San Diego Wave and Racing Louisville end in 0-0 draw
Credit: P.J. Panebianco/EVT
Carly Telford prevent Louisville from scoring their second game-winning goal against San Diego this season.
The San Diego Wave tied Racing Louisville 0-0 on Friday, July 15th. The last time these two teams met was on Wednesday, May 18, early into the NWSL season.
After quickly starting off their campaign on a 3-game win streak, San Diego headed into Louisville with their heads high. Louisville was yet to win a match three games into the NWSL season. Yet when San Diego rolled in, they switched their gears and deservedly took the win 1-0 thanks to a beautiful freekick by Savannah DeMelo.
San Diego was still without many of its star players due to international duty. Even while shorthanded, San Diego managed to scrape out a tie at their home stadium.
San Diego looked in control early on but a couple of early mistakes almost gave Louisville the lead. Carly Telford’s mishit pass fell right into the path of Jessica McDonald who couldn’t control it and saw her attempt go over the crossbar in the 8th minute. 5 minutes later, Kristen McNabb gave the ball away in San Diego’s box but Telford got down quick to make a fine save one-on-one.
“We got away with a few things over the 90 minutes, head coach Casey Stoney said. “They had us in the first half and we were probably fortunate to go in (at halftime) 0-0.”
After a very even first half, the result of the match was still very much up in the air.
Coming into the second half, both teams started to play with more intent. Louisville opened the half with an attacking play from kickoff and in the next 5 minutes, San Diego would come close to scoring three times. On one occasion, Mackenzy Doniak’s volley would be cleared off the goal line by Louisville’s captain Gemma Bonner.
In the 72nd minute, Lousiville won a penalty after Emily Van Egmond and Amirah Ali combined to take down Louisville’s Alex Chidiac. The crowd silenced as DeMelo stepped up, but her shot was saved by a flying Telford. The crowd immediately rose to their feet and let out cries of excitement as the match was still very much in the balance.
.@carlytelford1 is a BRICK WALL tonight 🧱#SDvLOU | #WaveFC pic.twitter.com/dHFu3bG2te
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 16, 2022
Here is what was going through Telford’s head.
“I’ve done a lot of research on how people run up to the ball,” Telford said. “She was kind of close so I really thought she was going to whip it towards my right. I just gambled and went with it and managed to get a good save on it.”
In the end, nothing was able to split the two teams and the match ended 0-0.
There was a flurry of attacks throughout the entire match. San Diego ended the match with 19 shots while Louisville put up 20 shots of their own.
Disregarding her almost crucial mistake early on, Telford carried on to be one of San Diego’s most important players in this match. She made three flying saves to prevent Louisville from scoring and looked extremely commanding in her box.
“Carly Telford was outstanding,” Stoney said. “Probably one of the biggest reasons we got a point.”
Next, the San Diego Wave will face the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday, July 30 at 5:00 pm at Soldier Field in Chicago. It will be the second meeting between the two teams after San Diego defeated Chicago 2-1 earlier in the season.
“I think we’ve really grown in these three weeks when the girls have been away so when they come back they come into a really good environment and we can push and go again,” Telford said.
Morgan Prickett is currently studying Journalism at San Diego State and is on pace to graduate in 2023. He was born in Libreville, Gabon and lived in Pretoria, South Africa for 7 years until he moved to the Bay Area. He’s a massive soccer and basketball fan; mainly supporting Arsenal of the English Premier League and any team Chris Paul is on. He’s also an avid supporter of all sports teams in San Diego and loves watching all San Diego State sports.