How the San Diego Wave finally made a Brit watch soccer

There is a cultural expectation that all Brits follow the English Premier League. But Geo Collins found soccer through the NWSL, the San Diego Wave and the story of women’s soccer in the US.

Until a few weeks ago, the name ‘San Diego Wave’ meant nothing to me. You could have asked me what I felt about them, and I’d have bashfully tried to kill time while secretly Googling their name, checking that they weren’t a team in a different sport I’d just suddenly forgotten about. The way I’d discovered them was through that truly serendipitous experience of the modern world: Instagram.

Intrigued by their branding and posts, I gave them a follow, not necessarily expecting to become particularly invested. I was a hockey girl, and kicking a ball on a pitch simply wasn’t that interesting or novel to me. Born and raised in the UK, I was used to being surrounded by soccer (or, as we call it, football); where local parks in the US guaranteed at least one baseball diamond, in my country it was a soccer pitch. Even average-sized towns came equipped with stadiums of at least 10,000 seats. Soccer was ubiquitous in the UK, and thus I found it kind of boring.

But just one Instagram follow was enough to make me see a different side of soccer — a side that offered something new from the ingrained culture in which I’d grown up. Through the San Diego Wave’s social media, US women’s soccer just looked… cool. There was something strange about being drawn in by the relatability factor and desire to root for these strangers, but for a sport I’d mostly spent my life ignoring.

This feeling was certainly exacerbated by the knowledge of the story of US women’s soccer in recent years. The winning of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups sent worldwide ripples, an acknowledgment of the country’s female dominance in the world’s most popular sport. Figures like OL Reign and USA captain Megan Rapinoe proved a beacon of visibility for women’s soccer, reaching the very crypts of former disinterest across the globe.

And even beyond just the victories on the pitch, the 2022 equal pay lawsuit had proven an arguably bigger victory for the future of the sport. World Cup prize money would be equally distributed amongst the squads, and $22 million of back pay would be returned to the women’s team. In the 50th anniversary year of Title IX, this felt like a particularly poignant win for women’s soccer. One which meant the world to the people already within it, and opened a new world to the people who were not.

The San Diego Wave just converted a new fan

The only time I ever really watched soccer was when England were playing. The World Cup or Euros was a sort of national shared experience that was always fun to be a part of, but I certainly didn’t care to watch the Premiere or Champions Leagues. But, I decided I would give the NWSL a go. As an international viewer, I was thrilled to learn that it was broadcast on Twitch. There was something very endearing and exciting about a Twitch chat, sharing in the experience with me as I embarked into this new universe for the first time.

And I really enjoyed it. It was different to hear American voices on the mic and no ridiculously insulting chanting, but it really felt like there was passion and love in that game. I adored watching these women be so impressive in a sport that I’d mostly only seen men play, and hearing their stories be told as they made the pitch their stage.

As the Wave faced off against the NY/NJ Gotham, I started to pick out the names and faces I recognized from seeing them online. Names like Alex Morgan, the team’s current and country’s former captain, who had made her name at Cal and been drafted No. 1 overall in 2011 by the New York Flash, later becoming one of the only female faces to adorn the cover of a FIFA game.

And then there was Taylor Kornieck, a high-school All-American who was drafted third overall by the Orlando Pride after her college tenure with the Colorado Buffaloes and has become something of the Peter Crouch of women’s soccer: you can’t talk about her without mentioning her height. And how about Carly Telford, the English goalkeeper who’s had stints on Leeds United, Sunderland, Chelsea and Notts County, before emigrating to the US in 2022 to join the Wave after being sold by Chelsea.

I made sure to tune back in when San Diego faced the Washington Spirit on July 3 on home soil. It was still so hard to believe that this team had not known life outside of the domain of 2022, given the full stands of San Diegans celebrating every success of the women on the pitch. When Makenzy Doniak scored the opening goal, that crowd erupted. And here I was in my home in the UK, wishing I could be erupting with them.

It’s a league I can say I never expected to take interest in, and yet my piqued curiosity of the San Diego Wave has led me into the world of the NWSL. Me wanting to watch soccer — a task that nearly 26 years of being a British national had failed to make me do and yet had been achieved by a brand new women’s franchise on the other side of the world. The genuineness of it all, and the fact I wanted to see these women kill it out there, had really drawn me in.

It is a blossoming scene. Not a new one, but an increasingly visible one. There are so many stories yet to be played out about these players, both on the domestic and international stage, and this one team made me want to follow them. And now having taken back their spot at the top of the league table, you can be sure I will continue to cheer, from my home in the UK, for the San Diego Wave.