Becki Tweed will be on the visiting bench when the San Diego Wave play Angel City FC on Saturday, leading her new club into BMO Stadium in Exhibition Park while Jonas Eidevall serves a one-game suspension. The matchup gives Tweed a quick return to Los Angeles, where she spent two seasons, served as Angel City’s interim head coach for the second half of the 2023 season and later held the permanent job before her dismissal in December 2024.
Tweed guided Angel City to the playoffs in that interim spell before being promoted in 2024, then joined San Diego a month after her exit. She now takes over a Wave side that entered last month’s international break at 4-1-0 and first place, only to come back 1-2-0 and slide to fourth in the NWSL standings. San Diego’s lone win after the break came against the Summit outside Denver, where the Wave rallied from a 2-0 halftime hole.
The other two post-break results exposed the same flaw. San Diego was held scoreless in losses to Portland and Bay FC, with Portland scoring 10 minutes into the April 29 match and Bay FC taking a 1-0 lead within the first five minutes on Racheal Kundananji’s goal. The back-to-back defeats dropped the Wave from first to fourth, and they are now tied with the Washington Spirit on points but trail Washington on goal differential, 3 to 8.
Saturday’s game will test whether San Diego can finish chances against an Angel City team that has its own absence to manage. Maiara Niehues will miss the first of two straight games after the NWSL assessed her a major game misconduct in Angel City’s 1-0 loss to the Utah Royals. On the field, the spotlight is likely to fall on Sveindís Jónsdóttir, who has been Angel City’s standout this season with three goals and two assists.
Tweed said the Wave have spent the week trying to settle themselves after a crowded stretch of games, stressing the need to keep things simple and find the joy. Melanie Barcenas said the objective is unchanged: San Diego wants to be a dynamic, attacking, creative team that adapts to every opponent. The difference now is execution, and the Wave know it.
That has been the thread through the last three matches. San Diego has controlled enough of games to create chances, but the finishing has not been there, and a rivalry match at BMO Stadium offers no margin for another slow start. For the Wave, the next step is plain: turn possession into goals before another result tightens the race around them.
