Former Arsenal and Tottenham coaches set to face off in NWSL | OneFootball

Juan Carlos Amoros (Gotham FC)

When San Diego Wave host Gotham FC this weekend, for some onlookers there may be something other than NWSL points at stake.

The Wave’s Swedish head coach Jonas Eidevall is perhaps best known for his tenure at Arsenal – while Gotham’s Spanish head coach Juan Carlos Amoros spent almost a decade in charge at North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Amoros has now been in post at Gotham for almost three years, and has already enjoyed significant success, leading his team to the championship in 2023 and the CONCACAF Champions Cup earlier in 2025.

Gotham are currently sixth in the table, but only three points behind the Wave, who are third – plus they currently have a better goal difference, of +8, the best of any team in the league beyond leaders Kansas City Current.

So a win at San Diego – who have lost two out of their last three matches – would give Amoros’s team a significant boost.

“We’re very excited about San Diego,” Amoros told a press conference on Thursday. “It’s a great team. They’ve done a fantastic job this season with Jonas, and the chemistry of how they do things. For us, it’s going to be definitely a challenging game, but one that we feel we’re ready for.”

Juan Carlos Amoros: It’s a game of fine margins

He reflected on a busy schedule, which in recent weeks has included a 2-0 away win at Orlando Pride, and a 3-1 home victory over Angel City: “I’m happy with the team. Sometimes results come, sometimes they don’t, but I think the performances of the team have been very consistent. I think [our defence] has been outstanding in terms of allowing other teams to create. I think we need to be a little bit sharper in front of goal; these last weeks, we have three games, we’ve been able to be a little bit better in that aspect.”

“We want to keep going. We know that a win tomorrow will push us even higher in the table, which is where we want to be, but at the same time for us it’s a game-by-game situation. In this league maybe San Diego is not in the best form, but that can change dramatically. The game last week [when San Diego lost 3-0 to Houston Dash], it was really good from Houston, but San Diego could have won it as well.

“It’s a game of fine margins and we are working really hard to make sure that those fine margins are on our side tomorrow.”