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The San Diego Wave FC will host the Denver Summit this Friday, Aug. 14, in a bid to move up the National Women’s Soccer League standings. The Wave remains in fourth place in the 16-team table following last Friday’s 1-0 loss in New Jersey to the defending NWSL champion Gotham FC.
The top eight regular season finishers qualify for the playoffs and the Wave (10-7-2, 32 points) seems entrenched to make the postseason cut once again.
The first-year Summit (6-7-5, 23 points) is a bit father down the standings in 10th place but is just one point out from a playoff sport, thus placing key importance on Friday’s 7 p.m, contest at Snapdragon Stadium.
Gotham (12-3-4, 40 points) finally has created some space at the top of the NWSL table with a modest four-point bulge on the second place Washington Spirit (11-5-3. 36 points) and seven –point advantage over the third place Utah Royals (10-6-3, 33 points).
The Wave sits one point behind Utah and four points behind Washington but is just one point ahead of the fifth place Portland Thorns (9-6-4, 31 points) and two points ahead of the sixth place North Carolina Courage (9-6-3, 30 points) and seventh place Kansas City Current (9-7-3, 30 points).
Angel City FC (7-73, 24 points) and Seattle Reign (7-3-7, 24 points) are both battling for the final playoff berth at present.
The Wave, which is averaging the youngest starting XI lineup in the league this season at 24 years and 346 days, is holding its own. The San Diego and Gotham both created scoring opportunities in the first half of lat Friday’s tightly-played contest.
Trinity Byars slipped behind the Gotham defense in the 25th minute on a feed from teammate Melanie Barcenas but was denied by Gotham goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.
Gotham netted what proved to be the game-winner in the 44th minute as Jaedyn Shaw beat SD keeper Sandra Panos.
Gotham out-shot the Wave 15-9 and logged 56 percent possession in front of 6,329 at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, N.J.
MLS report
San Diego FC sits 13th among the 15 teams in the Western Conference standings with a 5-7-6 record and 21 points, though the team remains just three points out of a potential wild card playoff berth.
Vancouver (10-3-4) and LAFC (10-5-4) remain tied at the top of the conference standings with 34 points — one point ahead of the San Jose Earthquakes (10-5-3, 33 points) and two points ahead of the Houston Dynamo (10-6-2, 32 points).
A five-point gap separates a clump of nine teams separated by six points, SDFC included.
SDFC is coming off a 1-0 win over Club Tijuana in a Leagues Cup match Sunday in front of a sellout crowd of 31,538 at Snapdragon Stadium.
Eighteen-year-old Bryan Zamble scored the match-winner in the 22nd minute despite Club Tijuana holding a 12-6 advantage in shots. SDFC did hold a 59-41 percent advantage in possession and 5-2 edge in cornerkicks in recording the victory, however.
A goal just two minutes into the match by San Diego all-star Anders Dreyer was disallowed upon video review. SDFC goalkeeper C.J. dos Santos recorded the clean sheet to deny a ramped-up second-half Xolos attack.
The win over Club Tijuana marked the first points in this year’s leagues Cup competition following a 3-1 loss to Club America in Mexico City. It also marked the second edition in the five-year Baja Cup friendly series between the two border clubs.
SDFC was next scheduled to host Puebla on Wednesday before resuming league play Saturday, Aug. 15, against LAFC, 7:30 p.m. start.
The Leagues Cup standings includes 18 teams from Mexico’s Liga MX and 18 teams from MLS.
Club America, Juarez, Cruz Azul and Leon are 2-0 in the Liga MX group while Austin FC, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus and Dallas are 2-0 in the MLS group.
