When San Diego Wave FC step onto the pitch for the 2025 NWSL common season, they will be two years faraway from their 2023 NWSL Protect win and their final playoff look. It is hardly the longest drought ever for a sports activities crew, however for the four-year-old franchise that set a successful normal in 2022, it is new territory. The membership now finds itself taking its first steps in a rebuild after a busy offseason.
It is not one thing the franchise is shying away from with common supervisor and former NWSL participant Camille Ashton Levin telling CBS Sports activities throughout preseason, “It is no secret,” however there are a number of circumstances that the membership has needed to juggle since her personal midseason arrival to San Diego.
“In the end need to be in a spot the place we’re competing for championships. Not on one-off years, however yr after yr, and have one thing that is sustainable,” she mentioned.
Misdseason shakeups
The spiral towards a rebuild started midseason in 2024, a stunning dismissal of former head coach Casey Stoney by former membership president Jill Ellis. The transfer got here after a seven-game winless streak by the Wave the place they struggled to supply any significant attacking soccer and struggled in entrance of objective, sitting in ninth place on the time of her departure.
The transfer, made partially to salvage the mediocre season, had the other impact as participant demeanor dropped, struggles in assault remained, they usually crashed out of playoff rivalry. Later, U.S. girls’s nationwide crew ahead Alex Morgan retired midseason with a twin announcement of her being pregnant in September, and in October, the Levine Leichtman Household Workplace accomplished the acquisition of the membership from its earlier proprietor, Ron Burkle.
Ashton joined the membership in the course of the midst of the summer time turnover, which additionally included allegations from former membership staff of a poisonous work tradition. In July, Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to a former Wave worker who had accused Ellis of making a poisonous work setting. An investigation (by way of a third-party agency) occurred earlier within the yr and located the Wave to haven’t violated NWSL insurance policies. Ellis has since known as the allegations “false.”
Moreover, a number of former staff have since filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Wave and NWSL, although Ellis just isn’t named as a defendant. The lawsuit comprises allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, racial discrimination, and wrongful termination. The previous membership president finally left her place for a newly created girls’s soccer function with FIFA in December.
Offseason acquisitions
With so many alternative circumstances of fixed change, Ashton and the membership had few choices however to lean into the rebuild for the Wave. The turnover continued within the winter, and Ashton and the membership labored with Naomi Girma to settle a now historic switch payment with Chelsea FC and finally negotiated a commerce for Jaedyn Shaw to North Carolina after the participant requested the transfer within the spring of 2024. The Wave additionally wanted to determine their head coach place after three totally different managers in a single season.
After Stoney’s dismissal, Paul Buckle was an intern who left after the summer time, and former U.S. males’s nationwide crew participant Landon Donovan was finally named as interim by the rest of the yr. Throughout his introductory press convention, he mentioned that the door was “open” for conversations for the everlasting head coach function, however because the Wave’s season worn out, Ashton knew the membership needed to transfer on into a bigger hunt for a supervisor.
“Coming into that form of scenario, it was actually essential that we didn’t rush the top coach determination, that we went by a really thorough course of that was going to take time,” she mentioned.
They landed on Jonas Eidevall in a little bit of happenstance as he was not an obtainable possibility when San Diego’s search began. His departure from Arsenal modified issues, and after prolonged interview processes and conversations, the Wave felt he was the candidate to steer the crew of their time of transition.
“We had quite a lot of dialog … about how we see an setting and the issues which might be essential, and what, what the non-negotiables are, and the way we handle individuals, how we glance to develop the person after which be sure we’re getting essentially the most out of the crew. We went by all of this stuff collectively and spoke about simply what was essential to the membership, after which he spoke about what’s essential to him, and there was simply alignment throughout [all] these issues,” Ashton defined.
San Diego’s rebuilding was nicely in impact after they introduced Eidevall as head coach in January. They signed the primary participant within the post-draft period within the NWSL after they welcomed College of Texas ahead Trinity Byars in November. Shortly after the winter departures of Shaw and Girma, the Wave introduced the signing of defender Trinity Armstong from the College of North Carolina.
