San Diego Wave FC headed to the nation’s capital with sights set on a bounce-back road win after a disappointing home loss to Seattle. The awaiting Washington Spirit, fresh off a road win of their own, sat at the top of the NWSL table, looking to build its lead.

SAN DIEGO — The Wave entered the match just out of striking distance of the league’s top spot, which they have held a couple of times throughout the season. This was the second matchup between San Diego and Washington, with the Wave edging out an exciting victory at Snapdragon Stadium in the first contest. After the recent injury to Dudinha, though, Jonas Eidevall’s offense has been looking a bit out of tune, something that they would need to address to emerge victorious.

The first meeting at Snapdragon found some early back-and-forth scoring, but that was not the case in this rainy affair. Both Washington and San Diego mustered up some looks in the first half, Washington came dangerously close to the back of the net in stoppage time, but new Goalkeeper Sandra Paños made a top-quality stop to keep the game square. So, the game went into the half still 0-0.

Sandra Paños first clean sheet in the @NWSL 👏 pic.twitter.com/JfPxQxV0BU

— San Diego Wave FC (@sandiegowavefc) August 2, 2026

A consistent focus on the lack of offense has been on Dudinha’s countryman, Ludmila. The forward has just not been able to produce to her expectations thus far in the season, with just one goal and zero assists to her name. Ludmila was a more productive attacker in Washington and had a couple of shots on goal, but still could not find nylon.

The Spirit’s Rebeca Bernal, who did the scoring in their first match, had a violent strike that crashed off the crossbar, but it was too high. A few minutes late, Trinity Byars led an attack downfield that gave Lia Godfrey a small window to score. And the rookie got back to her debut self, chipping the ball to the back of the net, putting the Wave on top. With 30 minutes to play, the game was far from over.

Difference Makers

That is where the talents of Kennedy Wesley and Mimi Van Zanten shone brightly. Wesley led the team in defensive interventions, with 17. She is the leader of the backlines for the Wave and has been vital to the team’s success this season.

That said, the MVP of the game is surely Van Zanten (all due respect to Paños clean sheet). Again, she was given the tall task of stifling the explosive Trinity Rodman, and again she delivered. Rodman created a couple of opportunities in the match, as one would expect, but to no success. Van Zanten’s gazelle-like game, agility, and endurance have sharpened throughout the season.

Making her return after injury was Kenza Dali. She substituted on for Kimmi Ascanio in the 65th minute and helped orchestrate some offense. She was joined later on by Adriana Leon, who came in for Godfrey to help close the game out.

New Recruits Laila Harbert and Brooklyn Courtnall did not make their Wave debuts, and Harbert was not listed on the roster.

The August gauntlet continues for the Wave, as they will face the new number one-ranked Gotham FC on Friday, August 7. More parallels from this Spirit match, as San Diego also bested Gotham at home 2-0 at the beginning of July. Besides that match and CONCACAF losses, Gotham has been unbeaten since the beginning of April. If the Wave comes up with three points, they will still trail the top spot by two points.

With four full days’ rest, San Diego Wave FC has to recover quickly and prepare for what promises to be an exciting match.

Nate Tubbs

Nate Tubbs is a recent graduate of Journalism at San Diego State University. In his time at SDSU, he wrote and photographed several different sports for Aztec Link, the school’s NIL collective. He also co-hosted a weekly podcast featuring Aztec athletes, sharing their stories and goals for the season. Tubbs is passionate about photography, storytelling, and most of all, San Diego sports.