The Anomaly of San Diego Wave: Tactical Orthodoxy, CBA Friction, and Roster Restructuring

2026 and we're kicking off X OG on the road. We're going to be traveling guys traveling. And to do it up on opening weekend, I have decided to do a dumb thing. I will be in Washington on the 13th at Rowdy Audi Boston on the 14th for the Boston Legacy debut against Gotham and at BMO for Angel City's game against the Chicago stars on Sunday. Yikes. If you are in any of those markets, be sure to come say hi before the game to Eric. And we plan to try and hit all 16 markets this year. I will be in New Jersey for Gotham FC against the Orlando Pride on Sunday, March 29th and watch this space for more dates to come. In the meantime, if you are a fan of the show, we are doing a big Patreon sale where you can get an annual membership for a big discount. So be sure to use the code in the show notes for that. And we have launched a store. We have to have an official X OG store where you can get all the best merch for the start of the NWSL season and Patreon members get 20% off with an exclusive discount code for that. So those are all the fun little goodies from us. Stay tuned for the show. Hello and welcome to expected own goals. What's my age again edition? I am your host, Eric Morgan. And I am Evan Davis. Welcome to day five of NWSL season preview week here at X OG. And today we are indeed discussing the San Diego wave with our old friend, Radio Tool San Diego native and proprietor of busy watching women's soccer. So good. All of those videos you should watch and we have linked to them in the show notes. Not much to report between the actual recording of the interview and when we're doing these wraparounds, except for Gabi Portillo being transferred there from Gotham FC for $175,000. Thus completing the all Brazil front line that San Diego could potentially roll out. Using one Brazilian-ish piece potentially still hanging out there. So while we don't really get into Gabi Portillo, obviously we do get into the ever persistent chatter around Catarina Macario moving to the wave. So buckle up for that before we do Gabi Portillo. Good signing. You know, I think for this San Diego team, yes. She showed flashes of brilliance at points. Her numbers are like slightly above average. But I think she probably works well in this possession system as a lock picker. So yeah. Yeah. One one that's probably needed in San Diego at the moment. And also maybe with Dudinian LeBelo could provide a little bit of, you know, direct attack, which is not something that Unishite will always want to do, but could be useful as a plan B. Just to give opponents another look, because I think they figured out what they were doing about halfway through the year last year. She has that element of surprise and 175k. It's not a huge risk. So yeah, I like it. Yeah. You like it. Yeah. No, I think it's a good signing. It's not going to address their biggest area of need, which is their backline. But let's save that for our conversation with Brady O'Toole. They're up. They're down. They're up. They're down. Do they deserve it? Do they not deserve it? Is Catarina Macario coming? Is she staying? What the hell is happening with San Diego wave? A perpetual question, thoughtful with different players and different protagonists and antagonists every single offseason. This time, maybe more antagonist than protagonist, thing has thrashed through all of the particulars of the waves. 2026 campaign is the host and producer of busy watching women's soccer best tactics web series. You can watch on YouTube, the one and only Brady O'Toole. Welcome back to the show, Brady. Thank you so much for having me. All right, Brady. We've been kicking it off this way. The tide comes in. The tide goes out. Tell us the story of the 2025 San Diego wave. And I swear that's the last of those jokes we will make, I promise. It kind of looks like a crisis moment, externally right now. This is close to the start of the season. But I think it's one of those things where once we kind of dig into the details, the film, the stats, I don't think things look quite as bad. I think there's like a lot of rationalization that needs to happen to kind of get the fans back on board. But I'm really hoping just from a fan perspective that like play as bare of a quality as air and could all be kind of background noise very quickly. What about last year's campaign set things up for the kind of off season that they've had going all the way back to the beginning. I mean, new head coach at the beginning of last year, the new ownership finally getting their sea legs. The season ended in in six place and a quarter final birth. But there was a lot going on in between. So walk us through like how things unfolded last year that got us to this point. Started off super hot. Look really good and maybe some of that's like, you know, new coach bump, new teammates, everything's just kind of groovy and easy. And if the expectations aren't high, it's super easy to come in and smash them. I think reality hit pretty hard pretty quickly. I think a lot of teams saw what was on film. They came into San Diego with something different, new