Welcome all, to the first In Retrospect for Angel City FC. For those who may not follow broso, and haven’t seen this series for LAFC, this is a new column for us here at Angels on Parade. A place where we go deeper into matches, a chance to rant, rave, and wax poetic. We like to call it a recap with an extra scoop of sauce. That said, let’s get into it with Angel City and the tough start to the season, losing at home to the newcomers of the NWSL, Bay FC.
Thank you to all our fans for selling out @BMOStadium for our Home Opener.#AngelCityFC | @BMO_US pic.twitter.com/Ve4S8BK8H4
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) March 18, 2024
For the third time, Angel City FC were able to sell out their home opener as supporters continue to show just how deep the passion for this relatively still new club, go. Adding to the excitement this time around was this home opener being against one of the two new clubs to make their NWSL debuts this past weekend, and the newest rival to enter the chat, Bay FC. Anyone who has grown up or spent any significant time in California will tell you, this was a rivalry before these two even hit the pitch. The lead-up to the match was filled with trash talk, threats of covering the statues of uswnt legends turned NWSL owners in opposing team scarves, and the growing sense that it wouldn’t take long before this is one of the premiere rivalries in the league. The match itself only cemented that presumption.
Shaking off the Rust
The thing about season openers, is you rarely ever see any team come out looking the same way out the gate, that they will look like throughout the season. That’s not talking about the change in rosters that happens throughout the year as moves get made, etc. No, this is more about form. Rarely can a team go from the slow-paced, low stakes of preseason, straight into mid-season form overnight. Which is why it’s always important to take lessons from season openers, but you should never fix yourself to make sweeping observations or deliver the hottest of takes over the first game, in a very long season. That said, as far as first matches go, this was a bit of a mixed bag for Angel City FC.
We probably should have known things would feel slightly off-balanced when the night before the match Angel City’s injury report had a surprise name added on, newly acquired midfielder Rocky Rodriguez. The veteran midfielder had entered concussion protocol and was, smartly, held out of the match. Her late scratch paved the way for the NWSL debut of 17-year-old phenom, midfielder Kennedy Fuller. She wasn’t the only new young star to make her debut for Angel City on the night, but she was the one to get the start. Speaking of debuts, the team got to officially welcome Merritt Mathias, as she made her long-awaited Angel City debut, after suffering an injury shortly after arriving that kept her out for all of 2023.
#ad @MerrittMathias shares her First Thoughts after her return to the pitch.#AngelCityFC | @JohnnieWalkerUS pic.twitter.com/TmWOvC6DSa
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) March 18, 2024
From the start, it was pretty clear Angel City were still stuck in preseason. While Bay FC were far from running circles around them, it was obvious pretty quickly the home side had lots of rust to shake off from the offseason. The biggest problem for the squad this match was timing. A majority of the passes were either a bit too early or horribly late, some were off the mark completely as players didn’t seem to have that telepathic bond that develops throughout the course of the season. Unfortunately, it was that issue specifically that led to an early goal for Bay FC. A poor pass out the back ended up at the feet of the Bay attack, already in the final third. From there it was a simple pass to the deadly Asisat Oshoala, who didn’t need to be told twice to put it in the back of the net for the club’s first-ever goal.
Asisat Oshoala writes her name in the history books, scoring the very first NWSL goal for @wearebayfc ✍️ pic.twitter.com/t09aOiuEJl
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 18, 2024
From suffocation to sitting back
One thing that jumped out from the opening whistle was how Bay FC came out for this match. Many, myself included, thought the new side would come out not necessarily timid, but cautious. However, that was not the case at all. The team came out in a high press that stifled Angel City almost immediately. The home side struggled early because of it, almost not expecting a new club to come out playing such a risky defense right out the gates. The more Angel City seemed to struggle finding space and getting off clean passes under duress, the more the Bay tightened the screws. Just look at the goal they scored above, there are six Bay FC players in the vicinity of a ball being played out the back. That is smothering defense and it paid off in a massive way, as you can see, as the bad pass goes right to one of those six players, who feeds it to their wide open striker already in stride, for what amounts to a shot from the spot.
