SAN DIEGO — During his heyday as a soccer star, Landon Donovan was clocked at roughly 19 mph on the field — making him one of the fastest players in the sport.

Donovan’s latest sprint will determine whether the San Diego Wave FC’s 2024 season is a success.

The American soccer legend was named the San Diego Wave coach through the end of the season, the club announced Friday. Donovan replaces Paul Buckle, who had only planned to be with the club through the National Women’s Soccer League’s Olympic break. Sources confirmed to the Union-Tribune on Thursday that Donovan was the club’s choice.

Donovan doesn’t have much time to turn around the Wave, who are 3-7-6 and in 10th place in the NWSL standings. San Diego has 14 matches remaining; only 10 of them count toward the NWSL standings; the other four — including Tuesday’s match against Santa Fe FC in Panama City, Panama — are part of the Concacaf W Champions Cup.

Post a winning record (or something close) over those 10 matches, and the Wave could vault into the playoffs. The top eight teams make it.

“You don’t have a preseason to get the team playing the way you want,” Donovan, 42, said. “So the challenge will be, how do we get results while starting to build the way I want the team to play? And that will be tricky, but I think they’re up for it.”

Camille Ashton, the Wave’s sporting director and general manager, said Friday she is “thrilled” to have Donovan join the club. He spent three seasons as coach of the now-defunct San Diego Loyal SC of USL Championship, going 38-27-17, before becoming the team’s executive vice president of soccer operations.

“Landon’s level of knowledge, understanding and experience as both a player and a coach, provides us with a leader that can help guide this club to where we want to be — in a playoff position and competing for a championship,” she said. “His passion for this city and growing the game, along with having a player-first mentality, make him a natural fit for this club.”

Wave President Jill Ellis fired Stoney on June 24, two days following a scoreless draw with the Dash in Houston. Buckle was named the club’s interim coach as the Olympic break neared.

Ellis messaged Donovan looking for someone to coach the team through the end of the season. Could he recommend a candidate?

“And I thought about it for a little bit. I didn’t respond for a few hours,” Donovan said. “I talked to my wife and I said, ‘Huh, that could be interesting.’ And so I sent Jill a message back and said, ‘There’s some people I could think of, but I would also be interested if you want to have that conversation.’ And she called and we started the process.”

Donovan said he spent a couple weeks “really digging deep” to make sure he was ready for the job, knowing that there are differences between the women’s and men’s games. He watched the team practice, and was sold.

Despite boasting superstar Alex Morgan, Olympic gold medalists Naomi Girma and Jaedyn Shaw, Mexican standout María Sánchez and goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, the Wave have been one of the most disappointing teams in the NWSL this season. The club has scored just 12 goals in 16 matches, the third-worst mark in the 14-team league. It’s been nearly two months since San Diego scored a regular-season goal.

Shaw and Makenzy Doniak are tied for the team lead with three goals apiece; Morgan, who has been limited by injury, has yet to score.

Ellis promised a more up-tempo style when she fired Stoney, but Buckle’s clubs were outscored 4-0 in his first two matches, both losses. (The Wave did score three goals in a July 20 Summer Cup win over Bay FC, but the result and stats don’t count toward their season.)

The hope is that Donovan can turbocharge what was already changing under Buckle.

“There’s a lot of good qualities with a lot of the players,” Donovan said. “There’s some pretty bad habits that we can break pretty quickly, which is exciting for me. And I think there’s a willingness and an excitement by all of these women to probably have a fresh start and get going and push towards a really good end of the season.”

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