Notebook: San Diego Wave lose in ‘complete heartbreak’; SDFC celebrates making MLS history

The San Diego Wave, surging and so full of promise just a few months ago, have crashed.

Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Washington at Audi Field may be the most dispiriting loss yet.

The Wave got a stoppage-time goal from Delphine Cascarino to even the match, only to watch the Spirit’s Rosemonde Kouassi score three minutes later and pull out a 2-1 victory.

Wave coach Jonas Eidevall called the game-winning goal, which came on the final attack of the match, “complete heartbreak.”

“From an emotional perspective, it’s really, really tough for us to take,” he said.

The Wave fell to 8-8-7 and tumbled into eighth place in the National Women’s Soccer League standings. While they’re still in possession of the NWSL’s final playoff spot, it’s reasonable to wonder if they can hang on.

San Diego hasn’t won a match since Aug. 16. In 10 matches since returning from the NWSL’s international break in August, they’ve gone 1-5-4 and scored just six goals.

Kouassi’s curling shot from 25 yards out in the final seconds helped Washington improve to 12-4-7, good for second place behind the Kansas City Current. She opened the scoring with a ninth-minute goal.

The Spirit outshot the Wave 22-8. San Diego received a valiant effort from goalie Kailen Sheridan, who saved a club-record nine shots. Sheridan became the first player in NWSL history to amass 250 saves for two different clubs; she had 353 as a member of the NJ/NY Gotham FC from 2017 to 2021.

“There’s really only one reason why we were still in the game,” Eidevall said, “and that’s Kailen Sheridan.”

The Wave will travel to Utah next weekend to face the struggling Royals (5-11-7). They have just three regular-season matches remaining.

“We have a really important game next weekend,” Eidevall said.”If there’s one thing we can’t do, it’s dwell on mistakes. We win together; we lose together.“

Five SDFC players called up

Five San Diego FC players, including star forwards Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and Anders Dreyer, will join their respective national teams during this week’s international window.

Lozano (Mexico), Dreyer (Denmark), midfielder Anibal Godoy (Panama) and defender Paddy McNair (Northern Ireland) will join their senior national teams, while midfielder David Vazquez will travel to the United States’ U-20 training camp in Spain. Three other SDFC players – goalkeeper Duran Ferree, defender Luca Bombino and midfilder Pedro Soma – are in Chile with the U.S. for the U-20 World Cup.

Lozano and Mexico will face Colombia in Monday night’s friendly from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, before hosting Ecuador in Guadalajara. Dreyer and Denmark will play World Cup qualifying matches against Belarus on Thursday and Greece on Oct. 12.

San Diego FC (18-9-6) returns to action Oct. 18 for the regular-season finale against the Portland Timbers in Oregon.

Time to celebrate

San Diego FC made history with Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Houston Dynamo, securing the most wins (18) and points (60) by an expansion club in Major League Soccer history.

Coach Mikey Varas, who has typically downplayed the franchise’s firsts, smiled big postgame.

“You have to celebrate that, man. You have to celebrate that,” he said. “Sixty points. Nobody can take that away from us — that’s written down right now until somebody else breaks it. And that’s a huge testament to these guys and how they work, how they believe in us, how they commit to being great teammates, to being top professionals, to showcasing their talent, to having that fighting spirit — and on top of that, we did it our way.”

Of course, Varas added: “tomorrow we”ll get back to focusing on our next steps, but tonight is about celebration.”