After putting Angel City defenders through hell, the visitors did the least surprising thing possible and spent the remainder of the match sitting back and defending for their lives. Luckily for them, the entire first half was ACFC just trying to find rhythm in their attack, trying to string together more than two successful passes on a build-up. While it was smart defense, it’s not how Bay FC look to play in the future, with Head Coach Albertin Montoya saying after the match “It’s definitely not the style of play we want to play. We want to dominate the ball, we want to dictate what goes on on the field.” Angel City finished the match with 60% of the possession, but nothing to show for it. “We thought they were going to come out at us and they didn’t” said Angel City Head Coach Becki Tweed after the match. “They actually sat off us, but we played like they came at us, and I think that mentality was a little bit naive of me. They didn’t do what we thought they were going to do and that took us about 34 minutes to figure out.”
No joy, all grit
Tweed isn’t wrong about that statement either. Nobody could’ve anticipated Bay coming out with the tightest of presses, nor did we expect Angel City, a team that is returning a fair amount of players from last season, to look like a team struggling to find chemistry. It really is unfortunate the team gave up the early goal because it was around that 35 minute mark that they began to turn it around. The squad finished the night with 19 shots, nine on target, most coming in the second half. While the Bay goalkeeper had a fantastic match with a couple of nice saves, it was the work of the posts and defender Caprice Dydasco, who kept Angel City from scoring in the late stages of the match.
The result was definitely not what anyone in Los Angeles wanted, especially not this particular home opener, but if there is any morale victory to be had, its that this club didn’t quit. Despite looking completely lost at times, every single player stayed within themselves and continued to fight for that point. In all fairness it was the typical season opener type of match. Lots of struggles, timing being off, lapses in judgement, with the only unfortunate turn of events is the visitors needing just that one mistake to capitalize and take home the win.
The season ahead
The season, as we all know, is long. Yes the loss, especially at home to new rivals, really hurts the pride, but as far as the season as a whole, it’s far from the end of it all. This is merely the beginning for a team with tons of talent. We all know Oshoala is one of the best strikers on the planet. A player many think will pile on the goals this season, and outside benefiting from a very obvious defensive mistake, she was held in check by Sarah Gorden. It was also painfully obvious that despite not playing for the team yet, they missed Rocky, or at the very least, a player like her in the middle of the pitch. There was often tons of room up the middle for Angel City to try and breakdown, but lacking a player like Rodriguez left them trying way too hard to play through width, and less up the middle.
Again, this is a long season and all of these issues will be worked on this week. Now, the team prepare for a real challenge as they hit the road for a three match road trip that wont see them return to LA until April 21st. Next up, the team take on a club that many expect to be a competitor this season after adding a third of the Brazilian National Team to their side, Orlando Pride. While difficult, its another great early test for Angel City as they look to cement themselves as a team to be feared this season.
Thoughts on the opener? Leave a comment below!
1 Comment
Just re-watched that frustrating match. So I’ve got a rant coming. Gorden, Fuller, Henry, and Bright were definitely the best Angels on the pitch.
I think Montoya fooled us all with his ‘no defense’ talk. For most of the match, Bay were in a 4-1-4-1 with every line in sync, or a 4-2-2-2. They always knew where their teammate triangles were and they always were somehow blocking ACFC’s. Our midfield outlet was surrounded by a box of white shirts every single time the ball was with the CBs. That meant the only outlets were down the wings or a CB charging the midfield, and no effective adjustments to playing out of the back were made. A few times someone would drop back and break the defense, but more often than not minutes were wasted while the backline looked for an outlet that wasn’t there.
The goal was 1 mistake that cost and that happens on the first match of the season. They made their own mistakes, but our shots didn’t go in.
I think Becki should look at Riley/MA on the left back and Mathias/Gisele on the right back, because all of Gisele’s instincts look defensive. I’m hopeful about the players and talent, and hopeful about the approach to coaching, but this is the year where coaching is going to have to improve. Tweed earned that chance with her run last year, but the apparent lack of tactical adjustment throughout the 90 minutes was very frustrating.