and unique, which, you know, makes coaches job tougher, makes the players job tougher. But I really think at the end of the season, we saw a pretty spectacular collapse, especially at home. And I think starting my way, they did finishing my way they did. GM can't look at that and say, we're not going to do anything to address this. I think they probably left feeling like they need to make pretty drastic changes. Yeah, the unashired of all experience was one that I think a lot of people were really skeptical about when he joined, but he brought and then imposed a pretty rigid style of play on the San Diego wave. And yeah, as you said, it was when there was no tape, it was quite effective. And once there was tape, it ceased to be as effective. What is your impression of the of Yonish Aideval as NWSL manager? I grew to really like him over the season. My season tickets are pretty close to the bench. So I would say I spend a lot of time just watching like the interactions between the coaching staff, my players, I find that stuff really interesting. And like, Faman has really detailed notes every match. He's really paying attention. He's taken information away. He's having great conversations with the coaching staff. And he's just passionate. Like he's just so freaking passionate. And as a fan, you can't not appreciate that. It was great to see. I think it was the problem solving. Became more of an issue is things didn't change enough over the course of the season to my eye. And I think he's a great coach, but maybe he just didn't have the tools that he needed to get the job done towards the end of the season. It certainly has reputation that being quite tactically detailed, as you say, but also rather tactically orthodox. And so when you look at the moves that have been made this off season, knowing the kind of style that I'd have all wants to play, are you seeing, are you seeing compulsion? Are you seeing two parties being happy with what is happening? Are they linking up and aligning? Or does I'd have to maybe do some evolving himself given the personality as available to him? From what I hear from his interviews, just San Diego's kind of general sort of media approach, like they want to play possession football. They've been clear about that. But what is the point of possession football? And for me, what I think they're missing and they really want to build on this season is forcing me issue more and creating structural breakdowns in the opposition. And you can have the ball all you want and pass back and forward. But if you're not creating progressive chances, one by one opportunities, you're not going to break any structure. So I think what they really are looking to do this year is pass around their opponent into oblivion, come up with really creative ways to get around people, through people, past people. And to me, Ludmila is a massive, massive part of making that happen. Yeah, she provides a new style of lockpicking that was not available to them. I feel like last year and lockpicking became a huge issue for them during this season. Let's switch and talk about Camille Ashton from in it to say that she has a reputation that carries with it a certain weight in this league that is unlike other people in her position. I think would be generous and fair. How do you view the Camille Ashton experience in San Diego? And what have you seen from her? Especially because the headline that matches that reputation is the Kaelin Sheridan affair. And so maybe using Sheridan as a case study, try and unpack what it's like to watch Ashton operate. Yeah, a little tough coming in. I think what I find a little frustrating is this sort of approach of this was done under the prior system. We have to scrap all of this in start with something new. I think there's some really talented gyms and the league that have shown that they're able to kind of balance that situation a little bit better. We've Sheridan in particular, the situation is so unfortunate. And my theory is that it's kind of somewhat of a reaction to the new collective bargaining agreement with the players needing to approve their trades. But if ownership feels that they may not reach an agreement with a player or that might cause conflict or be a difficult discussion, they're just not going to give them the courtesy of having that conversation and they will just cut them. And to me, that's like a workaround. It makes no sense. But that kind of feels like what happened. I mean, given the mutual agreement of termination of it all, there, and this is rather cynical, but I still kind of believe it, is that it's almost as though they didn't really give her a choice. They were probably like, you either ride the bench all year or we mutually terminate a contract and you go find somebody else to play for. And nothing about that feels especially mutual to me. But it feels very much like how Ashton booted players out the door at Kansas City without much notice or fanfare or expectation. Yeah, not a conscious uncoupling a messy divorce. