WAVE CRASH IN L.A., LOSING A WINNABLE NWSL CONTEST LATE

Angel City bookends McNabb’s goal to pull out a victory

Before the largest crowd to see them, facing their Southern California rival, the Wave had a good chance to tie or win, only to allow Angel City a short-handed goal that beat them, 2-1, Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Call it the first-place team’s most painful loss yet.

Uncharacteristic defensive breakdowns set up L.A.’s goals. The Wave created chances to break a 1-1 tie — before and after an opponent’s ejection in the 79th minute — but instead let an unmarked forward, Claire Emslie, score in the 81st minute to end first-place San Diego’s five-game unbeaten streak.

“They’re a good side,” Wave coach Casey Stoney said of fourth-place Angel City (5-4-2). “Having said that, we weren’t at our best and probably still should’ve taken points.”

A capacity crowd of 22,000 at Banc of California Stadium saw the home team go ahead in the ninth minute. Ali Riley, unguarded at left wing, ran to Jun Endo’s pass wide of the goal and sent a crossing ball that caromed off Wave keeper Carly Telford’s foot and between her legs. The sequence began when Angel City pressured Tegan McGrady into an errant pass that created a run for Sydney Leroux.

The Wave answered in the 59th minute on Kristen McNabb’s first goal this season, set up by Katie Johnson’s pass that went between a defender’s legs and squeaked past another’s foot.

But the combination of loose defense and imprecise offense — and perhaps, in Stoney’s estimation, too much adrenaline in response to the big crowd — sent the Wave (6-3-3) south on I-5 with their first loss since the 1-0 decision May 29 in Seattle. Despite fielding 11 players to Angel City’s 10, the Wave got outflanked, leading to the winning goal.

“You can’t defend like we did on the (second) goal,” said Stoney, whose club was third in fewest goals allowed. “We switched off. And, we’d already had a warning previous to that. So, it was defensively not very good for us. You can’t defend like that and expect to get points. I never fault the players’ effort. They did everything to try and get three points. We didn’t take our chances, and we didn’t defend well enough in key moments, and that’s why we lost the game.”

Stoney and players said the match provided numerous lessons going into Friday’s home game against Racing Louisville.

Given that Abby Dahlkemper, McGrady and Kelsey Turnbow all clouted long shots that struck a bar or post, one takeaway will be that it was a game of near misses.