It was a game that on paper looked like there would be three points in the bag for San Diego Wave as it entered Saturday’s match at Snapdragon against last-place Kansas City.

However, as all soccer fans know, the game isn’t played on paper or in simulations, but instead on the pitch with a combination of heart, strategy, and focus. It’s true that Kansas City came out like a team that was hungry for a win having been shut out in back-to-back losses to Angel City FC and North Carolina Courage.

The first goal came in the third minute courtesy of midfielder Debinha with an incredible right-footed shot from outside the box that found the top corner of the net despite the best efforts of goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan. The second goal came in the 22nd minute on a close-range shot by forward Kristen Hamilton that Sheridan was able to get her fingertips on but still managed to trickle into the back of the net.

San Diego did its best to get back into the match and saw forward Alex Morgan have a chance in the 30th minute to cut the KC lead in half before being taken down inside the box by defender Stine Ballisager. If you’ve read my recaps and columns before, you will know that I rarely, if ever, bring up calls or non-calls as to why a team lost. But does San Diego still lose despite the clear penalty that wasn’t called on Ballisager? Perhaps, but was definitely worth a VAR review at a minimum.

It’s fine to make a play on the ball, even inside the box, but you can’t go through the opposing player to do so. Morgan (above) was completely taken out of the play and had no chance to recover possession after the contact was made.

There was a second play in the game where VAR was used to see if a Kansas City player should be called for what looked to be a handball, but nothing came of that. San Diego Wave did continue to put pressure on and eventually scored its only goal in the 50th minute courtesy of defender Sierra Enge, but that is all the scoring that occurred in the 2-1 loss.

Despite the gut-wrenching and controversial result, San Diego holds the second seed with two huge road games coming up versus the defending champion and top-seeded Portland Thorns followed by a game against third-place North Carolina Courage. It will be important for the team, led by head coach Casey Stoney, to come out with at least four points from those two matches in order to have a great chance at finishing in the top two before closing the regular season at home on Oct. 15 versus Racing Louisville.

Photo by David Frerker