San Diego outlasts Stars defense for 2-0 win
By Lesley Ryder
Playing three games in six days was always going to be difficult. The Stars ended their scheduling sprint with a 2-0 loss against a relentless attacking Wave FC side.
The field was in a perma-tilt towards the Stars goal from the beginning. San Diego’s Dudinha took control of the match from the first whistle, and tormented the Chicago defense with creative runs, and passes to the front of the Stars’ net. Chicago’s Jenna Bike did her best to keep Dudinha as far from the net as possible, but the Brazilian winger could not be stifled.
It was one battle after another for the Stars as San Diego completely controlled the ball, directing the pace and the flow in the first half like it was a Paul Thomas Anderson one-shot scene. Despite San Diego’s domination in virtually every measured statistic, the Stars kept a clean sheet going into halftime.
But in the second half, the Wave finally broke the dam. In the 56th minute, Perle Morroni fed the ball out wide to Dudinha, who sent a pass forward on the left side to an unmarked Lia Godfrey. Brianna Pinto pursued Godfrey, but had her momentum used against her Godfrey switched back to her right foot, leaving an opening to strike the ball past a diving Alyssa Naeher. It was Godfrey’s third goal in as many games.
In the 72nd minute, Mana Hayashi recovered the ball off of a San Diego throw-in, but immediately gave the ball away, passing it right to Dudinha. She slipped the ball to Melanie Barcenas, who fooled Kathy Hendrich and Bea Franklin with quick turn before unleashing a bar-down banger to put the Wave up 2-0.
The Stars continued defending for their lives, but they could not mount an attack against the Wave. When the stars could recover the ball, it was a pass or two before they gave the ball away. the defensive effort was valiant, and much better than what the team had to offer in the season opener against Angel City, but the attack was simply not there. They did not register a single shot on the until the 70th minute, when Nadia Gomes put a shot well wide of the net. In the third minute of stoppage time, Micayla Johnson finally registered the Stars’ first shot on net.
After the match Stars head coach Martin Sjogren told the media he was proud of the team’s hard work to defend a difficult opponent. “That was something we talked about before the game, to actually be able to look each other in the eyes afterwards and say that, at least we worked as hard as we can,” Sjogren said. “Today, we just played a team that were were better than us. And sometimes you also have to kind of—even if it's it's always disappointing losing—sometimes you also have to accept that the opponent is a better team.”
In a sense, the game went to plan for the stars. Sjogren explained they wanted to defend low, and they wanted to remain compact, and for the first hour of the match, they succeeded.
“We knew that, okay, if we're going to have to prioritize [between] opening up the central space or to let them have the like the wider areas, we prioritize to try to get them wide and then try to at least defend on the on the wide breakthroughs. And I think we did that.”
But Sjogren also knows the attack left more to be desired. When the team was able to recover the ball, it wasn’t long before they gave it away. “I think, once again, it could be a result of us being a bit tired, but also, like you said, like we were working really hard to kind of get hold of the ball and then, and then we just have to find the next level of this. And that is also keeping the ball when we win it.”
In happier news for the Stars, Kathy Hendrich made her 2026 debut after missing the first three games with a leg injury. Coming on in the 60th minute, she wanted to bring stability to the backline, and perhaps spark a comeback. “I wanted to win. We were down one-zero, of course I wanted us to score,” Hendrich said after the match. “[but] I was just happy to be back with the team, especially on the field.”
The German center back was impressed by San Diego’s attack. Though the team tried to eliminate passing combination options, the Wave kept finding ways to penetrate the Chicago zone. “They are just so good. So there will always be some actions against our goal. But defensively we couldn't have done much more.”
Rotations? Sort of
With three games in six days, one might expect to see the stars rotate players in and out of the Starting XI. Surprisingly, seven outfield players started all three matches, with Sjogren opting instead for early second half substitutions.
Brianna Pinto played a third position in as many games, and the backline remained mostly unchanged, save for Michelle Alozie, who was listed as questionable on the availability report after experiencing muscle tightness in Wednesday’s match.
“It's going to be a lot of the same starters, because we don't have a team, we don't have a squad with a depth that we can change 11 players and think that the quality is going to be the same. Because I don't think any team in the league has that type of that type of depth.” Sjogren said after match in explaining the lack of rotation.
If the stars depth is in trouble, it’s a self-inflicted wound. Successful teams in the NWSL are built to survive hard stretches of the season—whether it’s multiple games in a week, limited player availability, or both, if you’re the 2025 Washington Spirit.
The Stars built up some much-needed depth in the offseason, but have yet to really dig in and try new players at a time when it’s warranted. The team is choosing to move players around to different positions instead. Stanford first team All-American Elise Evans has yet to make her debut, even with center back Kathy Hendrich out with injury. U-17 youth standout Micayla Johnson is still getting garbage time minutes for the club while Jordyn Huitema is out with a hip injury. Instead, Sjogren and his staff have opted to move Brianna Pinto around at forward, and slot in Bea Franklin at center back-a position she has not played professionally.
It’s still early days for the 2026 season, but it doesn’t feel like much of a stretch to say the rearrangements aren’t working. In four matches, the Stars have been shut out three times, and have already given up ten goals—the most in the league. It’s not good enough for a team that wanted to “worship clean sheets” in preseason. If the Stars want to improve on their last-place finish, then they have to be bold enough to make changes.
Any good news?
They Stars come out of a difficult stretch of the season with their earliest win since the 2024 season. Was it against a KC Current side looking less and less like their shield-winning selves with every match day? Sure. But a win is a win.
Up next will be the Utah Royals, who are coming off their first win of the season against Boston, followed by the international break, where the team can hopefully take some much-needed time on the training pitch.