With the San Diego Gulls (American Hockey League) and San Diego Seals (National Lacrosse League) both out of the postseason picture, fans can now turn their unbridled attention to professional soccer in town.
The Gulls failed to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs while finishing ninth in the 10-team Pacific Division that awards playoff berths to the division’s top seven teams.
The Seals did qualify for the NLL postseason tournament but ended their season with a first-round loss to the two-time defending champion Buffalo Bandits
That leaves the San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League and San Diego FC of Major League Soccer to capture fans’ fancy over the coming summer months into early autumn.
Both teams were in action last weekend at Snapdragon Stadium and both teams recorded key victories to stay in the early season playoff race.
San Diego FC blanked visiting FC Dallas FC, 5-0, on Saturday while the Wave used a dramatic goal in extra time to edge visiting Bay FC, 2-1, amid slick field conditions caused from misty weather.
Back in the win column
After a franchise record three consecutive losses — 3-2 at Colorado on April 12, 3-0 at Charlotte on April 19 and 3-1 at home to Real Salt Lake on April 26 — San Diego FC recorded its most lopsided victory of the season against the Texas visitors.
Hirving “Chucky” Lozano paced the SDFC scoring parade with two goals — one each in the 20th and 27th minutes — to boost the hosts to a 2-0 lead. Lozano’s first goal came on a penalty kick and the second off a through pass from Dane Anders Dreyer.
Lozano also tacked on two assists to earn MLS Player of the Matchday honors. He becomes the fifth player in MLS history to compile four goals and four assists in his first eight games with an expansion team. He became the fourth player in league history to rack up two goals and two assists in a single match for an expansion club.
The Mexican international has come on strong after a slow start to the season with a team-best 10 goal contributions (four goals, six assists) in eight games.
Dreyer scored his team co-leading fourth goal in the 56th minute to extend the SDFC lead to 3-0. Onni Valakari made the score 4-0 in the 73rd minute and Milan Iloski closed out scoring in the match in the 87th minute.
Lozano assisted on the goals by Dreyer and Valakari. Dreyer and Valakari each posted three-point nights with one goal and two assists each.
Dreyer also drew an assist on Valakari’s goal — a shot that glanced straight down off the crossbar over the goal line.
Dreyer ranks second on the team with nine goal contributions (four goals, five assists) in 11 matches. Valakai has contributed three goals and five assists in 11 matches.
San Diego goalkeeper C.J. dos Santos made two saves to notch his fourth shutout of the early season.
Iloski entered the game in the 81st minute and recorded his first MLS goal six minutes later.
San Diego native Luca de la Torres has two goals and one assist in 11 outings with his hometown team.
The hosts dominated Saturday’s wet weather match with nine shots on target to two (13-9 in overall shots), 61 percent of possession and 89 percent pass accuracy in front of 27,105 fans. The Toros had the lead in fouls (17-14), yellow cards (2-1), offsides (1-0) sand corner kicks (5-4).
SDFC is averaging 31,314 fans at Snapdragon Stadium in its inaugural season.
The win improved the San Diegans’ record to 5-4-2 (five wins, four losses, two ties) while Dallas saw its record drop to 4-4-3.
The Vancouver Whitecaps continue to lead the Western Conference standings with an 8-2-1 record and 26 points ahead of Minnesota (5-2-4) with 19 points. The Portland Timbers (5-3-3) are in third place with 18 points while SDFC and LAFC are tied for fourth place with 17 points.
The top nine clubs in the division qualify for the playoffs. Austin (5-5-1), Seattle (4-3-4) and Colorado (4-3-4) are all tied for sixth place with 16 points.
Things to come
The regular season consists of 34 matches — 17 home and 17 away — to determine playoff qualifiers. The top seven teams in both the Western Conference and Eastern Conference will automatically advance to the Round One best-of-three series while the next two teams in each conference will advance to a single-elimination wild-card round, with the wild-card winners advancing to the Round One series.
FC Dallas currently sits ninth in the Western Conference standings with 15 points followed by San Jose in 10th place with 13 points and Real Salt Lake in 11th place with 12 points.
Teams with sub-.500 records at present include Sporting KC (3-7-1, 10 points), St. Louis (2-5-4, 10 points), Houston Dynamo (2-5-4, 10 points) and the L.A. Galaxy (0-8-3, 3 points).
It looks to be a competitive race for the nine playoff berths.
