It was almost a game you’d want to forget.
The San Diego Wave allowed four goals to the North Carolina Courage Sunday evening — the local club’s most since September 2022.
But the 26,500-plus fans most likely will long remember the match as soccer star Alex Morgan’s last game.
But the Courage blew out the candles of Morgan’s celebration cake by repeatedly passing through the Wave’s defense at Snapdragon Stadium.
The first Courage goal by Haley Hopkins came as early as the fourth minute off a corner kick.
In the eighth minute, Morgan had the opportunity in a penalty kick to score her 61st NWSL goal, but it was denied by North Carolina keeper Casey Murphy.
In the 13th minute, Wave forward Kennedy Wesley scored her first goal for the local team, tying the score.
It was fittingly in that 13th minute that Morgan, Number 13, left the pitch for the last time. Morgan handed her captain’s armband to goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan.
Morgan announced her retirement Thursday with news that she was pregnant with a second child.
She took off her cleats, waved to the fans and fought back tears.
But a second, third and fourth goal – in the 20th, 45th and 94th minutes — would make it too difficult for the Wave to mount a comeback.
More was lost in a hot end-of-the-summer match as goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan was dismissed with a red card in the 60th minute after a collision with an opponent approaching the net. It was substitute goalie Hillary Beall’s first match for the Wave.
Morgan’s family joined her on the pitch in a pre-match celebration.
Signs throughout the stadium expressed fans thankfulness to and love for Morgan. One sign read, “We drove 26 hours for her to meet her idol” and another, “I want to follow in Alex’s cleats.”
Interim head coach Landon Donovan said he was sad Morgan didn’t get her final goal and the team lost so disappointedly.
Asked how Morgan contributed to the growth of women’s soccer, Donovan said the crowd size – “What she meant to people” — was emblematic of her impact.
Then he told how his daughter came into his office before the match, asking for spelling help to make a sign for Alex. So Alex made her daughter a fan of the game.
“It’s sad to see her go honesty,” he added. “I don’t think there will be another one like her.”
“What a ride it has been,” she said after the game, thanking her teammates and fans, who she said pushed her to be the best player and person she could be.
Morgan’s daughter, four-year-old Charlie, walked a large bouquet of flowers to her during a celebration after the match.
The Wave’s record fell to 3-7-9 (7 points) with seven more games to play and remain in 12th place. North Carolina is 10-1-8 (31) and is in fifth place.
San Diego next travels to Salt Lake City to face the Utah Royals FC at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, before returning to Snapdragon on Wednesday, Sept. 18, against the Portland Thorns.
