![\"SD](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SUT-L-wave-0705298_005.jpg\")
SD Wave\u2019s Gabi Portilho battles for the ball against NY\/NJ -Gotham FC\u2019s Jess Carter during match at Snapdragon Stadium on Friday, July 4, 2026. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nMelanie Barcenas ran toward the southwest corner of Snapdragon Stadium and broke out the iconic tea-sipping celebration, paying homage to her idol, Alex Morgan, who was in attendance.<\/p>\n
The celebration came moments after Barcenas unleashed a screamer from about 30 yards out that struck the goalpost and ricocheted into the back of the net, leaving Gotham FC goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger with nothing to do but watch right before halftime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to do that (celebration) at home, so obviously Alex can be here to see it, and I wanted to do it in front of her,\u201d Barcenas said. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
That goal proved to be the difference in the Wave\u2019s 2-0 victory over Gotham FC, which entered the match with one of the stingiest defenses in the NWSL.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t a more fitting celebration than the tea-sip on the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n
Morgan famously used the celebration after scoring the game-winning goal against England in the 2019 Women\u2019s World Cup semifinal.<\/p>\n
San Diego (9-4-1) came out aggressively from the opening whistle.<\/p>\n
The Wave\u2019s first opportunity came in the sixth minute, when Gabi Portilho stole the ball and passed it to Gia Corley, who played a perfectly weighted through ball to Ludmila. Berger, however, came up with a terrific save.<\/p>\n
A few moments later, the Wave won the ball back inside Gotham\u2019s penalty area. Corley found Barcenas, whose curling effort narrowly sailed over the crossbar.<\/p>\n
Wave goalkeeper Luisa Agudelo impressed in her debut, recording four saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s absolutely a grinder,\u201d Wave defender Trinity Armstrong said. \u201cShe\u2019s worked so hard for this moment. I\u2019m just super proud of how she showed up to step up for the team, made some good saves, and honestly, she really did an amazing job on her debut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gotham (6-3-3) created its best first-half chance in the 36th minute, when forward Jordynn Dudley received a pass inside the box and fired a shot that Agudelo stopped with her heel, drawing a roar from the crowd.<\/p>\n
In the 90th minute, Gotham quickly transitioned after winning the ball in its own half and found Rose Lavelle, whose long-range effort was tipped out of bounds by Agudelo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she did a phenomenal job,\u201d Barcenas said. \u201cShe was super composed, and you\u2019re gonna make mistakes, but she kept playing the same way over and over, trying things. So, I\u2019m super proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n
That proved to be Gotham\u2019s final threat.<\/p>\n
In the 94th minute, Gotham attempted to play the ball back to Berger, but the pass came up short. Tatum Wynalda raced in to pressure the goalkeeper, forcing Berger to clear the ball toward Lia Godfrey. Godfrey quickly played it forward to Trinity Byars, who calmly finished into the empty net to seal the 2-0 victory.<\/p>\n
SD Wave\u2019s Gabi Portilho battles for the ball against NY\/NJ -Gotham FC\u2019s Jess Carter during match at Snapdragon Stadium on Friday, July 4, 2026. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
It was Byars\u2019 fourth goal since returning from injury and sent Wave coach Jonas Eidevall sprinting down the sideline in celebration.<\/p>\n
Despite sitting atop the standings, the Wave are far from satisfied. The team\u2019s focus remains on continuing to improve and avoiding the second-half slump it endured last season, when it went 1-9 over its first 10 matches following the summer international break.<\/p>\n
During that stretch, San Diego was outscored 14-6 and dropped valuable points before rallying late in the season to secure a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe table for me today doesn\u2019t mean anything,\u201d Wave midfielder Kenza Dali said earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
The Wave are already off to a better start after the international break than they were a year ago. Saturday night\u2019s victory kept San Diego in first place with 28 points and nine wins.<\/p>\n
The Wave return to action next Saturday, when they host rival Angel City FC at 5:45 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melanie Barcenas ran toward the southwest corner of Snapdragon Stadium and broke out the iconic tea-sipping celebration, paying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,1083,127],"class_list":["post-386657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}