The easy joke — and I know, because I tweeted it Sunday night — is to say San Diego Wave FC is just the latest example of a team from our city failing to come through when it matters most.
Needing only one home victory not only to reach the National Women’s Soccer League championship game, but to host it before a hometown crowd in Mission Valley, the Wave turned in a dismal performance in Sunday night’s semifinal game and lost 1-0 to Seattle’s OL Reign.
Just add them to the list, right?
Like so many Chargers and Padres and Aztecs teams before them, often on the same plot of land off Friars Road, the Wave crashed when it counted.
But exiting Snapdragon Stadium on Sunday night with more than 32,000 fans, I realized what was different about this loss, and this team: It was quiet. The walk from the stadium to the trolley featured no anger, no screaming, no anguish, no … pain.
Sure, the Wave draws a different crowd than other sports teams — more families, less drinking, etc. But still, it felt like leaving any other Wave game I’ve attended. And when I got home and looked at what many of us will always call Twitter, I didn’t see “Fire Everybody” hot takes from every corner of the city.
That’s not necessarily bad, perspective and all that. And surely the team hasn’t been around long enough to create the same levels of ion as those that came before them.
But I would think — or hope, anyway — there was anger in at least one place Sunday night and again Monday: Wave headquarters.
This was a blown opportunity. The franchise has come a long way in a short time, reaching the postseason semifinals in each of its two seasons, winning the NWSL Shield as the team with the best regular-season record this season, setting attendance records (including another one Sunday).
That’s all worth celebrating. But the Wave aren’t yet ingrained in what I’d call the fabric of San Diego sports. You could tell from that reaction Sunday night. Again, understandable.
Had they won that game, though, this week would have been theirs. Sure, the Aztecs’ basketball team opens its season Monday night, but what else of note is happening? Media coverage would not have reminded anyone of what the Padres had last October, but it would have exceeded anything women’s sports has seen here in … well, I don’t even know how long.
And had they won again Saturday, in a match in San Diego in which they would have been strong favorites?
I’m not saying there would have been a reaction like if the Aztecs had completed their dream run last April or if (make sure you’re sitting down) the Padres ever win a World Series. But I’d wager it would have led every newscast throughout the weekend and the enthusiastic response would have spread on social media and through the county.
A year ago, when the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces brought a title to a town that had never won one in a first-division pro sport, the city turned out for a two-block parade down the Strip leading to a rally outside the Bellagio. Surely San Diego would have done something similar for the Wave, maybe along Harbor Drive to Waterfront Park.
A title also could have paid dividends in the future. No one knows whether the Wave will be eclipsed by Major League Soccer when San Diego FC begins play in 2025, but what better time would there have been for the NWSL team to show off with a trophy and a parade? Nothing like a championship when you’re trying to become a bigger part of the sports culture.
Instead, we got another example of what might have been, another addition to the hashtag #SanDiegoSports.
Hopefully the Wave provide an exception someday. But for now, I can’t help but feel like they’ve wasted a giant opportunity.
Posner is a former sports writer and sports editor for the Union-Tribune.
