Cal Sports Report

Alex Morgan's Tough 12-Day Stretch Continues with Friday Loss

Former Cal star Morgan again fails to score against Portland, extending her two-week run of bad luck

Jake Curtis

San Diego Wave FC forward Alex Morgan shoots during Friday's game against Portland
San Diego Wave FC forward Alex Morgan shoots during Friday's game against Portland / Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports
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The challenging two-week stretch former Cal star Alex Morgan has endured continued on Friday night when her San Diego Wave suffered a 1-0 loss to Portland and Morgan again filed to score a goal.

Let's lay out the string of adversity Morgan has faced over the past 12 days.

On June 24, Morgan's head coach with the Wave, Casey Stoney, was abruptly and surprisingly fired, never a good omen, especially for Morgan. Besides being Morgan's only coach in her time with San Diego, Stoney's children and Morgan's daughter, Charlie, had developed a connection with the assistance of their mothers.

Then on June 26, U.S. Women's National Team head coach Emma Hayes announced the U.S. roster for the Olympics, and to the surprise of many that roster did not include Morgan, who has 123 international goals, the most of any active American.

She was considered a borderline case to make the 18-player roster, but most experts expected Morgan's veteran presence to earn her a spot on the team. She was not even named one of the four alternates.

Two days later, on June 28, Morgan had a chance to score her first National Women's Soccer League goal of the season when she lined up for a penalty kick against Chicago. But she failed to convert the penalty, and the Wave lost 3-0.

Another blow came from out of nowhere on July 4, when Brittany Alvarado, the San Diego Wave's video and creative manager, accused Wave president Jill Ellis and the Wave organization of abusive behavior, saying Ellis fostered an environment “devastating” to emplyees’ mental health.

Ellis was the USWNT head coach while Morgan was a regular on the U.S. roster, and as a respected veteran, Morgan was obligated to respond:

The Wave and Ellis have vehemently denied the allegation and have theatened a legal response, which brought new distractions.

Between the missed penalty kick and the accusations against Ellis was Morgan's 35th birthday on July 2.

This all led up to Friday's road game against Portland. It appeared the Wave might escape with a draw before Izzy D'Aqila scored a goal for Portland in the 85th minute. It gave Portland a 1-0 victory and exdended the Wave's winless streak to nine games.

Morgan started and played the entire match and had two good chances to score. It appeared she had scored a tip-in goal in the first half, but that was waved off because of a close offsides call.

Early in the second half, with her left wrist in a brace as the result of a first-half injury, Morgan had another good chance to score but was unable to convert.

She has failed to score a single goal this season in the 10 NWSL games she has played. Two years ago she led the league with 22 goals and last year she had seven goals while helping the Wave to the best regular-season record.

Add in the ankle injury she suffered on April 19 that kept her out of action for a month, and you realize what a challenging few months it has been for Morgan.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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