The San Diego Wave have checked off one box on their to-do list. But they still have one big task left in 2023.
The Wave took home the NWSL Shield, finishing the regular season atop the league table with 37 points. But there is one more big trophy they have yet to win.
“Having this title, we want to continue to move forward, we want to win the whole thing,” star forward Alex Morgan said after Sunday’s regular-season finale. “The Shield is amazing, we’re going to celebrate that. But we also wanna have a championship as well and bring it to San Diego.”
No WNBA, NFL, NBA or NHL team resides in San Diego. The NFL’s Chargers – back when they played in San Diego – won an American Football League Championship in 1963. But no other major professional sports team has won a title for the city.
It’s the largest city in America to have not won the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup. (The MLB’s San Diego Padres won National League pennants in 1984 and 1998, but have never won a World Series.)
“I don’t know even in soccer or out of soccer if there have been many – or any – championships here in San Diego,” Morgan said. “So we want to be that team, we want to be the women’s team that leads San Diego to a championship.”
Both the semifinal match and the championship match will be hosted at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium, which could make the playoff run even more special.
Morgan also extended an open invitation to Taylor Swift for the postseason. The 12-time Grammy-winning superstar is a known friend of Morgan and a fan of the USWNT, and she has been spending a lot of time in recent weeks at Kansas City Chiefs games.
“There is an open invitation, always,” she said. “American football games are fun, but real football is more fun I think.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)
A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)