2024 season preview
With the league kicking off one week after the Gold Cup final, this is set to be the most physically demanding NWSL season in history, primarily for USWNT players.
No preseason because they reached the Gold Cup final.
Three international breaks (2 before, one after Olympics)
Summer Olympics
schedule extending from 22 to 26 games
No playoff bye week for top-seeded teams
I couldn’t find a database that would let me search minutes played from Jan. - March in any given year, but I am pretty confident saying some on this USWNT squad have already played more minutes than have ever been played before the start of a NWSL season. Praying for all players' health, both physical and mental.
Now, if you use this blog as a way to stay current on Wavé offseason news, you’ve missed a lot because I haven’t written about any of it! Sometimes my thoughts don’t require more than a few characters in a tweet.
OK, but for real, let’s start here: for a refresher on the recent season that was, check out the season recap. For a reminder of the unserious nature of the Expansion Draft and the transaction whirlwind Sierra Enge went through, jump in here.
Now, what have our SDWFC been up to these past few months? Below we’ll talk roster transactions, draft, a Downtain-Stoney conspiracy theory, Taylor Flint (neé Kornieck), new uniforms, hopes and expectations for the upcoming season, and some pregame banter.
New Wavé
There was A LOT of turnover this offseason, some due to the Expansion Draft, some to do with unexpected player decisions. Let’s see what the new roster might look like.
*note: I only listed players who weren’t on the team previously or were free agents that re-signed with the team.
Roster additions:
One consistent issue with this team during its first two years in the league has been the midfield. When the Wave struggle, it’s usually because the midfield and the attacking third are disjointed. They have so much talent out wide to win 1-v-1 battles, yet those isolations seem to mostly come from long balls rather than pass build up. Danny Colaprico was a huge upgrade last offseason and it looks like another effort to bolster the midfield was made with the signings of Savannah McCaskill and Elyse Bennett, not to mention the return of Emily van Egmond.
McCaskill crashes the box well, is a shooting threat from distance and creates opportunities in the attack at a high rate. Last season, she was 4th in the league in Shot-Creating Actions (SCA) with 80. For context, league MVP Kerolin led the way with 91, Jaedyn Shaw led the Wave with 69. On a per-90-minutes basis, McCaskill had 3.86 SCA90. Outside of Shaw (4.18 SCA90) no other Wave regular had more than 3 SCA90. Who knows how Casey Stoney plans to use her, but it’s definitely an experienced upgrade to previous options.
With Bennett, Stoney mentioned in a recent interview she likes the flexibility of deploying her as a 9 or out wide. Despite her inconsistent playing time over her first two NWSL seasons (13 starts/42 matches played), she’s put together decent numbers. Check out her cumulative career stats: 1,527 minutes, 5 goals, 4 assists. That’s a GOOD single season for a regular starter. Her inconsistent playing time is also because this is her third team in as many seasons. Or maybe she enjoys blessing teams into the NWSL Final (she was on KC Current 2022 and OL Reign in 2023). Anyway, if Stoney can put her in a position of consistency maybe she thrives. Another factor is we finally have some real xDawg on the field when Bennett, Doniak, McCaskill and Carusa get on the pitch. Last season, I felt like Madison Pogarch was the only player willing to stand her ground and get into a kerfuffle if need be.
The second concern this offseason was defense. After the expansion draft, San Diego’s defensive depth consisted of Kristen McNabb, Abby Dahlkemper and Naomi Girma. Despite Girma being Kailen Sheridan’s protego around the box, it’s a lot to ask of a backline of three with no subs. They reacquired Sierra Enge who occasionally filled at CB last season, brought back Christen Westphal and drafted Kennedy Wesley from Stanford, whom Stoney mentioned she’s been really impressed by and sees a higher ceiling for her than she first thought. This is huge considering Dahlkemper is still getting minutes back from her 2022 surgery and hasn’t logged at least 1,000 minutes in a season since 2019. For context, Riehl played 1,634 minutes in 18 starts.
Stoney also brought in two international outside backs: Hanna Lundkvist from Sweden and Kaitlyn Torpey from Australia. I’m not going to pretend I’ve seen either of them play or heard of them before the signing. What I do know: competition for minutes is always good, Stoney has a great eye for talent, and both currently play on national teams that reached the 2023 World Cup semifinals. Also, something exciting about Torpey was this:
Just a whole lot of things you like to see
Let’s say goodbye to our new old friends
Roster subtractions:
After navigating the Expansion Draft, the NWSL Draft and securing a trio of signings the first week of February, the team announced General Manager Molly Downtain will be stepping down (officially April 15). If this feels sudden, yes it does, more so because I feel a move like this is followed by a bigger job somewhere else, which could still be the case. But let’s just take a deeper look, if not just to sensationalize a potential reason.