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think we'll probably continue to see that happen across other teams. But yeah, it just feels like it was not mutual. There's no way. How do you replace Kaelin Sheridan? How have they replaced Kaelin Sheridan? Did he hardsheets? He's back, resigned a new deal, brought in Leah Freeman on a free agent, contract, international transfer of a very young goalkeeper named Louisa Agadello, hardsheets. When she has been a number one, hasn't been very good. It was back up last year. And then Freeman and Agadello don't have much track record if at all as starting keepers. So where do you see the backstop being provided in net here? It's a really confusing situation to me because I can understand having maybe one experience back up, one young developing keeper, and then your starter. And I feel like now we have a starter, who's a club level starter, maybe in the league, and two prospects. That grouping doesn't really make much sense to me. So I don't think they've replaced Sheridan at all, even remotely. I am very, very excited about Louisa Agadello. I think she's a great prospect. She's very young. I think back to the 2022 under 17 women's world cup where like she first popped on my radar and I'm assuming you know some of these scouts and analysts, like that tournament was stacked with players that have gone on to play very good pro ball. She looked fantastic. If you take out the own goal, she only conceited one goal, the whole tournament. She's going to develop really nicely, I think. But you know, did the way of how the history of developing young players, did the way of how the history of developing goalkeepers are they going to be able to get her minutes? I love the signing. I just don't, I don't understand how it's all going to work. Moving to the backline, Trinity Armstrong had a great rookie year, probably exceeding the expectations anyone should hold for an 18 year old center back. Unfortunately, she is not as available as you would like this year. You have Christian Knab and Kennedy Wesley. How does that center back pairing sort of read to you going into this season? Or are there other options you expect to see at center back? I really like Armstrong at center back. I think you're right. Completely outperforms last season. I think there's only growth opportunities for her there because like her technical play outstanding. I think the only thing she needs is just like more repetitions to help build that sort of judgment decision making. That's like completely normal and natural for where she is. Wesley, I think with the national team time is starting to move beyond prospect and starting to look like a real, you know, leader. I think where I'm still a little bit lost is, you know, similar to the goalkeeping group, where's the veteran leadership? So much of what the team was struggling with last season to me was like coordination, communication, judgment. And you know, sometimes it just helps to have that really experienced player to just debrief with like, hey, that sequence sucked. You were in completely the wrong spot. You need to make sure you're over here. And I don't, I don't really know who's handling those conversations right now. So that's where I'm a little skeptical still. Yeah. And without Armstrong available, just the sheer technical quality in that central defensive pairing seems to have risk dropping off significantly. And same thing at fullback. I mean, Eric, I think is still mourning the loss of Honolunquist. Yeah, for sure. And for good reason. And now what the replacement is maybe inverting parallel marooning to the other side and bringing Florida state rookie Mimi Van Zanton in at left back like what from what was one of their stronger areas in over the last year or two now feels incredibly thin. So what are they doing about wide defense? That's a huge head scratch for me too. I long kiss looked so good. I don't know how they literally at the building makes you wanted to this. My guess. But it's San Diego. How can you not convince someone to stay in beautiful. Manchester makes more sense to her physiologically, I think. Uh, you know, fair enough, there's always going to be things that are out of their control. I was expecting hoping they might bring in a more kind of experienced replacement. I am a little bit concerned. We saw Kiki Pickett at that position for the Coachella Valley Invitational. I think her stats, she's, she's not as strong at dispossessing opponents. And Honolunquist was very, very good at that. You look at tackles and interceptions. And you know, she was unusually strong there. I feel a little better about Mimi Van Zanton in that spot, honestly. I think the international experience that she's had over the last year is probably helped her develop. And you know, she's, she's a college signing, but probably a bit more experienced than your average college signing. I think she could be a good contributor. And that's what I'd like to see. Yeah, moving into the midfield, Ken Zadali had a real renaissance last year putting together one of her most dominant professional seasons, regardless of league, she is the central force. But how do you see the San Diego midfield playing out this season, especially in the absence of Savannah McCaskill leadership to