Just three weeks after signing with the San Diego Wave, Adriana Leon made her debut for the club in a match against rival Angel City in Los Angeles. The turnaround was fast, but the club hasn’t rushed her. The Canadian forward has been given time to settle into a new system, a new squad and a new country. “She basically came without any preseason with us, so obviously, it’s been a little bit of time to build relationships,” Wave coach Jonas Eidevall said. Leon will be on the field Sunday night, when the Wavel host the Washington Spirit at Snapdragon Stadium. The Wave are 7-3-2 at the season’s midway point, good for third place in the 14-team National Women’s Soccer League. Washington (7-4-1) sits one point behind them in the league standings. San Diego has scored 25 goals already this season, more than the 24 it scored all last year. The club’s scoring lead belongs to Leon, who has four goals. Patience pays off It took just two matches for Leon to find the back of the net in her NWSL return after more than six seasons away. Winger Delphine Cascarino burned past her Utah Royals FC defender down the right flank and delivered a sharp cross into the box, which Leon coolly slotted home. But after that March 22 breakthrough, a scoring drought followed — seven matches and more than 350 minutes without a goal. Still, Leon remained patient. She was rewarded — twice — in the Wave’s May 25 win against the North Carolina Courage at Snapdragon. North Carolina was trying to pass the ball out of its own box when San Diego’s Gia Corley corralled it. She poked the ball straight to Leon, who put it past the goalkeeper. In the 60th minute, Leon struck again. Hanna Lundkvist delivered a long pass to Leon in full stride as she battled between the goalkeeper and a Courage defender. Amid the pressure, Leon fired off a shot and scored the goal that put the Wave ahead by two goals. The club would score a franchise-record five goals in a runaway win. The brace earned Leon NWSL Player of the Week and Goal of the Week honors. Last week she delivered again, scoring once and adding an assist in a 3-2 victory over the Houston Dash. In the 17th minute, midfielder Kenza Dali played a pass down the right flank to Leon, who whipped it into the heart of the box for Dali to finish and give the team a 1-0 lead. Then, in the 36th minute, Leon collected Lundkvist’s pinpoint pass and slotted it home for a goal. “From where I started to, from where I am now, I think it’s been a massive shift,” Leon said. ‘A journey of ups and downs’ Before joining the Wave, Leon spent six seasons in the United Kingdom playing for West Ham, Manchester United and Aston Villa. “A journey of ups and downs,” Leon said. One of her biggest challenges came in 2021, when an injury suffered while playing for West Ham threatened to derail Leon’s Olympic dreams. With Canada’s roster announcement looming, Leon pushed through rehab, training three times a day to prove she belonged on the team. That perseverance paid off in a big way. Leon made the team, and Canada went on to defeat Sweden in penalty kicks for the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer. Leon played significant minutes in the gold medal match, and even took her turn in the shootout. “I think things have just never really been easy for me throughout my career,” Leon said. “I think that’s been kind of like the greatest part, as well as it’s always pushed me and motivated me to be better.” Leon spent three seasons at Aston Villa, where she played for four different coaches. She appeared in 29 matches, scoring eight goals. “So that wasn’t the best,” she said. “But I think my first year at Villa under Carla (Ward) was amazing. I loved my time there.” In February of this year, Leon had a decision to make. Where did she want to play next? Kailen Sheridan, her former Team Canada teammate, tried to convince Leon to pick San Diego. The Wave had a new coach, a retooled roster and a different approach. “I had that chance to be reunited with her,” Leon said. “She had been trying to recruit me for a little bit.” Leon has also been reunited with Dali, who was her teammate at Aston Villa before making the jump to the Wave. Sheridan called Leon “somebody you want on your team.” Scoring, shining in a new system Leon’s impact in Europe initially caught Eidevall’s attention, but it was her 120-plus appearances and 44 goals for Canada that truly stood out. Eidevall admired how Canada’s coaches consistently put Leon in goal-scoring positions, and that’s precisely the role he envisioned for her in San Diego. “What we’ve seen with Adriana is that when she gets put into good scoring positions, she scores a lot of goals,” Eidevall said. Indeed, the first-year coach’s European system seems a perfect fit for Leon. “I think just from the outside looking in, like we play a different style of football than what maybe previously has been played in San Diego, and I think within the league as well,” Leon said. “So I think that’s been like the most exciting thing is that Jonas has brought that style of play and implemented it really well within the group.” Leon has been with the Wave for just under four months, but her impact is already being felt — especially over the past four weeks. With momentum building and Leon settling in, there’s growing optimism about what the Wave can achieve once everything truly clicks. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of talented players in the group,” Leon said. “Right now, we’re sitting in third, so I think we have an exciting team, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve this season.” Wave (7-3-2) vs. Spirit (7-4-1) When: 7 p.m. Saturday Where: Snapdragon Stadium TV: CBS Sports Network