Trinity Byars Scores Twice and Kenza Dali Wins It as San Diego Wave FC Rally Past Racing Louisville

At halftime on Friday night, Racing Louisville had everything it wanted: a two-goal lead, a goalkeeper in rhythm and a San Diego crowd that had watched its team pepper the Louisville goal for nothing. Forty-five minutes later, the Wave had turned the whole evening inside out.

Trinity Byars scored twice, captain Kenza Dali came off the bench to bury the winner in the 80th minute, and San Diego Wave FC rallied to beat Racing Louisville FC 3-2 at Snapdragon Stadium. Lauren Milliet and Taylor Flint had put the visitors up 2-0 inside 23 minutes, but the Wave finished with 32 shots, 10 on target and the kind of comeback that makes a late kickoff worth the coffee.

Racing Strikes First, Then Again

Louisville came out with a plan, and the plan was to press. Emma Sears had three looks in the opening five minutes, forcing Sandra Paños into a save on the first, and Kayla Fischer nearly headed in a corner in the eighth.

The breakthrough came in the 12th minute. Racing won the ball high, Fischer squared it, and Milliet hammered a left-footed finish from the middle of the box straight past Paños. San Diego answered with a flurry, with Mimi Van Zanten and Byars both getting shots away from in close, but Louisville struck again from a set piece in the 23rd. Off a corner, Wright redirected the ball across goal from the back post, and Flint poked it in from point blank range.

The rest of the half belonged to San Diego and to Jordyn Bloomer. Byars forced a save in the 30th minute, Lia Godfrey tested Bloomer a minute later, and Kennedy Wesley had a shot stopped right before the break. Van Zanten headed wide in stoppage time. The Wave went into the locker room down 2-0 with nothing to show for their dominance except a stat sheet.

The Turning Point

Head coach Jonas Eidevall sent on Kimmi Ascanio for Laurina Fazer at halftime, and it took the Wave all of two minutes to change the mood. Van Zanten found Byars, and the forward drilled a right-footed shot from outside the box into the bottom left corner in the 47th minute. It was Van Zanten's first assist as a professional, per the Wave, and it flipped the energy in the building.

Racing felt it. "Obviously, really proud of the group to go up 2-0," Racing head coach Bev Yanez said. "I think what hurt us the most was how early we conceded in the second half."

The Siege

The Wave kept coming in waves. (Sorry. It was right there.) Ascanio fired twice in the 51st minute, Ludmila forced Bloomer into a save from long range in the 53rd, and Wesley headed wide moments later. Louisville had a brief spell of pressure in the mid 50s, with Quincy McMahon twice shooting from distance, but the visitors also picked up yellow cards for Fischer and McMahon within a minute of each other.

Dali entered for Laila Harbert in the 63rd minute, and the equalizer arrived in a frantic 76th. Dali crossed for a Wesley header that was blocked, Bloomer saved from Ludmila, and Byars poked home from close range in the corner-kick chaos.

Four minutes later, it was complete. Dali had already dragged one shot wide and seen Byars blocked off her pass when she tried again from outside the box, and this time her right-footed strike found the bottom left corner. The goal came 17 minutes after she stepped on the field. Flint nearly answered with a drive from distance that just missed in the 82nd minute before leaving through injury, and Ludmila hit the right post deep in stoppage time.

Star Turns

Trinity Byars: Two goals from six shots, three of them on target. Her ninth and 10th goals of the season are the most by a Wave player in 2026, according to the club, and they make her the second player in club history with double-digit goals in a single season, joining Alex Morgan, who scored 15 in 2022. The Wave said she has four goals and two assists over her last two matches.

Kenza Dali: Two shots, one goal, three points. It was her first goal of the season, per the club, and the definition of an impact sub.

Jordyn Bloomer: Seven saves in a losing effort, and she did not sugarcoat it. "But to be able to beat a team like that it needs to be a great performance, and I just don't think we had that on the night," the Louisville goalkeeper said.

Ludmila: Seven shots, three on target and a post. Everything but a goal.

Lauren Milliet: Her opener was her ninth goal contribution of the campaign, according to Racing, and her fourth across her last three games. "It's not easy to score goals in this league, so I think anytime you can score more than one, two goals, I think is incredible," she said.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: San Diego 32, Louisville 13.
• Shots on goal: San Diego 10, Louisville 3.
• Possession: San Diego 71.9 percent.
• Saves: Bloomer 7, Paños 1.
• Corners: San Diego 11, Louisville 6.

What It Means

San Diego improves to 12-3-7 with 39 points and capped an unbeaten three-game home stretch in which it went 2-0-1 and scored eight goals, per the club. The Wave said it was their first home win in NWSL play after trailing at halftime since Oct. 17, 2022, and their second comeback from two goals down this season, following a 3-2 win over Denver on April 25. San Diego also leads the league with seven goals from substitutes this season, according to the club. Next up is a trip to Seattle Reign FC on Sunday, Sept. 6.

Louisville falls to 7-2-13 with 23 points. It was Racing's second straight defeat after a club-record four-game win streak, and the club said it remained 13th, five points back of the final playoff place, heading into the weekend. The good news is the attack keeps humming: Racing has scored multiple goals in six straight matches and has 34 goals through 22 games, one short of tying the single-season club record set last year, per the club. Angel City visits Lynn Family Stadium next, and San Diego comes to Louisville on Sept. 25.

Closing Take

Racing wrote a perfect first act. San Diego tore up the script at halftime, handed the closing scene to its captain and rolled credits on a comeback built on sheer volume. Thirty-two shots is not a game plan you can bottle, but on Friday it was plenty.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes as reported by RacingLouFC.com; club notes from SanDiegoWaveFC.com and RacingLouFC.com.