Canadian goaltender Kailen Sheridan was front and center as San Diego’s wave of the National Women’s Soccer League beat Southern California rivals Angel City FC 1-0 on Saturday while setting a league attendance record league of 32,000 supporters.
The Wave, an expanding club in 2022, opened the all-new Snapdragon Stadium on San Diego State University’s Mission Valley campus.
Saturday’s game marked the first time the NWSL attendance topped 30,000, surpassing the previous record of 25,218 by a 2019 game between hometown Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage at Providence Park.
The new home of The Wave will have three anchor tenants, including San Diego State Football and Major League Rugby’s San Diego Legion.
Before Saturday, the wave had spent its expansion season at the 6,000-person Torero Stadium at the University of San Diego.
absolute scenes in san diego. pic.twitter.com/dFiKAFGc9d
Sheridan, a stalwart of Canada’s National Women’s Team, proved essential to the wave in front of the record crowd, stopping four shots, including a sprawling penalty save on Savannah McCaskill in the 74th minute to maintain the 1 -0 from San Diego.
The penalty save was Pickering, Ont. the native’s third of the season in six attempts, the most of any NWSL goaltender.
WATCH | Sheridan saves the penalty, saves the shutout:
Whitby, Ont., Whitby native Kailen Sheridan of San Diego Wave FC saves a penalty from Angel City FC’s Savannah McCaskill in a 1-0 win.
With the victory, the Wave climbed to the top of the NWSL standings with two weeks remaining, ahead of the Houston Dash, home of Canadians Sophie Schmidt, Nichelle Prince and Alysha Chapman.
The Wave still has one regular-season home game on Sept. 30 against the North Carlina Courage before likely staging a home playoff game in front of what could be another sold-out crowd.
Canadians play big minutes
Sheridan’s shutout led the Canadian contributions in all four games on Saturday night, but five other Canadians took the field in NWSL play.
Meanwhile, Jordyn Huitema played 90 minutes and took two shots for OL Reign, with Quinn appearing as a substitute in the club’s 2-1 win over North Carolina.
The NWSL regular season ends Oct. 2, with the top six in the 12-team league advancing to the playoffs. However, with two game days to go, neither team clinched a spot, as only nine points separate first-place San Diego and eighth-place North Carolina.
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