The next stop for the Wave?
Seattle — where the Reign’s defense is real, the grass is fake and the San Diego is winless in four matches, scoring just once.
“They’re a tough team to score against at home or on the road,” coach Casey Stoney said ahead of Friday’s 7 p.m. match. “They don’t concede many goals. It’s kind of one-goal margins that you come by.”
The Wave have struggled to solve not only Reign coach Laura Harvey’s varied defenses but also the synthetic turf field at Lumen Field, Seattle’s massive NFL stadium.
FIFA forbade fake-grass fields at the Women’s World Cup last summer. In wet Seattle, a synthetic field pays the bills.
“The surface is tough,” Stoney said. “We don’t want to play on turf. No team wants to play on turf. It’s not a surface that’s kind on the body. But, we’re here, we’ve played enough times. We know how it runs now.”
Echoed Wave forward Makenzy Doniak: “Whatever the surface is, we’re going to come out swinging. That’s the most important part.”
The Wave are coming off Saturday’s 2-1 victory on the grass in Mission Valley in which they broke out of a scoring slump. Doniak provided a gorgeous finish from 19 yards and several players assisted Jaedyn Shaw’s decisive goal, a sequence Stoney called the best soccer in the franchise’s history.
The Wave may be without Alex Morgan (ankle) for a second consecutive match. Morgan owns the Wave’s only goal at Seattle, coming in a 3-1 preseason loss. In the subsequent three matches in the land of coffee bars and salmon markets, the Wave lost 1-0 each time.
A victory would give San Diego (2-2-1) consecutive wins for the first time this season. Weakened by the loss of three standouts in the offseason and key injuries last month, last-place Seattle (1-5-0) has lost five consecutive matches including a 1-0 decision at San Diego on March 29.
