A year ago, San Diego Wave FC won the NWSL Cup for having the best regular season record ... but NJ/NY Gotham FC won the National Women's Soccer League championship. It's not a bad idea to have these two titans kick off a brand new season against one another.
San Diego and NJ/NY (I hesitate to call them Gotham again because Batman's creators actually envisioned Gotham City as an amalgam of New York City, Chicago, and London and not just the Big Apple BUT I DIGRESS) open the 2024 campaign Friday night on the east coast in the Challenge Cup. The Wave have finalized their roster and it is definitely not short on talent.
Goalkeepers (3): Hillary Beall, Morgan Messner, Kailen Sheridan
Defenders (8): Abby Dahlkemper, Sierra Enge, Naomi Girma, Hanna Lundkvist, Kristen McNabb, Kaitlyn Torpey, Kennedy Wesley, Christen Westphal
Midfielders (3): Danny Colaprico, Savannah McCaskill, Emily van Egmond
Forwards (9): Amirah Ali, Melanie Barcenas, Elyse Bennett, Kyra Carusa, Makenzy Doniak, Sofia Jakobsson, Mya Jones, Alex Morgan, Jaedyn Shaw
Nearly half of this group has experience playing for their country's national teams and it probably won't take long for another one to make that claim. 16-year-old Melanie Barcenas, a Claremont native, made her NWSL debut a year ago and is the youngest player ever to play at America's highest level of professional soccer.
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
The Challenge Cup starts at 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time and will be streamed on Prime Video.
