San Diego Wave draw with Denver Summit FC
San Diego Wave FC forward Melanie Barcenas scored in the Wave’s 1-1 draw against Denver Summit FC (Emmanuel Alonso/Sandiego.futbol)
San Diego Wave played NWSL expansion club Denver Summit FC to a 1-1 draw at Snapdragon Stadium marking their first non-loss at home since July 4, in front of an announced crowd of 13,463.
“I think we played a really strong first half, obviously you can see on the availability report that we’re going for a little bit tougher time with players being unavailable,” said Wave Head Coach Jonas Eidevall. “And we’ve seen players today being played out of their normal positions”
Gia Corley was forced to play in a deeper midfield role, and Trinity Byars played on the left wing as the team was missing Kimmi Ascanio, and Kenza Dali along with other consistent injuries including Dudinha, Trinity Armstrong, Catarina Macario, Kiki Pickett, and Didi Haracic for a total of seven players out.
“I really think the team played well in the first half, we created enough opportunities to score the goal that we scored from [Barcenas,] but we should also score a second goal,” Eidevall said. “The second half is a tougher half. They’re a heavy team. They push us back a little bit more, we aren’t as energetic anymore in our transition moments. We get a little bit stuck into our own half, it’s still margins away.
The Wave dominated possession in the first half and were spending a majority of their time on attacking down the right side of the pitch, when the team usually moves down the left side.
San Diego native Melanie Barcenas got the first goal of the night with a chance in the 35th minute.
Barcenas received a pass in the right channel just as the team was entering the final third and moved the ball to her left toward the center just outside the penalty area. She used her signature footwork to keep the Summit defenders at bay and performed a brief cut before shooting a strong shot with her left foot to the bottom right of the goal to make it 1-0.
“I found myself a lot of times in the games in that specific position, and I think just going outside of training and working on that specific shot in that specific space in that specific corner,” said Barcenas “I was really happy to put it away tonight, specifically because I worked on it yesterday after training. It just means a lot to do it here in San Diego in front of our fans and just see it translate into the game so quickly.”
The Summit’s attack was stronger in the second half, committing more numbers to their attack and giving less time and space to the Wave players to build much positive momentum.
Denver got the equalizer in the 58th minute with a headed goal by Yazmeen Ryan. The Summit built a quick attack down the left side started by a switch pass from Ryan to Janine Sonis. The Denver Captain took a second with no pressure and sent in a cross to Ryan who made a run into the box and timed her jump perfectly over Perle Morroni allowing her to head it into the back of the net to make it 1-1.
The Wave tried to create more chances bringing on substitutes like Adriana Leon who nearly scored in the 70th minute, but was ultimately called for offsides. The substitutes also included two Wave debuts in Laila Harbert, and Brooklyn Courtnall, though the home side couldn’t find a finishing touch leaving both teams with a point.
San Diego also honored the longest-tenured member of the Wave, centerback Kristen McNabb, for her 100th appearance with the club before the match with her family in attendance.
The Wave plays the second match of this three-match homestand next week on Friday, August 21, against the Utah Royals.
