American soccer legend Alex Morgan and company are ready to play in front a San Diego crowd for the first time in the history of San Diego Wave FC.
On Saturday, San Diego Wave FC is set to face-off against Portland Thorns at Torero stadium, as both teams seek their first win of the season, and first ever victory for the Wave.
Last week, San Diego Wave played their first game in club history against fellow NWSL expansion team, Angel City, in which the game ended with a scoreless draw at the Banc of American Stadium in Los Angeles.
And now the Wave is storming down south, eager to play in front of local San Diegans who are ready to see the birth of something special in the sport of soccer involving our hometown of San Diego, a city where the sports itself is growing exponentially as the years go by.
On Thursday, Wave assistant coach Rich Gunney touched on what they could have done better in last week's 1-1 performance in their NWSL season debut against Angel City FC, detailing the adjustments they have to make in order to claim a victory in their first ever home-opener in San Diego.
“I think building off the last game, we just want to try and make a step forward,” Gunney stated. “What areas do we need to focus on? You know, it’s all phases of the game. So we felt that in the first half of last week, we had pretty good control. We had some good passages of play. We created some opportunities in that first half. So we want to build on that. In the second half, we can see that the goal and at the start of the second half, which had an impact on the team for that first part of the second half, so what was really pleasing then was to see the adjustment and how we kind of got back into the game but we want to try and be able to be a bit more defensively compact, a bit more accurate with our possession and build a play and create some more attacking opportunities. So a second half was something that we definitely want to try and improve on in this game. So for more, sort of 90 minute performance together, but certainly [we’re] pleased with the first attempt.”
However, being the first game in their expansion's history, with new faces, new everything, leaving Los Angeles with just a point becomes a valuable point.
Entering this home-opener with an optimistic mindset is San Diego Wave defender Kaleigh Riehl, who expressed her excitement this week for the upside she sees in this soccer roster going forward.
“There’s so much room for growth, which is really exciting,” Riehl said this week. “And you know, the style that we’re trying to play, the more that we’re together and training, the more time that we have will continue to get better and better and yeah, we’re just competing every day on the training field and and learning from our mistakes on film and, and learning what we did well and you see that really translating on the field.” she added.
Assistant coach Gunney says that this is the biggest challenge yet considering that it's an already established team they are facing Saturday, unlike fellow expansion team Angel City.
However, Gunney says they are more than capable of getting the job done this Saturday based on the adjustments they will make, both psychologically and on the field alike.
"Now the next challenge, there’s going to be some tactical adjustments and yeah, psychological adjustments in terms of playing an established team, but one I think we’re really well prepared for, more than capable for and we’re excited for the challenge.” Gunney said.
The first-ever game opener is this Sunday at 7pm at UCSD's Torero Stadium.
