San Diego Wave Fútbol Club earned the first home win in its young history after a convincing 4-2 victory over Angel City FC in the NWSL Challenge Cup on Saturday, April 2 at Torero Stadium.
San Diego scored first in the 19th minute after forward Jodie Taylor received a pass inside the box from teammate Alex Morgan and got the ball by Angel City goalkeeper Didi Haracic from point-blank range.
The visitors were on their heels for most of the first half with the Wave controlling possession and creating the best chances to score throughout the first 45 minutes of play. But Angel City would get lucky in the 38th minute when defender Tegan McGrady and goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan suffered a miscommunication in the backfield with McGrady mistakenly passing the ball backward where Sheridan was not in position and, despite her best efforts, was unable to keep the ball from going into the goal.
Just when it appeared that both teams would be tied at the half, Morgan scored the first of her two goals on the day nearly three minutes into added time on a loose ball that the Los Angeles defense was not able to clear and that the veteran forward pounced on shooting the ball past Haracic.
“Quality players showed their quality on the pitch,” said San Diego Wave head coach Casey Stoney. “Alex [Morgan], Jodie [Taylor] and the likes of those, including Sofia [Jakobsson] caused real problems. The fact that we dominated the first half and could have gone in deflated. I thought it showed real character.”
Angel City came out with a more offensive mindset to start the second half, which paid off in the 59th minute when forward Christen Press tied the game on a shot from five yards out that found the back of the net despite Sheridan getting her fingertips on it.
San Diego responded by taking control of the midfield over the next 10 minutes of play with Morgan scoring her second goal of the game from seven yards out thanks to a beautiful cross from defender Christen Westphal in the 72nd minute.
“You know we didn’t get the result that we wanted last week but we knew we had an opportunity this week to turn it around in front of a great crowd and we felt really good coming into this week,” said Morgan.
The home team would get its insurance goal in the 81st minute off a breakaway opportunity courtesy of forward Amirah Ali from the midfield stripe that was reminiscent of that famous goal by Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup. Ali put on the afterburners and ran by the Angel City defense who could only watch as she entered the box and shot the ball with her left foot to score the final goal of the match.
San Diego Wave FC now has more than a week to prepare for its next match against OL Reign at Lumen Field in Seattle on April 14.
