The San Diego Wave had several opportunities to defeat Boston Legacy FC\u00a0but instead settled for a 2-2 draw Sunday afternoon at Snapdragon Stadium.<\/p>\n
A draw isn\u2019t necessarily a terrible result, but the Wave didn\u2019t look like the same team that had won five consecutive matches and rose to second in the National Women\u2019s Soccer League standings.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it will prove to be the wake-up call San Diego (17-8-4) needs before the playoffs begin in two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday it was one of those days where we didn\u2019t have the margins on our side, and we need to accept that,\u201d Wave coach Jonas Eidevall said. \u201cWe need to look ourselves in the mirror and see what we can do better, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
The frustration was evident toward the end of the match and continued after the final whistle.<\/p>\n
In the third minute of second-half stoppage time, Wave midfielder Kenza Dali confronted referee Mathew Corrigan over what she believed was time-wasting by Boston, an expansion team currently stuck near the bottom of the NWSL standings. Corrigan issued yellow cards to Dali and Legacy goalkeeper Laurel Ivory.<\/p>\n
After the match, Dali crouched down following Eidevall\u2019s postgame address to the team. Other players, including Kimmi Ascanio, also appeared visibly frustrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaks a bit about how far we have come with the expectations that we put on ourselves as well, which I think it\u2019s right to do,\u201d Eidevall said.<\/p>\n
The scoring began in the 48th minute, when Boston\u2019s Sarah Schupansky sent a pass into the box that A\u00efssata Traor\u00e9 redirected only for Wave goalkeeper Sandra Pa\u00f1os to make a diving save. Annie Karich collected the rebound near the back post and scored to give Boston a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
That lead didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
In the 51st minute, San Diego\u2019s Melanie Barcenas pushed the ball upfield and found Gia Corley unmarked near the top of the penalty area. Corley fired a shot past Ivory to tie the match.<\/p>\n
It was Corley\u2019s fourth goal in her last six matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s super dangerous and kind of just opens up a lot of space on the field,\u201d Barcenas said. \u201cShe\u2019s doing a great job at putting it in the back of the net at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three minutes later, San Diego took the lead following an impressive sequence of passes that ended with Dali finding Trinity Byars inside the box. Byars put the ball in the back of the net for a 2-1 lead, although it was officially credited as an own goal by Boston defender La\u00eds Ara\u00fajo.<\/p>\n
But Boston wasn\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n
In the 73rd minute, Alba Ca\u00f1o evaded a tackle from Ascanio and unleashed a powerful shot from approximately 25 yards out that rocketed into the right corner of the net, tying the match at 2-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re disappointed with letting up those goals,\u201d Wave defender Kristen McNabb said. \u201cI mean, the second shot was a banger, but just preventable goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of San Diego\u2019s frustration stemmed from its inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities, an issue that had plagued the team before its winning streak.<\/p>\n
In the 36th minute, Ivory made consecutive saves on attempts from Byars and Barcenas before Lia Godfrey put the rebound into the net. However, a VAR review determined Godfrey was offside during the buildup, disallowing the goal and drawing boos from the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had chances before that and after that, and continued to have that in the second half,\u201d Barcenas said. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s just kind of the disappointment there, knowing we could have put a few away, I could have put a few away, and so that\u2019s fully on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the disappointing result, Eidevall\u2019s message to his players was simple: move forward and prepare for the club\u2019s Nov. 1 regular-season finale against Bay FC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the disappointment, but the most important thing is that we need to get ready for next weekend, and that\u2019s the task that we have ahead of us,\u201d Eidevall said.<\/p>\n
San Diego now sits three points behind Gotham FC heading into the final weekend of the regular season.<\/p>\n
The Wave must defeat Bay FC and hope Gotham drops points to keep their NWSL Shield hopes alive. More importantly, a victory would help San Diego regain momentum before the playoffs begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely go in there with ambition to win and try to put pressure on Gotham,\u201d Eidevall said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Diego Wave had several opportunities to defeat Boston Legacy FC\u00a0but instead settled for a 2-2 draw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,1083,127,1696,98683],"class_list":["post-508056","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","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-wave-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508056","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=508056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}