The San Diego Wave won the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League Shield on Sunday after a comfortable 2-0 win over Racing Louisville combined with Angel City FC’s 5-1 thrashing of the Portland Thorns in Los Angeles.
Clinching the Shield in just their second year of play in the NWSL is a huge accomplishment, to say the least, but it’s still not a huge surprise that the Wave could accomplish this feat considering the massive amount of success the club has already seen. During the team’s inaugural season in 2022, the Wave made history as the first expansion team to make the playoffs. Now, San Diego has done it again by becoming the first true expansion team to win a Shield in any season.
“I was just thinking, ‘f*** yeah,’ just so proud of this team,” Wave forward Alex Morgan said postgame. “It’s quite an accomplishment to be able to do this in the second year for an expansion team.”
Morgan scored the Wave’s second goal two minutes after halftime, doubling the tally that Jaedyn Shaw gave San Diego in the first half.