Gotham? Yeah. And I would think that Kiki Pickett would be really good fix for that. Part of the McCaskill departure, for me, the issue with it is her and Lunkvist were paired up a lot of the time. And they were playing off each other a lot of the time. So you take both of them out. I mean, maybe actually thinking about now, maybe that is better. You replace both of them at the same time. You're not breaking something up. But who slots in there? We're not going to have Dolly dropping back that far of a whole time, unless you've got somebody at the 10 that could maybe pick up some of that work. Who could have he? Well, Lorina Fazer came in in the summer window last year and she's still quite young. But she did get a decent look from Ideville in gameplay. I mean, what do you make of her? Is she potential McCaskill replacement next to Dolly? Does that makes sense? Or is that just she's the only option? No, I think it makes sense. I think she came along very, very nicely in the match, but she played. She's very patient on the ball. She really makes sure she's looking and finding good passes. And kind of similar to a lot of the signings I've had recently, she's just technically very good on the ball and very skilled. So I think we'll see her starting. And that connection with Dolly, I'm sure is going to play into that as well. Gia Corley came flying out of the gates last year and was really, really influential. And then the underlying number has really dropped off for her. Did you feel like that was also true of the onfield performance? And what is the state of Gia Corley moving forward? Young lots of promise, but how do you see her? I think she's going to be back starting. I'm hoping that it was one of those things where you kind of have that everything's new and exciting boost in your confidence as high. And maybe you get a little bit rattled as the season goes on. I think she just started to look a little bit hesitant in some of her decision making. Whereas before you could just see a player, whose brain was just switched off and just playing the same football. She's just been playing her whole life. So new team, new expectations. There's time for everything to kind of reset. And I'm hopeful that we see her stats get back to where they were at the start of a season because they were at first two matches were insane. I also wonder, I think maybe we talked about this on the show during the year that like her tactical responsibility was to be sort of the one chaos agent and otherwise very structured system, especially an attack. And I wonder if that unpredictability kind of became predictable as the year went on. Everyone knew that Corley was going to be the spare player that you kind of just needed to keep an eye on, but not worry about as much or really key in on her. And then she won't be able to get Delphine Cascarino the ball. So what does Corley need to do to make her unpredictable again? I think what you're referring to and sort of, you know, teams prioritizing covering her, covering her better. You could see that a lot on film because she was in very, very congested spaces a lot of the time. And that's where she was struggling and dealing with that congestion. So I think she even needs to be in a role that's going to allow her to take more open space. Or we just have to get back to being, you know, really unpredictable. And maybe that means you're not moving the ball forward as much your job isn't to take one of the ones in progressive pass. Just in terms of that zone of the field, the 800 pound gorilla in the room at the moment is Caterina Macario. Let's just get to the Macario. So what we got last week was solid reporting that talks are quote advanced for her to come over from Chelsea, though we haven't heard any updates on that. We don't really know what advanced talks means if a deal is gets done or if it gets done when she would actually arrive, she's obviously rehabbing a foot injury at the moment at Chelsea. But the time on her contract is rapidly dwindling. One would assume Chelsea would like to get her out the door and get some kind of a fee. But all of this is living in a zone of uncertainty. Well, let's just say for the sake of argument, the Macario deal gets done. She gets healthy. Maybe she comes back in June or for the second half of the season. What does that do to it evolves attacking plans? And then as a sub question, what does that do to Corley's playing time and how she's used? I think with the attacking plans, the biggest thing I see happening is where the team is holding possession. I think that moves upfield. I think a lot of the sort of patient resetting the structure, redistributing the ball. A lot of that was done last season by Dolly and by McCaskill. And that's done lower down on the pitch, closer to the defense who are very young, very inexperienced. And I think if you can just move the ball away from them, you're going to relieve a lot of that pressure and de-risk your game a lot essentially. So for me, Cat Macario, her ability to play in congested areas of pitch, her ability to play back to goal, hold up play. I think it works perfectly with what I have all is trying to do. It makes a ton of sense to me. And that should then relieve a lot of pressure off to your Corley because she's not, she should be behind her with open space in front of her because Macario is probably going to be double covered and dealing with that quite well. So false nine for Macario, that's absolutely. 