San Diego Wave are failing in their mission.
The San Diego Wave lose 1-0 in Portland, their third straight scoreless, a clear lack of improvement in the aftermath of Casey Stoney's firing, but it's more than that...
Jill Ellis felt that moving on from Casey Stoney would bring a necessary change to her San Diego Wave. Falling down the table, the Wave have suffered from a lack of scoring as Alex Morgan has regressed, continued meddling with Jaedyn Shaw’s position, and Maria Sánchez’s lack of production - just two assists in over 1000 minutes this season.
However, In the two matches since Casey Stoney’s sacking, the Wave have failed to score, over 300 minutes scoreless since Mya Jones scored in their 2-1 loss to Gotham last month. A run of form that highlights just how poor the club’s end product has been all season long.
San Diego’s struggle is not for a lack of chances, failing to score on two big chances throughout their loss in Portland. A match where they had ample opportunities to find themselves ahead - including a stellar pass from Sánchez in the final thirty minutes that saw Mya Jones finish just wide of Shelby Hogan’s goal.
“I’m gutted, I’m absolutely gutted for the players, for the staff, our fans, because we’ve got nothing for our troubles in the last few games,” interim manager Paul Buckle said. “We’ve put an awful lot of effort in both games, we’ve created chances and again tonight.”
The lack of finish guaranteed a continuation of their nine match winless streak, managing just five goals through that stretch.
Simply put, Ellis and Camille Ashton have some work to do heading into the summer break or risk wasting another stellar season from Kailen Sheriden.
Sheriden is currently third in the league in goals added with 1.98 g+, including a league leading 6.1 post-shot expected goals saved.
Something feels off in San Diego.
Maybe Stoney’s firing will be more like a Canary in a coal mine as opposed to the move that will make serious changes. A near impossible task for Paul Buckle to turn around with the Wave being built for Stoney’s staunch defensive style as opposed to something more transitional.
Some of the Wave’s lack of scoring is demonstrated by their collective finishing: scoring just twelve goals in a season where they’ve generated 19.3 expected goals but it’s a squad that still only ranks twelfth in goal creating actions.
Ellis and Ashton need to add a genuine creator in the midfield, someone to bridge the gap between a very strong defensive unit and what should be a strong attacking unit, but Ellis has seemed committed to her group, as seen by the decision to move on from Stoney.
"We are an ambitious club, we want to compete both domestically and internationally. Right now to qualify for the Champions League, the three criteria [are]: win the league, finish second in the league, or win the championship. Where we sit at the moment, we are limiting our opportunities, it's never all about numbers. It's also how it looks, how it feels, and for sure how it performs. In sport, we don't live in the past, it's how we perform in the moment. In this moment, we felt, and again it's very hard, an inflection point. So we made a very hard decision to try and begin a search for a new coach."
Jill Ellis on firing Casey Stoney
Outside looking in, Stoney’s firing is harsh (similar to the Bradley Carnell story from earlier this week), last year’s Supporter’s Shield winner wasn’t given much time to turn things around, and the lack of replacement has led to further frustration.
Luckily, as the NWSL heads towards their summer break, they have time to fix the roster if they see fit to head in that direction.
Ellis under fire for cultivating a toxic working environment.
Jill Ellis being a “tough boss” is nothing new.
USWNT stalwarts have long sounded off on their treatment under Ellis, players that span the spectrum from Hope Solo and Carli Lloyd to Ali Krieger and Sydney Leroux.
Krieger saying of Ellis’ departure in 2020, “I just felt like I was in such a better place and I’d moved forward that I didn’t want to take those steps back and be petty and hash this out, I think we both had grown in that two year period, maybe me more so than her. But I think it was, you’ve gotta take the high road for sure.”
Ellis’ behavior charged back into the conversation this week as a slew of former employees came forward with their experiences during their time in the Wave organization.
The allegations tell the story of a club failing in their stated mission:
“Our club’s vision is to be a force for good through the game of football and drive meaningful impact for women and girls not only on the field but in the workplace, at home, and in society.”
Former wave employees and collaborators; Brittany Alvarado, Jenny Chuang, Bernadette O'Donnell, among others, all came forward to tell their stories of working in the San Diego organization.
Alvarado saying, “On behalf of myself and my former colleagues, the treatment we experienced under club president Jill Ellis has been nothing short of life altering and dangerous to our health.”
While each story is equally damning - including allegations of impersonating an official SD Wave email to harass Alvarado - O’Donnell comes forward as the former Senior Communications Manager of San Diego Wave FC from June 2022 to Oct. 2023, a key member of the back office staff.
Her statement, “By the end, I had no hope for my life and didn’t want to be alive anymore most of the time. All of this was communicated to my boss (multiple times) and HR.”
A raw statement that harkens back to the discussions around Jill Ellis contained within the Sally Yates report to US Soccer in the wake of the Rory Dames and Paul Riley abuse scandals that rocked NWSL.
At the time, USWNT players had raised concerns of Riley’s behavior to both USSF president (at the time) Sunil Gulati and Jill Ellis, saying that both Riley and Dames had cultivated a toxic culture.
From the report, “For example, in 2014, National Team players reported to Gulati and Ellis that Riley and Dames “created a hostile environment for players” and verbally abused them during games. The feedback was distributed to Flynn, Levine, and Bailey. Bailey distributed the feedback about Dames to Arnim Whisler, owner of the Red Stars, who complained that the National Team players wanted “this league to shut down” and simply had an “axe to grind” with Dames.”
The lack of action from Ellis described in the report shares many commonalities with what former Wave employees have alleged. They experienced mental and emotional abuse within the workplace, generally felt the environment was incredibly toxic, and higher ups failed to take their concerns seriously when presented to them.
Ellis has pushed back on these allegations, telling the AP, “In addition, when appropriate, independent third parties have assisted us in evaluating our workplace. At no time have those evaluations uncovered any wrongdoing by the club.”
Ellis also mentions that third parties have been involved in looking into past complaints and that she feels the club has made mental health a priority.
Still, the cavalcade of responses led to a separate statement of support from Wave striker Alex Morgan.
The Wave have some work to do, but it seems clear that the league needs to investigate these allegations beyond the Wave’s original investigations.
Unfortunately, poor treatment of ancillary staff is all too common in the world of sports - especially in the NWSL where professional standards have changed drastically over the past decade. That doesn’t make this copacetic, Jessica Berman must make sure that clubs are treating their staff as well as they are treating their players, and that allegations are properly investigated.
The NWSL has made it known that they are taking these matters seriously, but it seems the league has not quite met the recommendations laid out in the NWSL/NWSLPA joint report.
