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Yahoo
a day ago
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Wave GM says they approached 2025 as a building year, now they're chasing the NWSL Shield
For the past year, San Diego Wave general manager and sporting director Cami Levin Ashton has been commuting an hour and 20 minutes each way to work from Orange County, where she grew up and where her family still resides, to the team's offices 70 miles south. Her move to Southern California from Kansas City last summer, where she was the KC Current's general manager, had been swift, and it helped to be closer to home as she made the transition. It also didn't hurt to lean on family to help out with her one-year-old child. Advertisement Ashton Levin inherited a club in San Diego that was up against multiple challenges on and off the field, from the abrupt firing of former head coach Casey Stoney to the retirement of U.S. women's national team forward Alex Morgan. Four months after she started, the Wave ushered in new ownership in the Levine Leichtman family, who completed their purchase of the team for a $120 million valuation last October. Things only got busier in January. The Wave hired ex-Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall, transferred defender Naomi Girma on a world record fee to Chelsea, sent attacking player Jaedyn Shaw to the North Carolina Courage and brought on international players including Kenza Dali of France, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu of Nigeria and Gia Corley of Germany. They also tapped into the top tier of the NCAA's talent offering in the NWSL's first offseason without a draft, bringing on Trinity Armstrong from the University of North Carolina, and signed goalkeeper DiDi Haračić from SoCal rival Angel City FC. The newness was raw and plentiful heading into this season, and despite the Wave making history as the first club to reach the playoffs in its inaugural year back in 2022, expectations were reasonably low for a team that finished 10th last season under two interim head coaches. Advertisement 'With so many new pieces, you just don't know how long that's going to take for it to come together, for them to blend and mesh and find this cohesion,' Levin Ashton told , reflecting on the offseason four months later. Yet as they approach their 11th match of the 2025 campaign, they sit second in the league table, four points behind the Current and a point above 2024 NWSL champions and finalists, the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit, respectively. They've scored 21 goals by 13 different players, and on May 25, set a new club record for most goals scored in a single match with their 5-2 comeback win over the Courage. 'With what we were building this year, we really believed in the group of players that we had, both existing from last season and the pieces we added,' Levin Ashton told . 'We also really believed in Jonas (Eidevall) and the staff that we brought on board to really build something special here.' One of the pillars of NWSL lore is the often abrasive introduction that managers from overseas experience during their first season in the league — and Eidevall, who arrived in San Diego after an underwhelming run with Arsenal, seemed especially primed for that quintessential rude awakening. But Levin Ashton said Eidevall's vision for the Wave throughout his interviews aligned with hers, sparking an interest in the possibility. Advertisement 'In looking at building the roster, if you see the way that we're playing, and obviously in hiring Jonas as the head coach as well, we want to be a team that possesses the ball.' But, Levin Ashton added, 'it's possession with a purpose, because we're not just possessing to keep the ball, it's ultimately to win games. We really emphasize recruiting players that really fit into the way we want to play the game.' Following that May 25 home victory over North Carolina, Eidevall, who was recently named NWSL Coach of the Month, spoke to the media about how the team learned from previous matches against NJ/NY Gotham FC and the Portland Thorns; both meetings exposed disparities between the degree to which they felt they controlled the game and the lack of goal-scoring opportunities they created. That was their primary mandate going into their game against the Courage, and he attributed part of the players' execution of that to the work of the Wave's technical staff. 'A week like this, they've been incredibly challenging in being like, 'What if we do that? That can be a problem,'' he said, reiterating the ways they first tried to imagine potential risks in the game to mitigate them. 'It's long days, and we go over film over and over and over again, but we play out the situation, we create a lot of clarity, and I think there is no shortcut to that, so I'm very blessed with having a strong technical staff that challenges and (supports), and I think that helps us as well, being prepared for the games.' Advertisement That club-wide buy-in also required Levin Ashton to dress some of the wounds from the previous season that needed tending to. As is typical for front-office staff getting settled in at a new team, she had frank conversations with veterans about where and how the club could improve. 'It's not a surprise and not something that we're shy to talk about, the disappointment at the club last season after successful seasons,' she said, referring not only to the team's performance but the jolt of Stoney's dismissal, and the ongoing discrimination lawsuit filed by former club employees, alleging multiple claims of discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and sexual harassment. Levin Ashton said that after a 'combination of my observations and my evaluations, and feedback I received from players, there was a need to raise some of the standards and that obviously comes with investment from ownership,' like upgrades to resources and facilities and expanding staff. Since then, the Wave have added dedicated meal and meeting spaces to their training center, and rather than constantly catering, the club hired a chef and is building out a kitchen. They're not direct responses to the broader issues exposed by last season's challenges — Levin Ashton did not delve into the specifics of conversations related to other aspects of players' dissatisfaction with the club — but they're attempts at reestablishing goodwill off the field to ensure sustainability on it. Advertisement It helps that soon, Levin Ashton will be moving to San Diego, reducing her commute from almost 90 minutes to 10 minutes to the Wave's training center, which will be crucial soon as she's expecting another child. But her vision and expectations of the team, no matter the distance traveled, remain unchanged. 'We set out this season knowing that this was a building year,' she said. 'But I don't mean we were going into the season with no expectations or no goals. I said this to the team and the staff from day one: Our expectation as a club is to be playing in November and fighting for a championship.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. San Diego Wave, Soccer, NWSL 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Mariona Caldentey elevated Arsenal on road to Champions League final
