Snapdragon Stadium | San Diego, California – Saturday, July 8 at 10:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
San Diego has scored just twice in its last three matches—all losses—with midfielder Kristen McNabb and forward Jaedyn Shaw finding the back of the net in respective losses against Angel City and OL Reign. The Wave, who sit right in the middle of the pack in attacking output, will continue to rely on an expanded squad due to FIFA Women’s World Cup reporting windows as the side looks to score a first win in five games.
In Washington’s loss to Orlando, defender Sam Staab had a game-high 111 touches, the most by a Spirit player this season. The only player with more touches in a league match this season was Chicago defender Tierna Davidson, who had 112 for Chicago in an April match against OL Reign.
Match facts: San Diego Wave FC returns to Snapdragon Stadium to welcome the Washington Spirit to town on Saturday night as the lone game of the evening’s action, with the Wave aiming to avoid a fourth straight league loss while the Spirit will seek to avoid a third straight league loss. San Diego is in 6th place with 20 points from 14 games while Washington is in 4th place with 23 points from 14 games played.
San Diego has lost four straight matches in all competitions with all four defeats coming by exactly one goal. Prior to the streak, the Wave had four losses in total in 13 matches in 2023 (W7 D2). All 15 players that saw the field for San Diego in its 1-0 loss against Chicago were American. For the season, 84.2 percent of the total minutes played by Wave players in league play have been by players from the U.S. with only Kansas City (89.3 percent) and Gotham (86.1 percent) having a higher percentage of their minutes coming from domestic players.
The Spirit have scored at least one goal in all seven of their road games in league play this season. That is the longest road scoring streak in regular season play in Washington’s team history.
A total of 14 goals have been scored in the three matches between San Diego (six) and Washington (eight). The 4.67 combined goals per game average is the highest of any fixture in NWSL history.
