Tag: San Diego Wave

Spirit star Rodman slams NWSL referees in social media post

The USWNT forward appears to be in line for a fine from the league

Washington Spirit star Trinity Rodman took to social media to voice her displeasure with the refereeing in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against the San Diego Wave.

The Wave took the lead in the first half through Jaedyn Shaw — who broke a record previously held by Rodman in the process — before the Spirit equalized in the dying moments through rookie star Croix Bethune.

The match at Audi Field turned physical on several occasions, with the Wave given four yellow cards and the Spirit shown two — including one for Rodman after she protested a call late in the match.

Those protests continued on Instagram two days after the game ended, as Rodman posted two pictures on her story of a clash with Wave defender Kristen McNabb.

The first showed Rodman going to ground under a challenge from McNabb featuring the caption: “This not being a foul” — with a pair of eyeball emojis thrown in for good measure.

The second picture was a zoomed-in version of the first that showed McNabb stepping on the U.S. women’s national team star’s foot.

Rodman was fouled a game-high four times against the Wave, but the forward clearly felt there should have been at least one more.

Last season, the NWSL fined Wave and USWNT striker Alex Morgan for similar criticism of officials on social media. Rodman appears likely to be next.

[lawrence-related id=75725,74164,72987]

USWNT star Shaw breaks Rodman’s NWSL record with San Diego Wave goal

The 19-year-old scored her 13th career NWSL goal against Rodman’s Spirit

Jaedyn Shaw has broken Trinity Rodman’s all-time NWSL record for most goals by a teenager.

The San Diego Wave attacker ironically scored her record-breaking 13th career NWSL goal against Rodman’s Washington Spirit side on Saturday.

Shaw, 19, got on the end of a left-footed cross by María Sánchez in the 20th minute at Audi Field. After her first shot attempt got stuck under her feet, Shaw was able to recover in time to bury her second effort past Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury.

The Spirit would eventually recover thanks to Croix Bethune, who scored an equalizer deep into stoppage time to earn her side a 1-1 draw.

Shaw’s goal coming against the Spirit carried an extra layer of irony as well: Washington had Shaw on its preseason roster in 2022 and tried to sign her, but the NWSL intervened and said she would have to go through its discovery process, which ultimately saw the then-17-year-old sign with San Diego.

Both Shaw and Rodman are expected to be on the U.S. women’s national team 18-player Olympic roster, which will be named next month.

Watch Shaw’s record-breaking goal

[lawrence-related id=74164,60206,59591]

USWNT star Alex Morgan returns from injury for San Diego Wave

Morgan returned to the pitch after missing a month with an ankle injury

Alex Morgan has made her return from injury, and just in the nick of time.

The U.S. women’s national team star had been sidelined for over a month with an ankle injury, but made her return Thursday night in a scoreless NWSL draw between the San Diego Wave and Angel City FC.

Morgan entered the match as a substitute, replacing Elyse Bennett in the 63rd minute. That ended just under five weeks on the touchline for Morgan, who departed an April 19 loss to the Orlando Pride following an awkward fall.

The news comes just days before the USWNT will assemble for the first time under coach Emma Hayes, who included Morgan in her 23-player squad for matches against South Korea early next month.

San Diego matches have been must-watch for USWNT observers lately, with numerous candidates for the Olympic roster all dealing with injuries.

Naomi Girma (hamstring) started for the Wave, putting in her first 90-minute shift since April 27’s home win over Bay FC.

Jaedyn Shaw (ankle) sat out last Friday’s loss, coincidentally also against Bay FC, but returned for manager Casey Stoney as the defending NWSL Shield holders battled to a scoreless draw in LA.

Those two, like Morgan, were on the latest USWNT squad. Abby Dahlkemper, a longtime U.S. center back looking to push her way back into the squad under new management, made her first start since April 19.

Morgan faces fight for USWNT Olympic spot

Morgan has been a USWNT fixture since bursting onto the scene in 2010. However, with the extraordinarily tough task of taking just 18 players to Paris, Hayes could possibly leave her out of a major tournament.

Catarina Macario’s return to fitness will give Hayes a very different sort of No. 9, and one she knows extremely well (having just finished coaching her at Chelsea). Sophia Smith, meanwhile, has arguably been the best striker in the NWSL this season, with Zambia star Barbra Banda her only serious competition.

On top of that, Hayes has brought up a need for versatility, which may play against Morgan. The 34-year-old has occasionally played on the left during her career, but has played almost entirely as a center forward in recent years.

With Smith able to play wide and Macario capable as a midfielder — not to mention Trinity Rodman being a possible central option, and Crystal Dunn being listed among the forwards after years of playing left back for the USWNT — the competition for a U.S. roster spot has never been stiffer for Morgan.

[lawrence-related id=68037,72765,72641]

USWNT star Shaw limps off with injury for San Diego Wave

The USWNT and Wave will be facing a nervous wait over Shaw’s injury

The San Diego Wave and the U.S. women’s national team will be facing a nervous wait over the status of Jaedyn Shaw.