When Arsenal approached Mariona Caldentey in the summer of 2024, it was with occasions like Saturday's Women's Champions League final in mind. A three-time European champion with Barcelona, and a World Cup winner with Spain, the midfielder was seen as a figure with the talent, work ethic, charisma and trophy cabinet to help Arsenal to the next level. Her final game for Barcelona came in Bilbao, as they defeated Lyon to retain the Champions League. A year on, the last game of her first season at Arsenal will culminate in another Champions League final, this time against her former side. Just as Arsenal hoped, Caldentey has been pivotal to their run to their first Women's Champions League final since 2007. The 29-year-old scored in both legs of their semi-final victory over Lyon, as well as in the quarter-final comeback against Real Madrid. It seems so simple now, as if by design, but she has brought the winning mentality which resulted in 25 major titles during her 10 years with Barcelona. That feeling, Caldentey has said, is 'contagious'. 'Mariona is a winner in everything,' said the Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers. 'She is moving the culture forward.' Caldentey's first year in England, though, has not been without its challenges. If the signing of one of Spain's World Cup winners and one of the most successful players in Barcelona's recent dominance was a statement of intent from Arsenal at the start of the season, the first few weeks of their campaign brought a different reality. Jonas Eidevall was gone after just four games of the new Women's Super League season, and following a dismal 5-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stages. After a show of ambition, Arsenal were left trying to salvage something from their year. In truth, the arrival of Caldentey had also heightened expectations, with Arsenal wanting to match their progress off the pitch with improvements on it. Under Eidevall in the previous season, Arsenal had struggled against deep defences. Caldentey was a stylish midfielder who could quicken their pace and create some fluidity, but Eidevall's side continued to toil when tasked with breaking another team down. With Alessia Russo signed the year before, Eidevall had the pieces to build an attacking side, but they were too often too easy to slow down. In the end, it was the Swede who paid the price. What followed was a dramatic transformation under Slegers, who had been Eidevall's assistant. The Dutch coach made an immediate impact in terms of improving results, winning 11 of her first 12 games in charge and steering Arsenal into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but also in their style of play. Slegers had a good relationship with Arsenal's squad, who felt the pressure loosen as they started to click and hit their stride. In that initial 12-game unbeaten run, Arsenal also scored 36 goals. The league was gone, with Chelsea surging to the front under Sonia Bompastor and having the title all but wrapped up when they defeated Arsenal in late January. But there was still a major prize to contend for in the Champions League and Slegers had boosted Arsenal's chances considerably by recovering from that 5-2 defeat in Munich to win their next five games and qualify for the quarter-finals as group winners. That meant they would avoid Barcelona and Chelsea, and the draw had placed the continent's two strongest teams in the other half anyway. A chance to save the season had become a historic opportunity. By then, Slegers had also been appointed on a permanent basis, having impressed Arsenal with the manner in which she had turned their campaign around. The former Netherlands international, who retired from playing at the age of 29 due to injury, is composed on the touchline and her measured approach was particularly key in Arsenal's comeback against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals. Having lost 2-0 in the first leg on a 'disgrace' of a pitch, Arsenal returned to the Emirates requiring a huge comeback. By half time, Arsenal had dominated but made their way back to the dressing room with nothing to show for it. Other teams may have panicked; Slegers told her players that a breakthrough was coming. 'We stayed calm,' Slegers said. Arsenal re-emerged to blitz Real Madrid by scoring three goals in 14 second-half minutes. It was a good night for Slegers in another sense. Russo scored twice to underline the huge steps the England striker has taken this season to improve her output and overall game. Chloe Kelly came away with two assists, with the smile back on her face and the confidence restored after a difficult first half of the season at Manchester City. Arsenal spotted an opportunity to sign the winger on loan in January and Kelly has returned to form. Slegers also worked out how to get the best out of Caldentey in her Arsenal team, after the Spaniard spent the first half of the season switching between the wings and No 10 without ever settling. In the second leg against Madrid, Slegers pulled Caldentey deeper into midfield alongside Kim Little and the former Barcelona star was irrepressible, leading the press off the ball and taking responsibility with it. Her influence in the team has grown since she was brought into the heart of it. And now Caldentey is a game away from where she was a year ago. In the comeback against Lyon in France, Arsenal were gifted a way back into the semi-final by their generous hosts, before Caldentey produced the moment of the tie with her curling shot from the edge of the box to give them the lead for the first time. It was the touch of class, alongside that winner's mentality to take the initiative, that Arsenal required. In Lisbon, she will face friends, former teammates and the club she signed for at the age of 18. Her decision to leave a dominant team was to experience something new – and now she is the example. 'What I learnt is talent is not enough,' Caldentey said of her time at Barcelona last month. 'You need to work hard, to be fit, to be ready for the battles. It's not easy and it takes time. It takes teamwork. That's what we are building now. I can feel it. We need to believe in what we are doing, in the Arsenal way. We are on the way.'
