San Diego Wave looks for its first victory in more than a month when it faces off with 2021 NWSL champion Washington Spirit on Saturday, July 8 at Snapdragon Stadium.

The Wave last won a match on June 4 when it defeated Gotham FC 1-0 and are coming off three-straight league defeats including a 1-0 road loss to last-place Chicago Red Stars on July 1.

“We need to respond,” said San Diego Wave head coach Casey Stoney. “We know we’re in a bit of a different form. We won’t shy away from that and the only thing that can change that is ourselves.”

Washington is in fourth place and is coming off back-to-back losses to the Portland Thorns and Orlando Pride being outscored 7-2 combined score over both games. The last time the Wave and Spirit met was on May 6 at Audi Field with Washington coming out with the 3-1 victory.

San Diego has only managed two goals over its last four league matches. He will still be without the services of 2022 Golden Boot winner Alex Morgan and forward Sofia Jakobsson who are representing their respective national teams in the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“You look at the game versus Chicago last weekend, you see how much control we had and how many chances we had, but we really didn’t test the goalkeeper too much,” Stoney added. “We’ve got to have a lot more conviction in the final third. When we get in there we’ve got to make sure we have more numbers in the box, which we will focus on this weekend.”

San Diego Wave has eight games left during the regular season with five of those at Snapdragon Stadium including a rematch against Gotham FC on Aug. 21 when the team hopes to have at least some of its internationals back including goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan.

Photo credit: Jerry Leonards