Wave wrap regular season, learn playoff fate on NWSL’s ‘Decision Day’

The San Diego Wave traveled to the National Women’s Soccer League’s top-ranked team on Sunday, looking to pull off the improbable.

Beat the Kansas City Current, and San Diego would host a first-round playoff game at Snapdragon Stadium.

Dudinha gave the Wave a one-score lead in the first half before the club surrendered a pair of goals to fall, 2-1.

And so the Wave will have to travel for their first playoff game, a weekend match at the third-seeded Portland Thorns. San Diego is the No. 6-seeded team in the eight-team tournament – though, fortunately, on the other side of the bracket from Kansas City. The match will start Nov. 9 at noon from Portland’s Providence Park.

Kansas City’s Debinha pulled the Current even 1-1 with a free-kick goal in the 54th minute. Haley Hopkins delivered the go-ahead score in the 75th minute to wrap the match. Kansas City had just one more shot on goal (11) than the Wave (10), while both had three shots on target.

Their match over, Kansas City and San Diego then had to watch as the rest of the league played matches that began at 2 p.m., part of “Decision Day.” The Wave and Current played at noon as part of an ESPN broadcast.

When Portland beat the Houston Dash 2-0, the Wave’s next opponent was clear.

It’s been a season of surges and sputters for the Wave, who entered the season with a new coach (Jonas Eidevall) and without three stars (Alex Morgan, Naomi Girma and Jaedyn Shaw) who helped establish the franchise as one of the best in their league.

The Wave started strong, going 7-3-3 and climbing to third place in the standings when the NWSL’s international break began in June. Upon returning, the club went 1-5-4 over its next 10 matches, scoring just 10 goals over those 10 matches. San Diego then rallied, beating the Utah Royals and Chicago Stars to clinch a playoff spot.

Now, they’ll have to climb through as a road team.