Leaders in the Eastern Conference include the Columbus Crew (7-1-3, 24 points), Philadelphia (7-3-1, 22 points), Cincinnati (7-3-1, 22 points), Inter Miami (6-1-3, 21 points), Charlotte (6-4-1, 19 points), Nashville (5-4-2, 17 points), New York City (5-4-2, 17 points), Orlando (4-2-5, 17 points) and New England (5-4-1, 16 points).
Inter Miami suffered its first league loss of the season April 27 in a 4-3 loss to FC Dallas. The Texas side scored three goals in a 17-minute span to erase a 3-1 deficit. The prior week saw Inter Miami meet Columbus in a match-up of undefeated teams that saw the Florida side come out on top with a 1-0 victory.
San Diego FC will play 28 of its 34-game regular season schedule against Western Conference opponents and six cross-over matches against Eastern Conference teams.
SDFC has already faced Columbus (1-1 tie) and Charlotte (3-0 loss). Upcoming cross-over games include Chicago (July 12), Toronto (July 16), Nashville (July 25) and Atlanta (Sept. 20).
San Diego also has friendlies scheduled against Club America (June 20) and Club Tijuana (Sept. 15).
The San Diego team will participate in the group stage of the Leagues Cup: Pachuca (July 29), Tigres UANL (Aug. 1) and Mazatlan (Aug. 5).
Making Waves
There are goals and then there are memory-making goals. Seventeen-year-old Trinity Armstrong tallied the latter five minutes into stoppage time to give the host Wave a 2-1 win over Bay FC and extend the San Diego team’s winning streak to three games.
The Wave returned to Snapdragon Stadium after clinching two road victories — 4-1 at Racing Louisville on April 19 and 3-0 at the Chicago Stars on April 26. It appeared Sunday’s match would end in a 1-1 deadlock until Armstrong got just enough of a piece of the ball with her head to redirect the ball past Bay goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz off a corner kick by Kenza Dali.
The goal was Armstrong’s first NWSL tally.
The goal also brought the match full circle.
Diving to her right, Silkowitz had masterfully blocked a penalty kick attempt by the Wave’s Maria Sanchez in the 27th minute to prevent the home side from taking a 2-1 advantage.
The Wave dominated the first half of play in front of 11,206 supporters, winning the day in nearly every category. But the Bay Area side regrouped in the second half to make a game out of it until tiring in the late stages.
The Wave has made a habit of late comebacks and Sunday was no different as the hosts pummeled the Bay FC net with several potential game-winning shots until they finally got one in.
“Speechless,” Armstrong said of her game-winner in a post-game interview.
Kennedy Wesley put the hosts on top, 1-0, with a head strike in the sixth minute off a corner kick from Sanchez. But the visitors leveled the contest, 1-1 in the 18th minute on a low cross-net shot by Karlie Lema.
The goal was Wesley’s first of the season and second in her NWSL career and the Wave’s milestone 100th regular season goal.
Silkowitz made a game-saving stop at the near post just prior to Armstrong nodding in the game-winning goal from inside a crowded penalty box.
The Wave was unlucky to seal the three standings points in regulation with two hit posts and one hit crossbar besides the blocked spot kick.
The Wave compiled a 17-6 edge in overall shots — five to two on target. The possession was heavily skewed with 65 percent for San Diego and 35 percent for Bay FC. The pass accuracy was 86 percent for the hosts and 78 percent for the visitors. The Wave held a commanding edge in corner kicks — 11 to three.
Bay FC picked up three yellow caution cards and held a 16-10 edge in fouls.
The Wave improved its season record to 4-2-1 with 13 points — two points behind table co-leaders KC Current and Orlando Pride, both with 5-0-2 marks.
Three teams sit one point arrears of the Wave in the standings: Gotham FC (3-2-3), Portland Thorns (3-2-3) and Washington Spirit (4-3-0).
The top eight teams qualify for the playoffs in the 14-team table. Next up are the Seattle Reign (3-2-2) and Angel City (3-2-2) with 11 points each.
Bay FC is tied with the North Carolina Courage and Racing Louisville — all with 2-3-2 records — for ninth place. The Houston Dash (2-4-1), Utah Royals (1-5-1) and Chicago (1-5-1) currently bring up the rear in the standings.
Teams play a balanced 26-match regular season schedule.
The Wave hosts Portland on Saturday, May 10, at 7 p.m. in a bid to extend its win streak to four matches.
It’s a long season. Regular season play concludes Nov. 2. The opening round of the NWSL playoffs are Nov. 7-9 and culminate with the championship match on Nov. 22.
The Wave is averaging 13,503 fans per match. Angel City tops the league at 17,859, followed by Portland at 16,235, Washington Spirit at 15,394 and the Wave.
