Wave FC added Ludmila and shook up the roster. There might be another big name to come

When San Diego Wave FC takes the pitch at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday for its 2026 season opener against the Houston Dash, the club will look very different than it did at
the end of last season.

Over the past three months, the team has undergone a makeover that is nearly unheard of in professional sports. The club parted ways with nearly 10 veterans, but added the dynamic Ludmila to a squad that mixes savvy veterans and young up-and-comers.

And with a rumored blockbuster addition possible at midseason, the rest of the squad could end up forming one of the better starting units in the league – one that could find itself near the top of the table and pushing toward a deep playoff run. 

No longer on the squad are a number of players who either had been starters or logged significant minutes last season, even some who had been with the franchise since Wave FC’s 2022 debut season.

The departures include goalkeeper and team captain Kailen Sheridan, forward and Most Valuable Player award finalist Delphine Cascarino, midfielder Savannah McCaskill, defenders Hanna Lundkvist and Quincy McMahon and striker Kyra Carusa, a San Diego area native. Also gone are a handful of players who had lesser roles.

Some of them were released, others were traded and others’ contracts expired and weren’t renewed.

Player turnover in the NWSL is fairly common, but the number of players departing the Wave was unusual considering that the club had a winning record last season, at 10-9-7, and made the playoffs after missing out the year before.

Despite the predictions of NWSL pundits and observers in 2025, the Wave didn’t finish with one of the worst records in the league. Prior to last season, the Wave were considered to be in the early stages of a rebuild due in part to having a first-year head coach and a young-ish roster.

But the team overachieved and although its playoff run ended after just one match, there was little indication of the upheaval that came over the winter.

Yet following the departures, some talented newcomers came into the picture, most notably Brazilian forward Ludmila, a dynamic striker who fills the void left when Cascarino, who was the Wave’s top scorer last season along with Kenza Dali, elected to sign with a European team to be closer to her native France.

San Diego traded for Ludmila in mid-January, sending a sizable $800,000 transfer fee to the Chicago Stars; it could reach $1 million if certain undisclosed conditions are met.

For comparison, the record transfer fee for women’s soccer is $1.5 million. Paying more than half that is an indication of the Wave’s regard for Ludmila.

“Her versatility allows her to operate in multiple attacking roles, giving our coaches more tactical options in different game situations,” Wave FC Sporting Director Camille Ashton said at the time of the trade. “Her creativity and movement will enhance our ability to break down
defenses.”

In addition to Ludmila, the Wave also added a number of young veterans to their roster, including defender/midfielder Kiki Pickett, who signed a two-year deal through the 2027 season. Pickett, the fourth overall pick in the 2021 NWSL draft, has 68 league appearances (51 starts) with three goals and two assists across her professional career.

All three goals came during her two-year stint with Bay FC from 2024-25. In addition, as a player at Stanford, she won NCAA Championship titles in 2017 and 2019.

And just 10 days before their season opener, San Diego traded for veteran international forward Gabi Portilho. Portilho, who won the NWSL Championship last November with Gotham FC, was sent to San Diego in exchange for $175,000 in transfer funds.

In 2025, which was her first NWSL season, Portilho recorded three goals and three assists across 17 appearances (11 starts), becoming the first Brazilian player to score in her NWSL
debut.

Her addition means Wave FC now has three Brazilian players on its roster – Portilho, Lumila and Dudinha. And there’s speculation that a fourth could join them this summer.

ESPN reported in mid-February that Brazilian-American midfielder/forward Catarina Macario could move to the Wave from her current team, English Women’s Super League club Chelsea, once her contract is up when Chelsea’s season ends this summer.

Macario, who was born in Brazil and moved to San Diego with her family in 2011 when she was 12, is one of the best women soccer players in the world.

She played with Pickett from 2017-20, including on Stanford’s championship teams, and joined the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team after becoming an American citizen in late 2020. With the USWNT, she won a bronze medal at the COVID-delayed Summer Olympics in 2021, but missed the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics due to injury.

Macario joined Chelsea in 2023 and has scored 15 goals in 59 appearances since her arrival. She also has scored 16 goals in 29 appearances for the USWNT; however, she has missed extensive time with both clubs due to various leg and heel injuries.

The ESPN report said that she was offered a new contract to stay with Chelsea, but declined in order to return home and play in Southern California.

If the reports prove true, and a healthy Macario joins Wave FC at mid-season, then she, along with Ludmila, Dali and Dudinha, could push the squad to top the fourth-place finish the most optimistic observers predict for them in 2026. Gotham, Washington and Kansas City are still widely regarded as the top NWSL teams.

But to get to that point, it all starts Saturday with an early evening clash against Houston. The Dash finished with a losing record last season (8-12-6), four spots behind the sixth-place Wave, and isn’t projected to do much better this season.