The San Diego Wave go into Sunday’s meeting with the Seattle Reign at Snapdragon Stadium trying to steady a season that shifted quickly last weekend. A draw with the Kansas City Current kept San Diego unbeaten in that game, but wins elsewhere in the National Women’s Soccer League pushed the Wave from first place to third.
That makes this matchup more than a routine home date. San Diego enters at 9-5-2, while Seattle arrives at 5-7-2, and the Wave now need a result that stops the slide from turning into a broader chase from behind. The game is the next immediate chance to answer the standings swing with points of their own.
San Diego’s point in Kansas City carried real weight. The Current had been perfect at home at 6-0-0, and the Wave became the first team this season to leave with anything. Trinity Byars gave them the start they wanted, scoring six minutes into the match and then again in the 90th minute, a late finish that turned a road test into a return with value.
Jonas Eidevall called the venue a hard place to visit and said the team was content with the point because the match had taken on a life of its own by the end. He also pointed to Byars’ movement as the kind of striker work that made both goals possible, a sign that San Diego’s attack is getting production from a player whose path back has been anything but simple.
Byars tore her ACL during her senior season at the University of Texas after scoring five goals, then spent the long recovery that followed trying to get back to the field. She signed with the Wave on November 7, 2024, made her NWSL regular-season debut on April 25, 2024, against the Denver Summit, and scored her first NWSL goal three games later in her first career start against the Washington Spirit. She said rehab was a mental game, that most days did not even feel like days she wanted to get up and do it, and that what kept her going was knowing the work was for the sport she loves.
Byars also said she was grateful just to be back on the field, and the feeling showed in the way she described her first goal and first start. Before choosing the University of Texas, she had interest from Atlético Madrid and Manchester City, but San Diego stayed in the picture when others did not. That is part of why this Sunday matters for the Wave: they are not only trying to climb back toward first place, they are relying on a player whose comeback has already become part of their identity. If San Diego handle Seattle, the standings wobble becomes a brief detour. If they do not, the draw in Kansas City will look less like a point earned and more like the start of a longer drop.
