SAN DIEGO – It’s starting to feel a little like Groundhog Day for the San Diego Wave.
For the third straight match, the story line remains frustratingly familiar: San Diego takes control for large stretches of the game. They create numerous opportunities to put the game away. They walk away after the final whistle with just a draw.
Coming into Sunday’s contest with back-to-back 0-0 results, the Wave had two clear objectives for their contest against rival club Angel City FC: break their scoring drought and leave Snapdragon Stadium with a victory.
They managed to complete the first objective. In the 85th minute, second-half substitute Makenzy Robbe produced a moment of magic, lofting a perfectly placed strike over Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson and into the top corner of the net. It was Robbe’s first goal of the season and the Wave’s first score in more than 300 minutes of play. The Snapdragon crowd erupted, believing San Diego was finally poised to get back into the win column.
Unfortunately for the Wave, victory was elusive once again. In stoppage time, Los Angeles’ Alana Kennedy rose above goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan and headed home the equalizer, silencing the crowd and leaving the Wave with yet another disappointing result.
A game that seemed all but secured for San Diego slipped away, ending in yet another draw.
The building frustration was palpable in post-game interviews. Defender Kristen McNabb did not hold back when asked about the team’s recent run of ties.
“I think we’re getting pretty sick of them. We’re pissed off at the result. We should have 100 percent come out with a better result.”
Head coach Jonas Eidevall echoed her sentiment, stressing that the team’s standards must be higher.
“We need to look ourselves in the mirror and have much higher expectations for ourselves as a team,” said Eidevall. “We made it unnecessarily hard for ourselves with the way we turned over the ball, and we need to improve.”
Although the Wave managed to score in the second half, Eidevall felt the team performed better in the first half overall. He expressed frustration with their inconsistency. “The second half of football was not a good half for us,” he said. “There’s a term in tennis I like, called unforced errors, and I think we have a lot of them.”
While the Wave’s recent results have been underwhelming, they remain in a strong position in the National Women’s Soccer League standings. Sitting in fourth place with a 7-3-5 record and 26 points, they are firmly in the playoff picture. Still, if they want to make a serious run at the championship, they will need to start turning these close games into wins.
San Diego will look to snap their streak of draws and get back in the win column when they travel north for an in-state clash with Bay City FC on August 16 at 7 p.m. on ion.