Kimmi Ascanio scores late game-winner against Washington Spirit
San Diego Wave midfielder Kimmi Ascanio celebrates her goal in the 89th minute of San Diego’s 2-1 win against the Washington Spirit. (Photo Credit: San Diego Wave FC)
San Diego Wave ended the Washington Spirit’s five-match winning streak with 2-1 victory at Snapdragon Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 12,810.
The game-winning goal came late in the match by their versatile 18-year-old midfielder to take the lead atop the National Women’s Soccer League standings one-third of the way through the season.
The Wave drew first blood in the seventh minute with a goal by Trinity Byars in her first professional start. San Diego dealt with a lot of physicality in the development of the play, but pushed ahead along the left side of the pitch.
Byars brought the ball into the penalty area and passed it to the middle for Kimmi Ascanio. Spirit defender Gabby Carle kicked the ball from Ascanio, but it bounced to Byars who took a second to control it before launching her shot high and to the far post to keep it 1-0.
“It’s been a longer journey than we probably thought from when she signed with the club that it was going to take this many months for her to get her first professional start,” San Diego Wave head coach Jonas Eidevall said. “Every journey is individual and she has been working so hard and it’s also full credit to our performance and medical team together to bring her to this point.
“One thing we see with her is she’s a phenomenal finisher, one of the best finishers that I’ve seen in the game. So when she gets opportunities she will score a lot of goals, and I think the goal she scored today was a good example of that.”
The physicality was one of the highlights of the match with both teams fighting for the ball across the pitch with tough duels that went in both directions. San Diego edged out the Spirit with 52-47 by the end of the match.
“I think what we missed last season was a little bit of character and personality. In moments when we were playing high intensity games I felt like we were missing a little bit of that,” San Diego Wave co-captain Kenza Dali said. “This season we’ve been great in the duels and stuff. We don’t want to be this nice team that just plays nice football and players and teams come here and think that we’re soft. I hate that.”
The Spirit made the most of one of the physical moments in the first half when Wave winger Gabi Portilho was down with an injury following contact with a Spirit player. The Spirit kept the play alive and earned a corner kick while Portilho had to come off the pitch after receiving treatment.
In the 33rd minute the player advantage caused some confusion on the Wave side for the set piece opportunity. Leicy Santos sent a ball to the middle that Rebecca Bernal headed well and deflected off a Wave defender and away from Haracic to make it 1-1.
Eidevall opted to make three substitutes to start the second half bringing on Melanie Barcenas, Lia Godfrey and Ludmila into the match on the attacking end creating a few more chances, but still threatening Washington when they managed to find spaces.
Both teams traded blows with near goals called back for offsides and won duels that may be considered close to a foul on both ends of the pitch before ultimately Wave found a goal.
The winner came in the 89th minute via a corner kick. The Wave had gone to Dudinha with a short pass on their last set piece, but this time Dali sent a cross toward the far post just outside the six yard box. The goalkeeper nearly managed to punch the ball away, but Ascanio jumped and headed the ball perfectly into the goal to make it the final score of 2-1.
The Wave now hold first place in the standings with 21 points and play their next match on the road on Wednesday, May 20 against the Houston Dash.
