SAN DIEGO -- A perfect mix of trademark meticulous possession-heavy tactics and exploratory playmaking saw San Diego Wave thrive on Sunday night as they claimed a dominant 5-2 victory over the North Carolina Courage on their way to the team’s first six-game unbeaten streak in club history.
With both sides favoring a concerted build-out playstyle, the Sunday match was unsurprisingly a chess match from the beginning. And at first, it seemed the Courage were outsmarting the Wave; the visitors were notably calmer on the ball, playing out of the back with poise and passing with authority in front of goal
North Carolina caught the Wave sleeping in the 13th minute, pulling three defenders into the middle to leave the right side open for a cross-goal pass. Despite three Wave players at the back-post, Feli Rauch remained wide open for a tap-in header.
The Courage caught the Wave again in the opening minutes of the second half as San Diego allowed star forward Manaka Matsukubo two chances to find the back of the net after her first shot deflected back into her path. The NWSL Player of the Week made no mistake on the second attempt, striking the score even at 2-2 while Wave defenders stood watching the ball.
The Wave came into this match 0-2 when conceding first. No matter, these two goals proved to be one of the few promising sequences for the visitors, who finished with four shots on target by the end of the match. This ineffectiveness was thanks, in large part, to the quick response from San Diego, which slowed down the game with the ball while forcing some frantic North Carolina passes with high-pressure defense.
“Hustle” became the key for the Wave’s success from this point, showcased by their two first-half nettings. The first — a delightfully surprising front-to-back sequence for the usually tiki-taka-esque side — began with a ball over the top along the right sideline from right back Hanna Lundkvist to midfielder Delphine Cascarino, who sent a bouncing ball into the box for Perle Morroni. The Frenchwoman travelled from her left-back position to score the first goal of her Wave career.
The goal evidenced a solution for the team’s insistence on building out of the back, which often traps them in the backfield. The three-woman set up also reminded fans of the Wave’s veteran strength alongside their young attacking core of Kimmi Ascanio and Melanie Barcenas.
The second Wave goal displayed the team’s defensive discipline as Gia Corley caught veteran Courage defender Kaleigh Kurtz off guard in the back, setting up a savory opportunity for Adriana Leon, who slotted it into the bottom left corner. Leon scored a brace in the 60th minute, outrunning goalkeeper Casey Murphy and putting her body on the line to stab in a shot from outside the 18-yard box to grab a 4-2 cushion.
Leon, who recently received the reins as the sole striker up top, continued to work through her tentativeness in front of the goal, taking three shots for just the second time this season. Her performance made her just the second Wave player to score a brace this season; Cascarino scored twice against Racing Louisville on Apr. 19.
The Wave stuck by its possession-based play in the first half, outpassing their opponent 312 to 211 and holding 60% of the ball. However, the team moved toward snappier, more experimental gameplay in the second leg. The hosts sent their defenders higher up the pitch, made more long-ball opportunities, and took more speculative strikes. San Diego scored a trio of goals playing this way, finishing with a three-goal distance for the third time this season.
In tandem, the Wave remained dedicated to its “keep the ball” mentality. San Diego hovered around 60% of the possession for most of the half, until the final 20 minutes when the Courage began playing more frantic, albeit threatening, balls into the Wave’s box. The sudden shift caused the Wave to clear the ball out of caution, resetting the play at the cost of keeping the ball.
Kristen McNabb’s tap-in in the 54th minute best evidenced this fluidity. A long cross from the right corner found centerback Trinity Armstrong at the back post, who headed it back across the face of the goal to a lunging McNabb to reclaim the lead just three minutes after the tying Courage score.
This tactical combination will be pivotal moving forward as San Diego stares down the barrel of formidable sides like the Seattle Reign and Washington Spirit. Yet, the San Diego Wave, whose disparate roster set expectations low at the beginning of the season, is already forming into a formidable squad itself. As first-year manager Jonas Eidevall continues to develop alongside the team, and vice versa, it may not be long before another trophy finds its way to Snapdragon Stadium.