let’s play the blame game: part 1
The 2024 San Diego Wavé might have had the most “peaked too early” season a sport has ever seen. It kicked off with an 88th minute cup-clinching goal from the legend herself, Alex Morgan. It ended with a new ownership group, new general manager, new head coach, a lawsuit for an abusive and hostile work environment from multiple club employees, Morgan retiring, Jaedyn Shaw getting traded to North Carolina and Naomi Girma being sold to Chelsea.
Guys, what the hell.
We need to blame somebody. This team had a core group signed through 2026, but somehow dismantled it within six months and we can’t even blame capitalism! So today we’re going to look into who had a hand in what, with facts and postulation, to determine who we should be mad at. We’ll be examining three groups: Front Office, Coaches, and Players. But that will be for part 2.
For part 1, we’ll look back at the timeline of events that began the club’s downfall:
Jan. 22, 2024 - Taylor Flint traded to Racing Louisville (per her request)
I couldn’t find the clip, but prior to the season, Casey Stoney did an interview with the dick and balls innuendo podcast and mentioned something along the lines of Flint not being happy with having to fight for her place on the squad. Flint missed significant stretches with injuries in 2023 but once she was healthy, Stoney only played her sparsely in the last month of the season (still can’t believe she only played three minutes in the 2023 semifinal). Flint also never had a main position on the field to focus on, which I think led to part of her frustration with Stoney. So considering all that, plus the Savannah McCaskill signing likely pushing Flint out of the midfield lineup (which makes it all more infuriating!), it’s safe to say Stoney fumbled this pretty badly.
Feb. 12, 2024 - Molly Downtain resigns as general manager
Downtain resigned a few weeks after Stoney signed her 4-year extension. I theorized in my preseason writeup that this was a sign of Jill Ellis handing the keys fully to Stoney, and possibly undermining Downtain’s job. This is a regular occurrence in footie–big time managers get to be club CEOs so I get why Downtain would want to leave. I’m basing my Stoney-Downtain theory mostly on the fact she resigned with no immediate job announcement in the farewell statement, like Ellis did when she ran away from her crimes to join FIFA (don’t worry we’ll get to you too Jillian Anne).
Early 2024 - Jaedyn Shaw’s first trade request
The article linked above says Shaw first requested a trade a year before her recent move to the Courage, so we can assume it was some time during the 2024 offseason. My guess for why Shaw stayed another year is that Morgan convinced her to run it back one more season in an effort to go out on a final title run. This Equalizer article mentions how Shaw prefers to play as a 10, a position Stoney rarely used her in, and instead insisted on using her as a winger. In a recent article in The Athletic, Shaw said she left San Diego because she wanted to play a certain style and that the USWNT environment helped her see that. That’s fair and I agree with her, but the funniest thing about that quote is that in her most recent USWNT game, a 2-1 loss to Japan in the SheBelieves Cup, Shaw came on as a sub…to play left wing. Ahhhhhhhh. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Anyway, she absolutely kicked ass the entire tournament and this one is gonna have to fall on Stoney as well.
*side note: Flint and Shaw seemed to be pretty close teammates and both requested trades around the same time. I wonder if both had conversations about this and decided they needed to get out. Flint is flourishing at her new club, Shaw is a monster on the national team.
June 24, 2024 - Casey Stoney fired
You want more evidence about the emotional games Ellis likes to play with people, how about firing Stoney while she had flown home for a funeral. She was out of the country, got fired over a phone call voiding her work visa in the process, all while on her way to grieve a friend. You can hear more about it from her on the RE–CAP Show. Nasty stuff from Ellis. Despite the results on the field, I thought Stoney would at least get the summer break to figure things out and bounce back. When she was fired, I (foolishly) thought the rash decision came because a big name had become available. The European and Mexican league seasons had ended so I thought MAYBE a once-in-a-lifetime coach was coming. NOPE!
July 3, 2024 - Brittany Alvarado’s statement of hostile work place
She specifically called out Ellis for treatment that was “life-altering and devastating to [employees] mental health,” while also calling out the league for its lack of action. She filed the suit in February and the league decided in April everything looked fine after its investigation. Ellis decided to respond with a defamation suit. It wasn’t enough that the president with the checkered past was getting cleared by the league, now she was going to bury a former employee financially. I love how she was being called out for being an emotional terrorist (again!) and her response is saying “not true!” while doing emotional terrorism in the same statement. You be the judge I guess (there’s only one correct verdict). Anyway since then, 5 other former employees have come forward to sue the team and league. I also wrote about it around the time it happened.