100%. Last year, Delphine Cascurino was a big catalyst for the attack. She's obviously gone now. That said, you get Trinity buyers back. And the addition of Ludmila and a full season of Duginia. Do you think that this San Diego attack is already, regardless of whether Macario shows up better than the attack they had last year? Kind of. Yeah, I think they're going to be a little bit more direct. I think Cascurino is, you know, fantastic on the ball, fantastic 1v1. She looked a little bit better to me when she was the crossing option as opposed to the finishing option. And I think you fix that immediately by bringing Ludmila in. Duginia has been fantastic on the wings. And, you know, I spoke earlier a little bit about who were players learning from. You really want to have some experienced players for your young players to be mentored by. Who better for Trinity buyers to learn from than Ludmila? I mean, what a fantastic opportunity. Is buyers going straight into the 11? I think she might have to. Yeah. Yeah. Because the other option at the 9, well, depending on how you use the Ludmila, if you use her centrally or if you use her wide, but the ghost of Adriana Leon is just kind of hanging out there and like doesn't seem like I'd have all trusted very much. So let's play pros and cons a little bit with each scenario. Like what are the pros and cons of going with veteran presence like Leon? And what are the pros and cons of going with someone who missed what should have been her rookie year due to an ACL and might get thrown straight into the fire? My perspective is, and you know, this is a non-coach, is you're going to lose some matches anyway. You're going to have to get your young players experience anyway. Just get it done. Get it out of the way. And you kind of just get that monkey off your back a little bit and stop stop worrying about it. I think Leon definitely can still contribute a lot to this team, but she does really good when she's fairly still in the box and she doesn't have to create and she can finish. And I think buyers may offer a bit more options for creation. Have you got any indication from Idaho or anybody at the club or from what you saw in preseason games? Like how how buyers is going to going to slot in early on? I think we've actually had Ludmila at the nine. So I don't know. I'm a little skeptical if they're going to continue with what they've been doing. I kind of see Ludmila getting pushed wide and buyers coming in at the nine. I think that might be just enough of a change up for them. I don't think they want to show their hand fully at this point. I think we're sort of moving to the next portion of this, which is to say, play GM, play Camila Ashton for us for a minute. You have and we'll leave the Macario issue aside. You have a roster that still needs some filling out. I think a lot of that is Macario dependent, but you have the opportunity to add one type of player to strengthen this team. What kind of player? What kind of role are you looking to fill? I would probably go for a fullback on the left or right side. I'm not that fussy, but I would like someone with a bit more size. I'm a little bit concerned about having two undersized fullbacks because at five feet, you're going to be really great at racing up and down the lines. You're going to be really great at covering angles. It's going to be a little bit harder for you to dispossess an opponent because you literally have to stick your leg out further in order to do. A nice tall fullback, I think, would go a long way, but I thought we had one of those with areas. We didn't mention Daniel Arias earlier. Age 31 season barely saw any time last year after she came over in the summer window. How should we expect anything from her in terms of playing time in tactical utilization here? I don't think so. I'm a little bit lost on that one. Maybe it's a bit naive to be like, hey, one tall on the right, one short on the left, that'll fix everything, but coaches know what they're doing. It's just something I'd like to see. Put yourself in the role of Yonish Aideval. You are sleeping on a bed of your own notes. What is keeping you up at night? What is the thing that is most concerning to you heading into the 2026 season? Despite the inevitable lower back pain. I think strength of schedule might be a little bit concerning for me. San Diego had a really tough stretch in the middle. There's some strong opponents in there, so I think it's consistency. That would be my issue based on what I saw last season. It's like, I can get this team going. I can get them started. How do we continue developing as the season goes on? Racing Louisville was able to run their gauntlet last year, but then again, racing Louisville just as soon as punching in the mouth and trying to string pretty passes together. The challenge for the way of is very