When people step away from a position like this, sometimes it’s because the job takes a lot out of them and they want to slow down, maybe spend time with family. The press release quoted her saying, “I’m ready for a change and I’m looking forward to taking on new challenges.” That’s not what someone trying to slow down says. So, then why the move?
I think Downtain and Stoney didn’t get along. I do not have any sources, this is simply something I drew from the following info…
Corporate structure in American sports goes something like this: owner, president, general manager, coach. The day-to-day duties for these positions vary among teams, but usually the general manager is in charge of roster construction. For the Wave, Team Presiden Jill Ellis hired both Downtain and Stoney around the same time.
Stoney’s footy background comes from England, a system that operates the way every other footy league operates around the world (except for the United States). In world football, you have the coach and the sporting director or director of football operations or something along the lines of taking care of paperwork and getting the coach what they need to build the team they want, within the budget.
When footy coaches seek promotions, the pay and size of the club is of course a factor, but they also look for a team that will give them more control of football operations as a whole. I think this was the case with Stoney. She was brought in to take everything she learned at Arsenal and Manchester United, and infuse this new club with that foundation and culture.
Downtain’s background is with the USSF. Nothing against her, but that is NOT a model you want creating the foundation for a team. I think that difference in philosophies lent Stoney’s voice to be heard more often than Downtain’s, so I can see why moving on made sense. Timeline wise, Downtain’s resignation was announced almost a month after Stoney signed an extension through the 2027 season. In the press release, Downatin mentions she had been discussing her future with the team for the past month, or about the time Stoney was extended.
And power to Downtain honestly, for (remember I’m just guessing here) realizing she was not down with the workflow or structure and decided to dip out.
Alright that’s all my Fox Mulder ass will try and get you to believe, let’s move on. I don’t know how customary it is for teams to put front office positions on their website but the General Manager one is currently listed. I’m assuming they have to post it per league or labor protocols, but I expect they have a shortlist of candidates already (please have a shortlist of candidates already).
Another unexpected move was Kelsey Turnbow announcing her retirement. I read two articles on the expansion draft about potential impact players Utah or Bay FC could add from each team. Both pieces list Turnbow. Her play time went down dramatically from 2022 to 2023 from 1,190 minutes played, to just 151. Maybe there was a lingering injury involved because she didn’t see a minute of playing time after the final NWSL Challenge Cup game on July 28.
I thought she had a special left foot and was probably the best crosser on the team. Unfortunately, that is not Stoney Ball so she really didn’t fit anywhere else. If this were 1993 and Stoney was running a classic English 4-4-2 she might have thrived. Hope all goes well with her in retirement, we’ll always have those 25 magical minutes she put in against the Spirit.
Speaking of that game, we get to the person who scored the tying goal in that one–Taylor Flint (neé Kornieck). On Jan. 22, the team announced “Thank You Taylor Kornieck”. That was the tweet. No context.
Sidenote: I really hope they move on from that tweet format because seeing those all offseason with zero context was horrible!
Flint was traded to Racing Louisville for $150K in allocation money. Despite being unsure of what financials actually mean, seems like a good amount for a player that wasn’t going to be a regular starter. While the move initially seemed confusing, it was announced in the press release she had requested to be traded.
The frustrating thing here is Flint was a player the team decided to protect in the expansion draft, which led to the wild 24 hours Enge had to go through, not to mention the resources used to bring her back. Had Flint decided to move sooner, it’s safe to assume Enge would have been added to the protected list. In a recent interview, Stoney said Flint was not willing to fight for a position, and instead requested a move to some place new. Kind of wild considering where she was like a year ago. I wonder if maybe this was a conversation had right before training camp started rather than at the end of last season.
Coming into the 2023 season, Flint was riding high. She had gotten regular call ups with the USWNT since mid June of 2022, poised to make the World Cup team in 2023, and was even featured in a Vogue piece alongside Alyssa Thompson, Naomi Girma and Sophia Smith, highlighting future stars of the team. Sports can be so cruel sometimes.
Flint’s 2023 season didn’t go well, battling an injury that kept her off the field for a month in mid April, then another injury sidelining her for 2 months in July. By the time she got back on the pitch in September, she was fighting for minutes behind Doniak, Carusa, and Hill. Even with Hill’s departure this offseason, the addition of Bennett, McCaskill and the development of Barcenas probably moves her further down the pecking order.