Aug. 17, 2024 - Landon Donovan hired as interim coach
“He and I were having a conversation, and he sort of said, ‘you know, I miss coaching. I would like to be considered for this’,” Ellis said. “And I was like, ‘wow. OK.’ - LA TIMES piece
I still can’t believe that’s how it actually went down. I was dreaming of a culture-shifting head coach, and we got “I volunteer” from this dude. Just 80-grade unseriousness from Ellis. Predictably, the team still stunk.
Jan. 7, 2025 - Jonas Eidevall hired as new head coach
I’ve been a BroSo Arsenal fan since the mid-aughts but don’t really follow the Women’s Super League. I’ll watch some big matches and Champions League (the 2022-23 knockout rounds had some of the best footie I’ve seen in years), but I follow casually enough to know about the Eidevall-Emma Hayes drama. It’s a rivalry that basically culminated with this. We can talk about the possible hand Hayes had in moving Girma to her previous club another day, but for now I know two things about Eidevall:
In the 2022-23 season, he lost top players Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema to ACL injuries and still managed to finish 3rd in the league (we can discuss what that says about the level of competition in that league in a bit). He also took Arsenal to a Champions League semifinal and won the FA Cup against Hayes’ Chelsea.
The moment he quit Arsenal, amid rumors of losing the locker room, the team went on a 12-match unbeaten run.
I urge you, the smart reader you are, eager to learn and consume more women’s football content, to read about his fractured relationship with an Arsenal legend and then read some of his quotes about his departure. His PR game is top notch, stay on your toes friends. We’ll talk more about him in a season preview (hopefully).
Jan. 14, 2025 - Jaedyn Shaw traded to NC Courage
What an absurd run she’s had in her short time here: 2022 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year, youngest player to score in NWSL debut (in front of 23,000 fans at Soldier Field), scored the first goal ever at Snapdragon Stadium (a 1-0 Chanclaisco win), did one of the coolest celebrations right after, won the league in 2023, and then scored the goal of the season against Bay FC, one of the rare highlights of 2024. Shaw was easily on her way to a statue alongside Morgan and Girma if she finished out her contract. *sighs heavily*
Jan. 26, 2025 - Naomi Girma sold to Chelsea
Speaking of finishing out her contract…I wrote about Girma in July of 2023 after she signed her extension and how important it was signing her to a contract before the World Cup. I figured European clubs would start calling soon after the tournament. Maybe it was the poor showing for the United States that kept her under the radar through 2023, despite being the best and most consistent player on the field. Anyway, the current turmoil at the club is what probably inspired European clubs to pounce now. From a workplace perspective, I understand her wanting to leave a situation that seemed to be spiraling with no end in sight. From a 24-year-old's perspective, I understand wanting to experience living abroad and walking the streets of a football country. From a marketing perspective, I understand she was clearly being overlooked by world soccer awards because the dweebs who vote don’t watch the best league in the world. From a technical perspective, I understand her wanting to be around better coaching that will elevate her game. But from a competitive perspective, I don’t get it. The parity in that league is so bad to the point you’re only playing maybe 6 competitive games in a season outside of Champions League knockouts. Sure, Snapdragon Stadium was an absolute trench to be playing soccer in, but it’s not all tea and biscuits in England either. A lot of these teams play on academy pitches and are prioritized behind a lot of the men’s youth teams. There was a Chelsea match a couple years ago that was abandoned after six minutes because the pitch was unplayable. I don’t know man, despite everything I listed above, I feel like living in San Diego, close to family, and playing against Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson, Barbra Banda, Temwa Chawinga, Asisat Oshoala, Mallory Swanson, Esther, Ally Sentnor and defending Sanchez and Delphine Cascarino in practice, makes you a better player. Anyway, despite going to that despicable club, we wish her the best and love her very much and please come back soon and bring Catarina Macario and Mia Fishel with you.
I think that sums up the majority of events. If I missed one please let me know, the season has been long in the worst way, and while I keep up with it regularly, the consistent writing was hard to come by so you get almost 1,700 words summing up what should have been individual posts. Stay tuned for Part 2.
