The San Diego Wave FC are optimistic ahead of this weekend's match against OL Reign at Torero Stadium.
On Thursday, the Wave held a media session where they talked about their upcoming home game this Saturday against the OL Reign coming from Seattle.
Casey Stoney, San Diego Wave FC head coach, said that it's disappointing to think about the amount of goals the team has conceded so far this season, especially early on during each of those matches. However, Stoney says that the team's resilience has also stood out to her, along with the grit they have shown despite the losses early-on in the season.
"Hugely disappointed with the amount of goals we conceded and in the manner that we conceded them, especially early on in the game. Also, they were valuable lessons on our first road trip. There were a lot of challenges that came with it, being on the road for six days. Big learning experience in terms of the mentality piece being away from home and how we show a little bit more grit and fight early on in the game and give other teams problems, rather than give ourselves problems. I also learned a lot about my team’s resilience in the second half against Portland and how they can come back. I think we were a bit unlucky not getting a point out of that game, but conceding 3 goals gave ourselves a mountain to climb. There are a lot of lessons that we want a reaction from this weekend.” Stoney said.
As of Saturday night's match-up against the OL Reign, Stoney says that if her team performs the way they did in the second half against the Thorns, they will have an opportunity to come out on-top.
“We are in the best group [West Division] for the Challenge Cup. It is such a competitive league, but having exposure against those two teams [Portland and Seattle], we learned some good lessons. If we perform the way we did in the second half against Portland [April 17th], we’ll be in good shape.”
Naomi Girma, Wave FC Defender, said that she is looking forward to utilizing the lessons they learned from the first games of the season, and using that to show that they are more than capable of maturing from their past mistakes as a collective unit.
“Obviously it was a challenging weekend for us up in Seattle and Portland. We learned a lot of valuable lessons and have a lot of [game scenario] pictures to work on as a team. Looking forward to playing Seattle this weekend — they are a quality opponent. We are looking forward to applying some of the things we learned from last weekend and starting to grow as a team." said the Wave FC defender.
The San Diego Wave FC (1-3-1) hosts the OL Reign (4-0-1) in the NWSL Challenge Cup this Saturday, April 23, at 7 p.m.
