The Summer Cup continues under the Friday night lights this evening, as Angel City FC hit the road to take on Bay FC. To be fair, all Summer Cup matches can be considered road matches for LA as they aren’t playing in BMO for this tournament, but we digress. The team is back in action after opening up the tournament with a win over Club America. Bay FC have proven to be a tricky opponent for ACFC, who have not only failed to beat them in their first two meetings, but have yet to score a goal against the NorCal outfit.
Matchday in the Bay 🙌
🆚 Bay FC
🥳 Watch Party at 6:30 PM PT
⚽️ Kickoff at 7:30 PM PT
🏆 NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup
Tune in
📺 Paramount+ (US)
📺 CBSSN (US)
📺 ESPN on Disney+ (MX & Select territories)
📺 NWSL+ (INT’L)#Volemos | #BAYvLA| #AngelCityFC pic.twitter.com/mlQ63Hh17z— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) July 26, 2024
Olympic Omissions
As you all know by now, this tournament is being held at the same time as the Summer Olympic Games, and as such, Bay FC will be missing a few of their regular starters for this competition as they are in Paris representing their respective nations. In all honesty, it’s what makes this matchup so intriguing. Both teams are pretty much coming into this one on the same wavelength. Despite their success over Angel City, Bay FC have had a more disappointing season than they would have hoped for. While they are in the final playoff spot as it stands, with 18pts they are in a battle to keep that spot, and undoubtedly feeling frustrated with the amount of points they have dropped in the first half of the season. That said, this tournament provides them with the chance to see how some of the other players do that are sitting outside the normal starting XI.
They will be coming into this match with an added boost of coming off a loss to open the tournament, falling to San Diego Wave on the road. Now at home, they will be looking to keep the undefeated and undrawn record over LA, while improving for the playoff push in the second half of NWSL action.
Long awaited debut?
Angel City are much in the same boat, minus the players away for Olympics. Though that is a great thing for the team as they continue to refine who they hope to be for the second half of the season. “Ultimately, we’ve played the Bay twice and loss twice and we haven’t scored against them yet” said Angel City Head Coach Becki Tweed. “We have to use that as motivation to go into tomorrow’s game with a must win mindset.”
As we talked about before, coming into this tournament the focus for Angel City is reassessing. One of the big aspects of that, is seeing what players who haven’t seen much action this season, can do with some legitimate match time. One of those players is Casey Phair. The teenage sensation who has already featured in a World Cup for Korea, and has featured in several friendly matches for them this year, is set to finally make her long-anticipated Angel City debut. Of course, everyone will be waiting to see this happen when the team returns to NWSL play, but for now, this is a massive chance for the starlet to show what she brings to the table in attack. Considering how lethargic the Angel City attack has been for most of the season to this point, any spark of life might do wonders for this side in their continued search for confidence and clearer picture of what needs to be done. “She’s available for selection ,she’ll be available to play” said Tweed. “Her growth has been huge and I think the moment she gets her debut will be a moment she’s earned and deserves. Hopefully that will be tomorrow.”
How To Watch
Kickoff is set for 7:30pm PT from PayPal Park in San Jose, Ca. The match can be streamed live on Paramount+ for those in the USA, ESPN or Disney+ for those in Mexico, as well as NWSL+ for the International fans.
Thoughts on the matchup with Bay FC? Leave a comment below!