The Wave additionally signed Nigerian internationals Favour Emmanuel and Chiamaka Okwuchukwu. In February, Canadian worldwide and NWSL veteran Adrianna Leon joined the membership from Aston Villa, including to the membership’s lengthy offseason journey of roster constructing.
“You have to perceive the person participant and perceive what’s essential to them, as a result of each participant is totally different, and each participant is in a special a part of their profession or place and has totally different ambitions or issues that resonate with them kind of. So it is actually actually essential to get an understanding of these issues in each particular person participant,” Ashton mentioned of the recruiting and rebuilding course of.
“After which, look inside ourselves and perceive, ‘is that this truly the perfect place for this particular person too?’ It is nice if, as a membership, you actually desire a participant, nevertheless it must be a match each methods, if that is smart. I feel that is the way you’re in the end going to get essentially the most out of the participant and the perfect out of the participant as nicely.
Having the ability to showcase, clearly, all the good issues about San Diego and concerning the membership, but additionally ensure that we actually perceive what’s essential to the participant. The opposite factor, we need to convey gamers to this group that that need to win, that need to compete. That is that is additionally actually essential within the gamers that we’re recruiting to return right here.”
Gamers writing a brand new chapter
Ashton acknowledged the challenges of a youthful roster however expressed confidence within the emergence of recent leaders inside the squad. “When there’s change, you at all times have rising leaders,” she mentioned, pointing to the crew’s mixture of remaining veterans and younger gamers as a supply of optimism. Nevertheless, counting on unproven leaders to information a crew by a rebuild is a raffle, and the Wave’s means to foster a cohesive crew tradition will likely be essential to their success.
Goalkeeper Kalien Sheridan is one such instance of management that the group will rely on. She’s a former NWSL goalkeeper of the yr and an Olympic gold medalist with Canada.
“I feel on the finish of final season, there [were] positively some concern elements in there that all of us felt and have been nervous about,” Sheridan defined.
“I feel coming in with a like, recent perspective, and never forgetting concerning the previous, as a result of that is not useful both. I feel you must bear in mind the place you got here from as a way to proceed to develop and never enable backtracking. However I feel coming with an open thoughts and simply being able to study and work and have a objective ahead, as a substitute of type of working again [or] type of engaged on redoing one thing, just isn’t useful. We have to simply go ahead and once more, bear in mind what we have finished, however we now have to maneuver ahead. And we now have an unbelievable group of gamers proper now that I am actually stoked to work with. There’s a lot expertise within the room. We simply want to manage it and construction it now. So, it’ll be about how we do this,” she mentioned.
Regardless of all of the complexities across the Wave’s trajectory towards a rebuild simply three years after their growth into the league, the veteran goalkeeper believes that their roster has the expertise to compete and that gamers of their sophomore season in NWSL would be the subsequent wave of leaders on the crew.
“I feel [defender] Kennedy Wesley is an unbelievable expertise, and she or he hasn’t been given the alternatives that she deserves, or given the highlight that she must develop and flourish. Inside six to eight months of really having the ability to play and practice together with her, the expansion that I’ve seen is exceptional, and I am simply actually excited to proceed to see to look at her journey. I do not have to be part of it the entire time, however I actually really feel fortunate that I’m,” Sheridan mentioned.
Look forward
The membership’s determination to prioritize youth and long-term progress over rapid outcomes might both place them as a future powerhouse or go away them struggling to compete in a quickly evolving league. With the 2025 season on the horizon, consideration will likely be on San Diego to see if their offseason gambles repay—or if it leaves them adrift in a sea of unfulfilled potential.
For now, the Wave’s future stays a query mark. Because the membership navigates this pivotal second, the stress to ship will solely intensify. The stakes are excessive, and the margin for error is slim. Will the Wave’s rebuild propel them to new heights, or will it go away them looking for solutions in yet one more offseason? Solely time will inform.