The 19-year-old star limped off with a leg injury in the Wave’s 1-1 draw with NJ/NY Gotham FC on Sunday night.

On a corner kick late in the match, Shaw appeared to get tangled up between two Gotham players. After attempting to play on, Shaw had to be taken off deep into second-half stoppage time.

Shaw walked off under her own power, but with a noticeable limp as she was replaced by Elyse Bennett.

After the game, Wave head coach Casey Stoney revealed that Shaw appeared to have an ankle injury, but had no further information.

“I’ve not had any update from the medical team,” Stoney said. “I’m sure she’s being examined [at the moment]. She came down on her ankle, it looked like. But no update on her as of yet. Hopefully she’s OK. She’s a big, important player for us.”

Should Shaw be forced to miss a significant period of time, it would be a devastating blow for club and country alike.

Shaw has quickly marked herself as one of the U.S, women’s national team’s biggest stars, becoming the first player to ever score a goal in each of her first five USWNT starts.

With the Olympics kicking off in just over two months, any kind of serious injury would jeopardize Shaw’s availability for her first major tournament.

A lengthy absence for Shaw would also be particularly cruel on the Wave, who are currently missing three USWNT players with injury: Alex Morgan, Naomi Girma and Abby Dahlkemper.

Sunday was a rough evening for the USWNT, as starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher also went down with an injury earlier in the night.

[lawrence-related id=66679,68037,68441]

USWNT star Shaw opens up on Vietnamese heritage

The forward is the first Vietnamese-American to ever represent the USWNT

U.S. women’s national team forward Jaedyn Shaw has spoken out about her Vietnamese heritage as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States.

The 19-year-old has quickly marked herself as one of the national team’s biggest stars, becoming the first player to ever score a goal in each of her first five USWNT starts.

Shaw’s father is Black and her mother is Vietnamese, making her the first Vietnamese-American to ever represent the USWNT. The San Diego Wave forward spoke about her background in a U.S. Soccer video for AAPI Heritage Month.

“My dad is Black, my mom is Vietnamese and I would say I’m all the good parts of both,” Shaw said with a laugh.

“Being the first Vietnamese-American to play on the U.S. women’s national team is a complete honor,” she added. “I feel like putting on this jersey at all is an honor, but being able to represent more than that, I think that is a really cool opportunity for me to inspire little girls that maybe have a similar heritage and background as me.”

The USWNT opened the 2023 World Cup with a 3-0 win over Vietnam. Shaw, who wasn’t on the roster and watched from home, said that match was particularly meaningful to her.

“It was a cool moment for me watching the U.S. women’s national team’s opening game in the World Cup against Vietnam,” she said. “I think that it was a little weird at first because technically at that time I could have played for [Vietnam] if I really wanted to. But I think that it’s just so cool that being my heritage and then also being able to represent the U.S. women’s team now.”

Watch Shaw discuss Vietnamese heritage

[lawrence-related id=60206,59591,68173]

USWNT striker Morgan hopes to return ‘very soon’ from ankle injury

The forward is set to miss her third straight game on Wednesday

Alex Morgan has issued an update on her ankle injury, saying that her recovery is going well and that she hopes to be back on the field “very soon.”

The San Diego Wave striker picked up the injury on April 19 during her team’s 1-0 loss to the Orlando Pride. She has missed San Diego’s subsequent two matches and has already been ruled out for Wednesday’s game against Utah.

On the day of the match against the Royals, Morgan posted an update via her Instagram story that suggested she could be back in short order.

“Post-training ice for the ankle,” Morgan said. “Recovery going well and hoping to be back [very] soon.”

Time is of the essence for Morgan, who is vital to the Wave and is right on the U.S. women’s national team roster bubble for the Olympics this summer.

The knock could jeopardize Morgan’s availability for incoming coach Emma Hayes’ first USWNT camp, with the team facing two matches against South Korea on June 1 and June 4.

Following those matches, the USWNT will gather its Olympic roster together for send-off games against Mexico on July 13 and Costa Rica on July 16.

After hosting the Royals, the Wave are next in action on Saturday when they host defending NWSL champion NJ/NY Gotham FC.

[lawrence-related id=66636,66679,66309]

Seattle Reign vs. San Diego Wave: How to watch NWSL, live stream

The home side is in desperate need of a win after a rough start to league play

The Seattle Reign find themselves in an unfamiliar spot ahead of Friday’s game against the San Diego Wave: last place.

Laura Harvey’s side won its NWSL opener against the Washington Spirit and since then, has lost all five of its league games.

One of those losses already came against San Diego, with Emily van Egmond scoring a 98th-minute goal in a 1-0 Wave victory on March 29 at Snapdragon Stadium.

[afflinkbutton text=”Watch the NWSL on Prime Video” link=”https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/offers/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=reviewedcom03-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=74f2e165fe84fa9270a7eccc4b8ecc18&camp=1789&creative=9325″]

Now the Wave will look to do the double over Seattle on the road, as Lumen Field is the setting for Friday’s late NWSL game.

San Diego enters with a 2W-1D-2L record, having defeated Bay FC last time out.