In the same interview, Stoney mentioned it was an unexpected move, meaning she had a plan for her, just not a plan Flint liked. She’s a weird player to fit in the system. She presses well, draws fouls (though they’re not called often), wins aerial duels, finds space in the box for shots, and has decent dribbling skills. Sounds like a good player right?
Stoney was initially using her as an attacking mid in 2022 and her combination work with Morgan was good. But when Shaw burst onto the scene, that experiment was over. Flint isn’t fast enough to be an 8, she’s not better than Colaprico to be a 6, and despite the team being thin on strikers, she is not a good finisher. She has the forward’s nose for the ball, finding it almost any time she’s in the box, but she doesn’t have the finishing rate to be given that responsibility full time. Plus that one Morgan kid plays there.
I’ve mentioned before she’s the ideal “closer”; that Marouane Fellaini role where you come in to hold a result or chase a late goal. Come in against tired legs, win headers, make some tackles, clear the ball, clock out. It’s very good, much needed work! It’s the type of role that makes you a hero in a playoff format.
Also, the team account tweeting “you’ll forever be part of the wave fam, tay”, bro she literally said I don’t want to be here lol. (It’s also totally possible the admin had no idea she requested the trade and reacted to a surprising departure).
FINALLY A REAL KIT
Finally! Year 3 and we get the best home kit in the league baby!
The team touted these jerseys as their “first ever custom kit” meaning the previous two seasons were just default selections. Before I start sounding like a hater, I want to state I love the white kit and can’t wait to get one. I also want to state and make clear, a lot of the uniform issues are a Nike issue and not a team issue. And it’s also the league’s fault for signing a silly contract with Nike through 2030. Yuck!
That said, here are some gripes, some kit related, some sales related.
The white kit rules. The pink, meh. I understand it was a templated away kit for everyone, but the pink doesn’t do well with the scheme of the shirt. There are 3 colors in the template and I don’t think it blends well with such a sharp pink. A good example of how the color contrast works in away kits are what Chicago, KC or Portland did (rip Ed Hardy FC). I think a soft pink would have done the trick. Another thing that overshadows the away kit is the training top. THAT would have been a good jersey for 2022 or 2023. All in all, it was a good roll out.
My biggest issue is still pricing. Charging $160 for a custom kit is steep considering the lack of alternative options (replicas, buying previous year’s kit) on the site. The team crest is iron pressed on like the numbers and not a patch like jerseys usually have; cheap! There’s also this:
In the picture below, I think we see one authentic and one replica.
I don’t know if it’s the angle or just me, but compare the sleeves in each picture. The jersey in the Morgan pic has way more texture, making me assume the material is significantly better on the authentics. “Duh it’s a replica”, yeah but it’s not being advertised as a replica. To be fair, it’s also not being advertised as authentic, although for that price I wouldn’t blame anyone for assuming. A great way to make this issue financially digestible for consumers would be to sell printed kits of the more popular players without the customization upcharge. The NWSL website does this, selling Girma and Morgan advertised replicas for $130 sans the sponsors on the back. If you want another player, Soccer dot com has Dahlkemper kits, as well as Morgan and Girma for $121. Originally, you could customize the replica kits for $120 but I don’t see that option anymore. My question here is, if you’re selling a replica of a replica, is it just missing the sponsors or is the material even worse?
Again, a lot of this is Nike just being terrible to work with and the frustration comes more from the team not offering alternative options for me to give them money for cool gear. It only takes a few clicks through a few NWSL team shops to see better offerings are around the league.
Despite Angel City FC’s mediocre results on the pitch, they’re running away with the Marketing and Culture Cup. They have a great atmosphere, multiple supporters groups, travel well and most importantly sell elite merchandise. Why aren’t they at the mercy of big bad Nike? Well they let people who make cool things make them cool things like Mitchell & Ness, local streetwear designer Viva La Bonita, painter and illustrator Mel Depaz, and The Wild Collective. Another cool thing they did during the holidays was create gift bundles that ranged from $100-$150. One bundle included an Alyssa Thompson jersey, hat and scarf for like $120 I think (I wish I had the screenshots I took; can’t find them). That’s how you get rid of old gear, make new fans, and keep current fans investing.
Take a look at this collab between Portland Thorns and Live Breath Futbol. SO GOOD. I want that. We deserve that. And we’ve had that. Loyal did a great hat collaboration with Talisman & Co. so we’ve seen it done here before. And look, Wave gear has slowly gotten better over the years, it’s just hard to understand why there wasn’t a focus on collaborative and creative apparel when Nike wasn’t giving them that freedom with the first two kits.