different. Six place last year, the quarter final loss and extra time to Portland. The underlying data basically said six was about right. No over underperformance in the aggregate there. The American soccer analysis projection model pegs them for ninth place in 2026, but the spread between them and the playoff teams just ahead of them in that model is incredibly tight, just a couple of points. So for you, Brydie, where are the San Diego wave in the table come November? I think this might be a bit of a fanalyst take, but I'm going to say eight. I feel like this team is too good and has performed too well in the past to not make it into the playoffs. I think they've got that band of players, but like even if you unfortunately have landed on of it as your coach, you're going to figure out a way to get it done and play good football. So yeah, I'd like to see him sneak in. I too have them eighth. I mean, obviously I think this healing is a lot higher if they add Macario, but even if they don't add Macario, losing Hannah Loonfist is huge, but and so is Kaelin Sheridan, but like there is a lot of talent on this roster and a lot of talent that feels like can take steps forward. And this was already a pretty good team and has a very distinct form of play. So I just feel like eighth place is kind of like their media and outcome. I have them 11th and I don't love that. You went 13th on them last year. Yeah, they're going great. There were good reasons at the time. The reasons I have for them being 11th, I don't know if the argument is quite as strong and I may have backed myself into a corner with some picks just ahead of them if I'm being honest, but if I would make the argument for 11th place, it is simply that their defense is nowhere close to what it was in past years. I mean, we can go even further back with Germa leaving. None of the all stars that occupied that backline are here anymore. The continuity of the San Diego defense comes from some of their weaker components. And so I grow very concerned about them trying to keep the ball out of the net, especially with Ken Zadalia, a year older and despite her promise, Lorina Fuzer potentially getting thrown into the fire herself and being asked to soak up a lot of defensive burden in central areas. So that really makes me worry. And I think this is also the one ranking besides maybe Boston, where we just don't know anything about how that's going to go. This is the one ranking where that spot could shift pretty quickly depending on how the Makario situation shakes out. Because if Makario is there, there's probably a lot of defensive frailty you can get away with just because of how many calls you're going to score. I think to your point, actually, the the basement here for the San Diego waves is actually quite low, particularly like if things like Makario don't come off and then you're just really kind of thread bare. That reality is striking. Where do you see the range of outcomes for them? Like imagine like the 90th percentile they grab Makario. Like what's the best version of the wave and what's the worst version of the wave you see? Yeah, I mean, worst, I do think you could potentially be like bottom quarter of the league. I think one stat that really stands out to me is if you look at individual goal scorers and you rank them by team, wait for a second till last on that last season. Like they scored by committee. That to me is a problem. Like they need a real goal score. Ludmila should be an easy fix for that. We should be able to improve on last season. But I am worried about defense. I'm worried about being experienced. I'm worried about the youth. I think between those two factors, fourth seeding for playoff feels maybe like highest and you know, 12th, 14th maybe lowest. Did you know, Ludmila Makario front line by the end of that? And then you have buyers getting in the mix if she can hit some potential. Like the attacking elements of this team are very delectable. You don't always get to say that about a unit side of all side. So we're all through the looking class, I think at this point with the San Diego wave. We are so happy that you were able to come back Friday and we're very happy that you were able to talk about your hometown club. You can follow Bridey on social media at Bridey O and watch everything that she produces on YouTube at busy watching women's soccer, Brideo tool. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be sure to do all the things you're supposed to do with podcasts. Rate us five stars. Drop a kind review in your pod catcher of choice. And follow along with the feed if you haven't done so already. Tell all of your friends about us if they don't know about the show up to this point. And if you want to follow us on social media, you can do so at X own goals. That's the letter X own goals on all social platforms. Keep your eyes out on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for a lot of cool exclusive video content there. And if you believe we've made an own goal, please email us at X O G at X own goals.com. That's the letter X O G at the letter X own goals.com looking forward to our next season preview very soon.