What it was like
San Diego Wave FC host their May 15 NWSL home match at Snapdragon Stadium — a mid-May Friday evening in Mission Valley that represents one of the most genuinely enjoyable live sports evenings in San Diego. The Wave play a technically demanding, pressing style that creates chances in sustained waves and tests opposing defenses for 90 minutes without relenting. Snapdragon's bowl holds 35,000 and on Friday evenings the lower deck fills with a crowd that has grown markedly more knowledgeable about the sport over the club's three seasons. NWSL football in San Diego plays at a level of technical quality that surprises first-timers — the pace, the pressing intensity, and the individual quality in each lineup are genuinely comparable to mid-table European leagues. The Wave are not mid-table anything. May 15 at Snapdragon is an easy decision.