Gotham FC vs San Diego Wave preview: Continuing the move up the table

After a busy week that saw NJ/NY Gotham FC trade away a fan favorite and trade for a potential future fan favorite, they are back in action on Friday night when they travel to California to take on San Diego Wave FC. This is the first of three games this week, all of which are on the West Coast. They make a midweek stop in Vancouver and end the week in San Jose.

For Gotham, they enter this game in fine form, winning three games in a row and going five unbeaten in all competitions. This has seen them jump from eighth to sixth in the table, just two points away from a potential home quarterfinal playoff game with just seven games left in the regular season. At the time of writing, new acquisition Jaedyn Shaw will be available on Friday night, but most likely off the bench.

For San Diego, things have not been going their way recently. After a very strong start to the season, they have just one win in their last six games, and are winless in their last five home games, in which they have only managed to score two goals. While their strong start has seen them remain in third in the table, a loss on Friday night and a few other unfavorable results could see them drop to as low as seventh.

After what has been a somewhat difficult season for Gotham, they seem to have finally found their groove and have reached a place where the squad is playing at a pretty high level. While this year's team won't reach the heights of last year, this league seems to be wide open compared to last season, except for the Kansas City Current. Another win on Friday will further solidify Gotham's status as a playoff team. Here's a preview of Friday's game.

Gotham FC vs San Diego Wave preview

Date

The game will be played on Friday, September 12.

Time

The match is scheduled to begin at 10:00 PM ET, 7:00 PM local.

How to watch

The fixture will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.

Location

The game will be played at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California.

Weather

It looks to be a very comfortable night with temperatures in the high 60s throughout the course of the 90 minutes. Humidity will hover around 75-80% and wind speeds will be below 5 mph. Kickoff is scheduled after the expected sunset time of 6:58 PM local.

Injury report

Tierna Davidson (SEI – knee) and Ella Stevens (knee) continue to remain unavailable.

Players to watch

One player for Gotham who has had a really solid second half of the season so far is Gabi Portilho. The Brazilian international has a goal and an assist in her last four games, including the game-tying goal last week against Angel City FC. In addition, her general play has improved, and is an underrated reason behind the Bats' recent turnaround in form. If she can continue to play at this level and even see her goal contribution numbers go up, she will play a huge role in this team's move up the standings.

For San Diego, Delphine Cascarino is crucial to their success moving forward. The forward had three goals and five assists in 13 matches prior to joining up with France at the Euros, but since then, she has zero goal contributions in her last six matches. Obviously, this is not all on her, as San Diego's general level of play has dipped across almost the entire squad in recent matches, but this young squad does seemingly go as Cascarino goes and will look to her to lead this team moving forward. The sooner she can get back on track, the better for the Wave.

Prediction

Gotham FC will keep the good times going, and San Diego's goal-scoring struggles will continue as the Bats make their way out of California with a 2-0 victory. Goals will come from Portilho for the second straight game. Then, Esther González will score after last week, where Gotham managed their first win of the season without the Spaniard finding the back of the net.