As Wave run out of games, Donovan balances ‘pragmatism’ with an unlikely run at the play offs

Kristen McNabb scored both goals in a 1-1 draw with Washington Spirit

San Diego Wave 1 : 1 Washington Spirit

Kristen McNabb scored both goals as the sides battled out a 1-1 draw on Military Appreciation Night in the naval town of San Diego.

On the half hour, the 30-year-old New Jersey native inadvertently opened the scoring for Washington Spirit after keeper Kailen Sheridan palmed out an effort by Ouleye Sarr. The Wave defender was left standing and unable to avoid contact with the ball which trickled into an unguarded net.

However midway through the second half she poked home a loose ball past Aubrey Kingsbury at the second attempt to earn her side a draw.

That initial calamity ended a half hour opening spell where the Wave had looked far more effective than last week’s disappointing show, with the returning Naomi Girma seemingly inspiring an all round improvement in confidence.

Coach Landon Donovan paid tribute to Girma’s influence:

“As Bruce Arena used to say, when you have good players it makes you a better coach! Naomi was phenomenal tonight.

“She hasn’t played in twelve days. She wanted to train all week. I said ‘we can take our time’  and she said ‘no, I’m in. I want to play.’

“(She was) fantastic through 90 minutes; really really good which makes my job a lot easier.”

Twelfth hosted second on a balmy Sunday evening in Southern California. With a game in hand over many of the sides directly above them, the Wave could afford not to be too despondent after a turbulent season which has already seen three head coaches take the helm.

Spirit however did not have a confidence problem having beaten the side above them Kansas City Current 4-1 on their last outing.

The visitors had their best spell between taking the lead and half time, and overall looked like they will be one of the sides to beat in the post season. A second goal could have easily ensued in that period.

With the point, Wave remain 12th with 16 points from 18 games, five points behind their two Califonia rivals who sit 8th and 9th with the top eight making the post season. The performance was much improved on last week but they are running out of games with just eight left.

Last week, Donovan had talked about balancing the pragmatic with the longer term goal of improving the team to maximise its performance. With humility, he had admitted he had got that balance wrong in the defeat against Angel City.

Asked if he felt, he had struck the balance to his own satisfaction this week, he said:

“I don’t know. It’s hard for me to say right now. I don’t think anything we did tonight was pragmatic necessarily. I think they’re just trying to play the way they’re learning.

“It’s hard to know but now we’re three weeks in. So now the ‘pragmatism’ is; training will teach you how to be pragmatic in certain moments in the training we do.

“They’re just getting better and better so I expect each performance to build on the last and hopefully we’re (either) winning games, or we are up in games and then the pragmatism will come in a bit more.”

That answer suggests Donovan may now be putting more balance on how good this team could be in the future. It further suggests that, he may prioritize that over the immediacy of results that could inch into a play-off place but with less overall progress.

“I feel responsibility, but I don’t feel urgency.

“We can’t turn this thing around in three weeks. This takes lots of time. I’ve talked a lot about the (USL side San Diego) Loyal and how long it took to get to where we got to. There are no quick fixes for franchises and teams in sport.

“You might get away with it for a year; being successful – a bit of lightening in a bottle.

“I want to build something that’s sustainable like we saw with Loyal where every year, we were competitive. The fans love us. We connect to the community. The community loves us and we become an institution.

“I’m in a unique place in my life whre I’m not so crazy hellbent on the result.

“I know most coaches are like that. If it doesn’t work out in the end, I’m at ease. But I’m going to give everything I have to grow the whole thing not just put it all out there for one result on Saturday and risk people and risk injuries and risk who we are as an identity and as a club.

“I’m not going to do that, so everything we do matters … and it has to be how you act every day. You can out it on a Powerpoint and talk about it in a meeting but it’s all BS. You have to live it everyday.”

Whereas some fans may veer towards the short term goal of hobbling into the play offs, honesty probably dictates that Wave need too many sides above them to lose regularly. This is impossible when they are often playing each other.

If reading between the lines may suggest that Donovan views ‘pragmatic’ as meaning it is too tall an order for this season, he is more upbeat about the progress the club and players are making in the medium and longer term:

“I am unbelievably proud of how far they’ve come. I am starting to see all the work they have been doing pay off. I’m just really proud of them. They’re making phenomenal progress.”

They host fifth placed North Carolina Courage next Sunday but other fixtures do not augur well. The four sides who stand between them and the play offs are in direct competition.

Angel City (9th) host Seattle Reign (11th), and Bay FC (8th) host Racing Louisville (10th).

Should both home sides fail to win, just three points may separate five clubs aspiring to that final play off slot. Wave will know those results before they take the field on Sunday, as those games take place on the Friday and Saturday.

This time next week, that ‘pragmatism’ may have to battle a new foe so far unseen this season in San Diego – optimism.

Attendance: 23,541

SD Wave: Sheridan, Girma, van Egmond, Lundkvist (Westphal 62′) , Wesley, McNabb, Doniak, Barcenas (Jakobsson 70′), Cascarino (Bennett 90′), Sanchez (Jones 90′), Morgan (Ali 70′)

Washington Spirit: Kingsbury, Kruger (Carle 79′), Butel. Keowm, Metayer, Santos, Sullivan, Hershfelt (Brown 79′), Rodman, Sarr, Kouassi (Morris 63′)