In the final minute of Saturday’s game, Wave coach Jonas Eidevall turned to the crowd and raised his arms, urging them to make noise and help his team hold on to a narrow lead.
The Wave did just that, grinding out a tough 2-1 victory over the North Carolina Courage, who gave the Wave plenty of trouble on a hot Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium.
“I think we were calm and composed during the last minutes of the game,” Eidevall said. “I don’t think we gave away anything unnecessary, and yeah, I was happy with how we handled that situation.”
The Wave’s offense got started early because in the 21st minute, Wave defender Brooklyn Courtnall was running down the right-hand side when she got into the Courage box and sent a pass toward Trinity Byars. Byars let the ball go past her to a wide-open Gia Corley, who curled one past Kailen Sheridan to give San Diego (13-8-3) a 1-0 lead. It was Corley’s first goal of the season.
Saturday marked Sandra Paños’ eighth straight game as the starting goalkeeper.
She came up with two huge saves in the 30th minute. Ashley Sanchez curled a shot toward goal, but Paños dove to block it. Chioma Okafor had a wide-open opportunity off the rebound, but Paños made another diving save to deflect the ball out of bounds. Wave defenders immediately came over to celebrate their goalkeeper.
“I think we’re talking about being calm and composed today, that was a strength of ours, and I really think that starts with her in a lot of situations,” Eidevall said. “So she’s another one that really positively contributes to the team’s performance tonight.”
In the 68th minute, Evelyn Ijeh was able to get behind the Wave defense down the right side. She waited before sending a pass to defender Ryan Williams, who fired a shot toward goal, but Kennedy Wesley jumped in front of Paños and headed it away.
In the 75th minute, Melanie Barcenas took the ball near midfield and raced up the line with two defenders following her. She got into the box, faked right to get one defender to bite, shifted left and curled a shot past Sheridan to give the Wave a 2-0 lead.
“Putting away one at home is always super special for me,” Barcenas said.
With the way Sanchez has been playing this season for North Carolina (12-9-3), it was going to be difficult to keep her off the scoresheet.
In the 82nd minute, Sanchez received the ball on the left side from Shinomi Koyama. She dribbled before finding her spot and sending a shot toward the top corner that no one was going to reach for her 19th goal of the season, cutting San Diego’s lead to 2-1.
San Diego went into full defensive mode for the final 12 minutes, enduring wave after wave of North Carolina attacks. The Courage even sent Sheridan forward for a late set piece into the box in one final Hail Mary attempt, but the Wave defense was able to clear the danger.
The Wave secured the victory and a much-needed three points, firmly placing San Diego in third place in the NWSL standings.
“I think as soon as the second half of the season started, we knew we wanted to make it different,” Barcenas said. “That’s when it really starts to matter and playoff push. So we knew we had to focus and come together at the end of the day.
Coming out of the international break, San Diego went 1-1-2 in its first four home matches while looking like a completely different team on the road.
Since those four games, the Wave have posted a perfect 3-0-0 record at Snapdragon Stadium, showing impressive work on both sides of the ball.
“For us to build something special at home long term is going to be so important,” Eidevall said. “That’s why it is so important that we have gone from, I wouldn’t say perform poorly, but not perform the way we wanted to now having had much much better performances and results at home. Hopefully we will see that at Kansas next Friday with a big big turnout, and we’ll need that.”
San Diego will stay home for another match next Friday against the Kansas City Current.