For a while now, the San Diego Wave have looked like a team that’s trying too hard.
It’s understandable.
None of the Wave’s past 10 regular-season matches has produced a victory. Since Jill Ellis fired coach Casey Stoney, the gear-grinding has only worsened, the Wave dropping all three games by a total margin of 6-1.
There’s no single remedy to struggles this stubborn, and Wave players themselves, for sure, understand more than outsiders how to get back on track.
But a few reminders, here, following, can help the players who appear to be lacing their shoes too tight.
Exhale and that soccer — even professional soccer — should be fun.
Understand that regardless of who wins, the home crowds will be larger and more ive than most in the National Women’s Soccer League.
There’s enough margin for error in the NWSL that even a loss at home Sunday against Washington — and additional defeats — might be overcome with a mixture of wins and ties the rest of the way.
Freeing up head space is advised, too, and that’s not space to head the ball.
Since late June, Wave players have answered to three different head coaches and heard from a former head coach in Ellis.
A new sporting director/general manager ed the brain trust, too.
The players have looked uptight. Confused, too.
Again, understandable.
One solution is for Landon Donovan to balance competing demands.
The team’s second interim coach, Donovan was hired to apply his reputed offensive expertise and effect the style “based on attacking” mandated by Ellis.
He must teach the players but without overloading minds that already may be busier than San Diego’s freeways.
Game days argue for a less-is-more approach.
Pep talks should be spare. Better yet, leave them to the players. There’s plenty of leadership among veterans Kailen Sheridan, Alex Morgan and others.
Even if San Diego’s veteran stars have appeared to press more often.
Morgan? Just two seasons after winning the NWSL’s scoring title and one season after FIFA named her the world’s No. 2 player, the 35-year-old striker is scoreless in her 11 matches.
In the first match after Stoney’s firing, Morgan drew a great slump-busting chance.
She lined up her first penalty kick of 2024 … and slammed it over the crossbar.
Sheridan?
When a routine shot came toward her right hip last Saturday in the first NWSL game under Donovan, it appeared she’d make a “100 out of 100” save to preserve a 1-0 first-half deficit.
Then the ball skimmed between her hands. Tenth-place Angel City would win, 2-1.
Abby Dahlkemper?
Before the club announced Monday it obliged her request to be traded to Bay FC near where she grew up, she went through a stretch in which uncharacteristic miscues contributed to three defeats.
Donovan could do worse than have Naomi Girma address the team more often.
Girma might be the most calming presence in American soccer — she’s an unflappable central defender who dazzled in her first World Cup last summer and led the U.S. to its first gold medal in 12 years this month in her first Olympics.
The Wave’s tough times haven’t been all tough.
Forward Delphine Cascarino’s debut last week injected a take-on dimension every Wave team has lacked. GM Camille Ashton and Ellis may have found a game-changer in the French import.
Wing María Sánchez has risen lately, assisting two goals.
Behind the scenes, reports Sánchez, good responses are happening.
“It’s the way that everybody has each other’s back,” she said. “Obviously, it’s a lot of change that we’ve been going through, but the that we have for each other is what will keep us going.”
Nine games to go.
One final reminder for a high-effort, low-reward crew: not even Pelé ever scored two goals at the same time.
