WAVE DOMINATES IN OPENER AGAINST SAN DIEGO; MARCIO LEITE NOTCHES FIRST COACHING WIN.

The 7-time champion Milwaukee Wave opened the 25/26 campaign with a dominating performance against the San Diego Sockers Sunday afternoon at FrontWave Arena in Oceanside, California and new head coach Marcio Leite garnered his first win of his professional coaching career.

Final Score: Milwaukee Wave 8, San Diego Sockers 4.
BOXSCORE | GAMESHEET | REPLAY

“It’s very special and I’m honored to get my first win of my coaching career but let's make this about who really deserves the kudos; that’s the players,” exclaimed Milwaukee Wave Head Coach Marcio Leite. “You know, at the end of the day, we have been working extremely hard at training, but these guys played with a lot of heart, a lot of passion today. They were very disciplined to our game plan. That's something that we can definitely build on.”

It was a seesaw battle in the first half with each team essentially matching goal for goal. Alex Steinwasher, Oscar Flores*, Ricardo Carvalho, Ian Bennett and Max Ludwig scored Milwaukee Wave goals and went into halftime with a 5-4 lead.
*First Goal of Oscar Flores professional career. (2:55 / Q2)

“We made sure that the boys knew how to manage the game,” emphasized Coach Leite. “We didn't want to take a lot of chances or play into danger too much. We made sure that the defensive side was the main point.”

That certainly showed in the second half as the Wave held San Diego scoreless, and only allowing 10 shots; all blocked by goalkeeper William Banahene.

“Willie played great,” added Coach Leite. “He was good with his feet, he stepped up when we needed him the most. We always know that we can count on a lot of good saves from Willie.”

Banahene ended his night with 14 Shots Against, 4 Goals Against and 10 Saves for a .714% Save Percentage. After Sunday’s performance William is ranked 3rd among goalkeepers in the MASL behind Empire’s Brian Orozco and Baltimore’s Julian Rodriguez.

Second half, 4th quarter Milwaukee Wave goals were scored by Ricardo Carvalho, Oscar Flores** and Alex Steinwasher.
**Second Goal of Oscar Flores professional career. (7:35 / Q4)

“I thought Oscar (Flores) for his first game in the league playing against some of the top defenders; he played fantastic.,” said Coach Leite. “As for Man of the Match, it’s hard to choose; obviously you have Ian, you have Alex. There's a guy that played fantastic and didn't get a point, but Javi (Steinwasher) was fantastic on both sides of the ball. Another guy, Squid, Shawn (Azcueta) played amazing. I thought Tony (Walls) was fantastic defending their targets and target system. They have some of the best targets in the league. So it's hard to name one because overall, I cannot name one guy that played badly. Nobody was lazy. Everybody was very disciplined. It was just a great overall team win!”

Marcio and the team will celebrate this victory for a few hours on the West Coast and then it’s right back to business; as soon as the team arrives in Wisconsin, preparations begins for the Wave’s next game, and it’s a big one; against the rival Kansas City Comets on the blue turf at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, Missouri this Friday night. Sunday afternoon, the Wave takes on the Ambush in St. Louis.

“You know, it's always a battle when we play Kansas City and we’ve got some work to do,” said Leite. “But we’ve got travel and recovery ahead of us and then we’re going to really try to adjust and get ourselves prepared for our next two games.”

Milwaukee Wave at Kansas City Comets, Friday, December 12, 7:05pm CST from Cable Dahmer Arena.

Milwaukee Wave at St. Louis Ambush, Sunday, Dcember 14, 2:05pm CST from The Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri.

Watch both games LIVE! and for FREE! via MASLtv on YouTube, Victory+ or the National Soccer Network.

Lastly, when asked,” Will there be a little bit of celebration tonight for your first career coaching win?” Leite replied, “I'm sure the boys will. I'm an old man. I'm just going to eat and go to sleep because I'm more tired from coaching than when I was playing.”
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