The Wave had to do without star forward Alex Morgan for that match as she battles an ankle injury, and the veteran looks set to miss a second consecutive game on Friday at Seattle. Star defender Naomi Girma is also out with a thigh injury.

Here is everything you need to know ahead of the match.

Seattle Reign vs. San Diego Wave (NWSL)

  • When: Friday, May 3
  • Where: Lumen Field (Seattle, WA)
  • Time: 10 p.m. ET
  • Channel/streaming: Prime Video (Watch LIVE)

[lawrence-related id=66229,65195,64618]

We recommend interesting sports viewing/streaming and betting opportunities. If you sign up for a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

Alex Morgan to miss at least one San Diego Wave game due to ankle injury

Alex Morgan’s status is unclear, but Casey Stoney says she will miss at least one game with an ankle injury

Alex Morgan will miss at least one game with an ankle injury sustained in NWSL play.

San Diego Wave manager Casey Stoney said that the U.S. women’s national team striker will miss Saturday’s NWSL match against Bay FC.

Morgan picked up the injury last week during San Diego’s 1-0 loss to the Orlando Pride.

According to Stoney, Morgan will be “week-to-week” going forward, an indicator that the injury may keep Morgan on the sidelines for a bit longer.

It’s a busy month for San Diego, who have five games in the next four weeks. The knock could also jeopardize Morgan’s availability for Emma Hayes’ first USWNT camp, with the team facing two matches against South Korea on June 1 and June 4.

Morgan faces something of a battle to make Hayes’ final 18-player roster for the upcoming Paris Olympics. The USWNT star has been a fixture with the team for over a decade, taking part in four World Cups and three Olympiads in her sterling career.

However, with Catarina Macario healthy again and Sophia Smith recovering her confidence after a post-World Cup dip, there is a very real chance that Morgan could end up watching the Paris games from home.

More to follow…

[lawrence-related id=62486,58116,54121]

Heroic NWSL announcer inserts dozens of Taylor Swift references into broadcast

Mike Watts may just be a tortured poet himself

Taylor Swift’s new album came out on Friday, which also happened to be the night the Orlando Pride hosted the San Diego Wave in NWSL play.

Mike Watts was not about to let that welcome coincidence go to waste.

The Prime Video announcer and unabashed Swiftie provided a hint of what was to come just hours after the surprise 2 a.m. release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

“A new Taylor Swift album dropped and I’m calling an NWSL game on Prime Video tonight?” Watts posted Friday morning on X.

But that teaser did not do justice to what was to come later that evening at Inter&Co Stadium.

As the game unfolded, Watts heroically managed to insert no less than 15 song titles from Swift’s new album into his commentary.

Below are the TTPD tracks Watts put into the match, which featured fellow Swiftie (and actual friend of Swift) Alex Morgan.

1. “Fortnight”

3. “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”

4. “Down Bad”

5. “So Long, London”

9. “Guilty as Sin?”

10. “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”

15. “The Alchemy”

18. “Imgonnagetyouback”

19. “The Albatross”

21. “How Did It End?”

22. “So High School”

23. “I Hate It Here”

26. “The Prophecy”

29. “The Bolter”

31. “The Manuscript”

As impressive as Watts’ accomplishment was, it was light work compared to what he did only weeks earlier. Alongside analyst Devon Kerr, Watts managed to insert a truly mind-blowing 235 Swift song titles into a U.S. Open Cup broadcast.

Unfortunately for Morgan and the Wave, Friday’s game ended with a 1-0 defeat. They’ll have the chance to, ahem, shake it off next Saturday against Bay FC.

Watch Watts drop a Swift masterclass

[lawrence-related id=62731,62486,62152]

USWNT striker Morgan limps off for San Diego with ankle injury

The Wave and USWNT will face a nervous wait on the striker’s injury

Alex Morgan limped out of the San Diego Wave’s match at the Orlando Pride on Friday after suffering an apparent ankle injury.

The forward was involved in a goal-mouth scramble late in the match, and appeared to roll her left ankle while fighting for the ball with Pride defender Emily Sams and goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse.

Morgan was down for several minutes and recieved treatment on the pitch before slowly limping off. The Wave were out of substitutions at the time of the injury, and were forced to play out the final minutes of the match with 10 players.

Orlando would win the game 1-0 at Inter&Co Stadium thanks to a 26th-minute goal from Summer Yates.

After the game, Wave head coach Casey Stoney said that she didn’t have much information other than the location of the injury.

“Just briefed on it, something to do with her ankle,” Stoney said in her press conference. “I’ve not heard anything more than that at the moment.”

The Wave and the U.S. women’s national team will now face a nervous wait to learn the extent of Morgan’s injury.

The 2024 Olympics kick off in three months, with Morgan recently playing her way back into a prominent role for the USWNT after being initially left off the roster for the W Gold Cup.

Morgan played in all six Gold Cup games, scoring two goals, before she started both SheBelieves Cup matches for the U.S. earlier this month.

[lawrence-related id=61730,61507,58116]