BBC News
12-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'No regrets' - Eidevall on Arsenal exit, losing fans and move to NWSL
It has been five months since Jonas Eidevall unexpectedly decided to walk away from his position as Arsenal the 42-year-old is looking forward to a new chapter in the United States as head coach of NWSL side San Diego Wave, with the season getting under way this tells BBC Sport about the reasons behind his Arsenal exit, why he has no regrets over letting record goalscorer Vivianne Miedema leave and the challenge facing him in the NWSL. During the Swede's three years at Arsenal he guided them to three consecutive top-three finishes but the closest they came to unseating Chelsea as Women's Super League champions came in his first campaign when they ended a point adrift of the claimed the club's first trophy in four years when they won the League Cup in 2023, and they retained it the following year, but further silverware eluded final game came against the side which had proved his biggest nemesis, Chelsea, as he oversaw a 2-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium in front of increasingly disillusioned supporters."I thought the easiest quick fix in this moment here now is for me to step away," he says."It was extremely tough, both for me personally - my family of course - but also professionally. It's a privilege to be leading a club like Arsenal."It's very special when you're there, so an extremely difficult decision to make." The departure of striker Miedema, who scored 125 goals and provided 50 assists in 172 appearances, to Manchester City during the summer had piled the pressure on Eidevall before the season had even has previously spoken to Sky Sports, external about how he "lost quite a lot of my relationship with the supporters" when he decided not to renew Miedema's contract, so does he have any regrets?"I don't. I think you always take the best decisions as you can make for the club at that point with the information that you know," he says."You can't rethink decisions based on new information that you could not have known at that time. That's not a helpful way of thinking about life. So no regrets. "I do think that that decision was a big part in my relationship with the supporters [deteriorating]."I never took any decision to be liked. I always took decisions because I felt they were the best for the club and for the team," adds Eidevall, who signed Spain World Cup winner Mariona Caldentey as a replacement."But the problem is when you take those decisions and you don't get the results then of course it very much spirals." 'The club agreed with my decision to leave' Strong results did not north London club were sixth in the WSL after winning just one of their opening four games, while they suffered a demoralising 5-2 defeat at Bayern Munich in the Champions League three days before that defeat at home to Chelsea, where some fans could be seen clamouring for his sacking by waving P45 on the Monday after that match, Eidevall informed the club of his intention to step whether the club were surprised, he says: "Yeah I think so."Yet it ended up being a quick process, explains Eidevall, who had not told the club he wanted to leave the next day, but that's when his departure was announced."They were onboard with that decision [to leave], which very much told me that if the club is onboard with that decision it's 100% the right decision to walk away," he adds."So that gave me that little bit extra sense of clarity in where we were at."With time to reflect on his departure, he looks back on his spell in north London fondly, focusing on the "immense growth" the team went through off the pitch."Both my mission - and also the club's - was to make sure that Arsenal was back to the top of the women's game," he says."I think you can argue on a lot of levels right now Arsenal are that, with having the Emirates as the main home, having really, really good attendances both home and away, having much-improved facilities and staffing around the team, and having a team that has a better mix of youth and more experienced players."That part is really good, and I can see my part that I played in that."On the pitch, he says that "you can argue quite fairly" that Arsenal were the second-best team in the UK behind Chelsea during his time as manager, if you take all the competitions into account."When you see the resources - with player salaries and other costs around the team - Chelsea are by far the biggest spender and it reasonable that they are also the best team," Eidevall says."To be above [Manchester] City and below Chelsea is probably a reasonable result to get from what was invested."Would I have liked to get a league title? Yes, very much. Then I would have been very, very happy with the results." Eidevall facing 'complete rebuild' at Wave Eidevall was announced as the new San Diego Wave head coach in January, becoming the permanent replacement for former England captain Casey Stoney, who was sacked in says after leaving Arsenal "there was quite a bit of interest immediately from various club teams and national teams" and he spoke to a few different clubs, including San "long-term vision" at the Californian club really appealed to him, as well as the "competitiveness" of the NWSL Eidevall is joining a league undergoing big changes,, external with this year the first time there will be no annual draft - making it the first major US professional sports league to abolish the draft system and aligning the competition closer to other women's football leagues around the club are also going through a period of transition having lost two of their biggest names - Naomi Girma to Chelsea and Alex Morgan to retirement - and they navigated the second-half of the season without a permanent describes Girma as an "irreplaceable player" but says the defender was "set on leaving" before his despite the huge turnover of players at the club, he says the team's goal should still be "to reach the play-offs" at the end of the season."It feels like a complete rebuild to be honest," he says. "That's the challenge but also the opportunity."
