space to operate on with their attackers, and they really punish us a couple of times.”
Denver’s first goal came in the 16th minute in a quick play that moved the ball into the Wave’s attacking third along the left wing for Yazmeen Ryan. The winger could have taken a shot, but took a second for her teammate Melissa Kossler to get into a perfect position. Ryan sent a good pass and Kossler tapped it past Wave goalkeeper Leah Freeman to make it 1-0.
The Summit kept building offensively in the half and seemed poised to extend their lead and did so another 16 minutes later in the 32nd minute. Melissa Kossler received a long ball from the goalkeeper and managed to send Tash Flint a through ball toward the left channel.
The Wave defense was poorly positioned leaving Flint wide open with lots of room to take a shot. Flint initially cut to her right and shot the ball past the goalkeeper to the far post, but the ball was saved off the line by Wave centerback Kristen McNabb. The clearance landed back toward flint who used her height to head the ball back toward the goal. Freeman got her hand to the ball, but it still found the back of the net making it 2-0.
“We’re not pleased with how we started the game, but we knew that if we had our self-belief, if we stuck to what we were doing, if we played the soccer we wanted to, we ultimately could get ourselves back into the game, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The first goal came as a result of the breakout star for the Wave, rookie Lia Godfrey in the 49th minute. The Wave steadily moved the ball up the pitch and Godfrey got the ball in the left channel outside the penalty area before sending a pass to Kimmi Ascanio in the middle. Ascanio took one touch drawing a defender away while Godfrey rushed at the backline to get wide open for a pass from Ascanio. Godfrey took one touch with her left and put it in with her right to make it 2-1.
Wave captain Kennedy Wesley scored the equalizing goal in the 57th minute with a header from a corner kick set piece. Godfrey sent in a perfect cross to the middle while Wesley moved forward slightly to create space from her defender and head the ball toward the goal to make it 2-2.
The third goal came in minute 65 Dudinha stretched Denver’s defense moving down the left wing, then sends a ball toward the backpost intended for Godfrey, but Carson Pickett got in front of the cross and the ball goes off her back foot facing away from the goal, but still bounces directly into the back of the net to make it 3-2.
Denver kept in the match and were pressing very high late in the match, nearly finding an equalizer, but the Wave defense held on for the victory.
The Wave play their next match on the road for a midweek matchup on Wednesday, April 29, against the Portland Thorns, then play their next match at home on Sunday, May 3
