San Diego Wave Fútbol Club earned a first-round home playoff game after a 0-0 draw against the North Carolina Courage on Friday at Snapdragon Stadium. The Wave needed to wait until Sunday afternoon to find out what team it will face in the playoffs, and, as it turned out, it is the Chicago Red Stars after making it in by defeating Angel City FC 2-0 at home.
San Diego Wave won both matches played against the Red Stars during the regular season first on May 15 at Torero Stadium by a score of 2-1 with goals from defender Kaleigh Riehl and Golden Boot winner Alex Morgan. Their second match was on July 30 at SeatGeek Stadium with the Wave coming out victorious thanks to a goal from forward Jaedyn Shaw.
San Diego finished as the third seed in the NWSL standings with 36 points and a +11 goal differential while Chicago finished as the sixth seed with a +6 goal differential. The winner will take on the second-seeded Portland Thorns on Oct. 23 at Providence Park. The match between San Diego Wave and Chicago Red Stars is set for 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16 at Snapdragon Stadium.
San Diego Loyal clinched the second seed in the USL Championship standings on Saturday after a 2-2 road draw versus Orange County SC at Championship Stadium in Irvine. The Loyal drew first blood in the 14th minute with a goal from forward Thomas Amang after he found himself wide open from a quick pass from midfielder Jack Blake. Orange County tied the match in the 43rd minute after forward Milan Iloski took a shoot from outside the box that went around defender Grant Stoneman and caught goalkeeper Koke Vegas by surprise for the 1-1 score at halftime.
San Diego Loyal retook the lead in the 54th minute when Blake perfectly executed a free kick from 20 yards out that beat goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky who didn’t flinch as the ball found the upper corner of the net. The team, led by head coach Landon Donovan, almost scored its third goal of the game in the 60th minute when midfielder Elijah Martin found forward Kyle Vassell with a perfect pass but the ensuing header hit the post and ricocheted away. Orange County ended up tying the match in the 90th minute when the home side took advantage of a turnover which ended up being capitalized by midfielder Brian Iloski who placed his shot over the outstretched arm of Vegas for the 2-2 final.
San Diego has two more matches left starting on Oct. 9 at Torero Stadium versus New Mexico United and closing out the regular season on the road against the Sacramento Republic on Oct. 15.
“It was a good soccer game,” said head coach Landon Donovan. “That’s crazy that they’re the last place team in our conference. That team would beat almost every team in the east almost every time.”
Albion San Diego: After back-to-back one-goal losses to Chattanooga FC and Maryland Bobcats, the team, led by head coach Ziggy Korytoski, looks to finish its three-game road trip with a victory over the Michigan Stars on Wednesday, Oct. 5. Albion currently sits in third place of the NISA standings with a .01 point per game advantage of the Stars and only behind the top-seeded California United Strikers and second-seeded Chattanooga.
This means that Albion San Diego still controls its own destiny not just with regards to hosting a first-round playoff game, but also to finish in the top three. If Albion finishes as the third seed it would take on the sixth seed, which is currently the Syracuse Pulse, and if it finishes as the fourth seed Albion San Diego faces the fifth seed, which is currently the Maryland Bobcats.
For its upcoming game against the Stars, Albion San Diego will look to have a repeat performance from the last time the two sides met back on Sept. 10 at Canyon Crest Academy Stadium when it came out with a 3-0 win. Albion forward Alioune Diakhate is the second leading goal scorer in the league with 12 goals only trailing Chattanooga FC striker Markus Naglestad with 18.
Hector Trujillo has been covering soccer starting with the San Diego State University men’s soccer team in 2003 for The Daily Aztec. A graduate of SDSU where he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees, Trujillo has a lifelong passion for playing and writing about the beautiful game.
Photos courtesy of David Frerker and San Diego Loyal
