Soccer lovers should hope the National Women’s Soccer League’s leaders watched the Wave’s match played Saturday night in hot, muggy Houston.
Perhaps after seeing 90 minutes of soccer that could’ve been a lot better, the league’s brass will decide against ever having a team play three road matches in eight nights as the San Diego Wave did.
“It’s extremely unfair to players,” Wave coach Casey Stoney said after a scoreless draw against the Dash produced no memorable moments before an announced crowd of 6,473.
If NWSL leaders want to continue billing their league as the world’s best for women, this will happen: it won’t ask another club to finish a three-match, eight-day trip in Houston, on short rest, on a summer night.
“You’ll find no other team has had this,” Stoney said of the trek from San Diego to Washington D.C. to New Jersey to Houston, the final game coming after just two off days.
While neither the 10th-place Wave nor the 11th-place Dash had been unleashing dazzling offense in recent matches, the grueling schedule no doubt reduced the Wave, which made it impressive Stoney’s club carried play in the first half.
Stoney deemed the scheduling “unacceptable” after emptying her bench in the second half.
“For that reason,” said the coach, whose prior teams had won 1-0 and 3-0 in Houston, “I’m extremely proud of my players. They put an absolute shift in. It was so hot out there. They worked so hard. They controlled the game until the last ten minutes when we gave away a few set pieces.”
Afterward, Stoney was as hot as the weather.
She lambasted not only the recent schedule but the scheduling particulars of the Wave’s final preseason match, March 15. Despite having won the league’s regular season title, the Wave played that exhibition in New Jersey – against defending postseason-champion NJ/NY Gotham FC – on the same weekend 12 other teams began the 26-game season.
“When,” she said, “in every other league in the world, that tour game is played a week before the (whole) league season starts. So, we miss out on our first game. We then get given the midweek game as the makeup game to Gotham away. So, we had to go twice. Work that out. We talk about parity in this league.”
Apparently, the Wave sought the NWSL’s rationale for the three-match, eight-day, Houston finale.
Asked what the league’s reasoning was, Stoney said: “There is no reason. Because in this league we don’t work with foresight, if I’m honest.”
She added: “It’s been: ‘Tough, get on with it.’ But, what we’ve got to consider in all of this is the players – their health, their body, their mind and what we put them through.”
“Travel is brutal in this league,” added Stoney, who played in England’s top league. “The conditions are brutal in this league. These things could have been better. There was no need for this. Just foresight and planning and scheduling. I don’t think it’s rocket science.”
Though Stoney is biased, she has pointed out how the schedule or attrition has favored the Wave, such as Orlando not fielding its best squad in the match at San Diego.
Also: she said the Wave should’ve scored in the final minute Saturday, citing a mixup that saw forward Elyse Bennett hit a ball Jaedyn Shaw may have put away.
“I’m not going to criticize her for that. She’s a forward,” the coach said, referring to a scorer’s mentality. “But, we’ve got to make better decisions. We needed one more pass in the final third, we needed better creativity and execution. We lack that in the moment. The players are genuinely trying their hardest.”
Winless in eight road matches, the Wave (3-5-6) will return to Snapdragon Stadium against Chicago on Friday.