Let’s talk about The Wild Collective collaboration with the Wave (remember the cool black baseball jersey, gray bomber jacket and NASCAR looking tee?). That was a nice step…somewhere. The baseball jersey was cool, the bomber jacket should have been black (the text on the back is so good), and the racing tee is nowhere to be found on the site. I did find it on a website I did not feel comfortable giving my credit card info to. Let’s do a quick compare to what they did with ACFC with the same collaboration:
You see the gripe here. Again, I’m comparing them to the #1 team in the Marketing and Culture Cup. I’m not saying they’re the standard, just want to show what’s possible.
Contemporary expansion side Utah Royals sold team scarfs for like $5 or $10 before having any real gear on their site. Remember those big, block lettered Wave FC shirts when the club was announced? I think they were like $30-$40, like c’mon. Even though the NWSL to SD announcement was last minute, I don’t think it’s an excuse to just make cheap gear, unless you’re offering it for a cheap price. Other expansion teams are guilty of this too of course, like those “San Diego | 2025” scarfs with the MLS badge San Diego FC put out. Make and sell the gear sure, just don’t sell it for the same price you’re planning to sell your actual custom stuff for.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to what they produce this season, hopefully adding collaborations with a few of the many talented people we have in San Diego. I want to give them my money so bad, just show me something worth the $70+ asking price please.
What should we expect in 2024
As I mentioned at the beginning, the Women’s Gold Cup added a new wrinkle to offseason prep this year, with a grueling 6-game schedule crunched into 20 days for USWNT players. We’ll see how the lack of team bonding time that usually happens in preseason camps affects the current squad, but on paper, this might be the strongest side Stoney’s fielded in her now third season with the team.
We want it all this year. Year 1, they got to the playoffs and won a game. Year 2 was a step forward with winning the league. In Year 3, they have to be the last team standing. Depth will be more crucial than ever this season and I think they finally have it. While core players like Girma and Shaw have less mileage on their legs, Morgan is going into her 11th season in the league and counting on her to carry us in this gauntlet of a year is asking a lot of the 34-year-old vet. A big key will be Carusa continuing her streak of timely goals and Mya Jones showing she can ball so Morgan can stay fresh and deliver another double-digit goal season. Not going to Paris for the Olympics would also help.
Stoney hasn’t made a big splash in the summer the past two seasons, so I wonder if maybe this is the year to move for big name depth. I’ve been clamoring for them to invest in players from Liga MX Femenil. The league is a 15-minute drive to Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, there is no reason for a scout not to be at every Xolos Femenil home game. With the success of Mexico at this Gold Cup though, the price of those players has likely skyrocketed and the chance to secure signings other teams didn’t have the luxury of talking to or seeing live is over.
Quick hit hot takes:
Shaw is league MVP and is a couple assists short of being the first player in the league with at least 10 goals and 10 assists in a single season.
Mel Barcenas gets 5 NWSL starts and logs more than 500 minutes on the pitch.
Kennedy Wesley plays close to as many minutes as Dahlkemper this season.
One win against Laura Harvey please for the love of all that is good.
The Banter Abides
Our first match is against reigning champions Gotham FC, who blew up the offseason free agent market by signing USWNT regulars Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett. In San Diego, we are well aware of what can happen to teams who win the offseason, nothing more needs to be said.
Going into this Challenge Cup match against Gotham FC, a friendly reminder the mighty San Diego Wavé are “undefeated, never lost” against them in the regular season (4-0-0 // 10 goals for, 1 against). I want to point out this is a match outside of the regular season so it does not count for anything outside of March 15, meaning it is very likely Naomi Girma, Alex Morgan, and Golden Ball winner Jaedyn Shaw will not be available for the match. Promos seem to think the same:
promo when game was first announced
promo from March 8
While most Wave players were busy carrying an entire country to Gold Cup glory, most of Gotham’s USWNT players (the marquee signings listed above plus Midge Purce and Jenna Nighswonger) were spending extended periods on the bench. The one game the USWNT lost, a 2-0 match against Mexico, was a game that had 3 Gotham starters vs 1 Wave player. I’m just looking at what the lineups tell me folks, not to mention the streets were arguing Mexico beat a B squad USWNT.
Anyway, the season starts March 23 against the KC Current at home; a Waterworld Derby off the rip. Go to the game, start a supporters group, be loud, demand better merch and pitch conditions, and support one of the most talented soccer teams in the world. DALE WAVÉ.
