ACFC 0-1 Bay FC

I was so excited for this game, I’d looked forward to it for so long, but at the end, I was so disappointed. On the other hand, ESPN’s Megan Swanick said that Angel City “failed to deliver victory despite showing plenty of promise.” “We created chances. We dominated in the second half,” was what part of what Coach Becki Tweed had to say after the match. In the match that I saw, however, I thought that Angel City played badly, and I’m not at all surprised that Bay won. I’m going to look at some overall trends from the game, before highlighting some of the players, and finishing with recent, concerning news at the club.

Game Trends

From the start of this match, it seemed like something was off. “It took us way too long to get into the game. I think 34 minutes before we started to play,” was another comment of Tweed’s in her press conference, and I don’t understand why. It’s the first game of the season. There’s a sold out BMO stadium. How are the players not absolutely raring to go? This reminded me of the start of last season in some ways. At the end of 2022, I felt like Angel City had managed to get some results and had figured out what they looked like without Press, and going into the final weekend, we still had a small shot at the playoffs. I thought that momentum would carry over into 2023, but in the first game, Angel City looked like they were back to square one. And now, on another opening day, I again thought that we looked like a team that’s never played together before, and none of the momentum from last season seemed to come through. Maybe most concerning to me is that it seemed like the veterans were the ones being timid, slowing down the game, making the safe pass. And it’s especially difficult that Bay FC looked more organized, and with a clearer idea about what they wanted to do after only a month together, than Angel City did after two years. Some people will point to the Possession stats (59%-41% in favor of ACFC) to say that we controlled the match, but my feeling was that Bay was willing to conceded that space and possession. It seemed very difficult to break their lines, even their midfield line, and a lot of our possession time was spent passing the ball amongst our defenders. There’s a British phrase, “More in hope than expectation,” that I feel sums up the game for me. Passes into the box weren’t to an open attacker, they were hopeful balls into a scrum. Shots weren’t aimed, they were hopeful kicks towards goal. Take-ons weren’t because they saw a flat-footed defender, they were just fingers-crossed-maybe-I’ll-get-past-her (take-ons were especially bad, with only 3 successful take-ons out of 14 attempted). Yes, the law of averages is going to say that if you take 19 shots a game, you’ll probably score a few, But 19 ruthless shots you expect to go in is better than 19 hopeful shots that might go in. I’d like to see the team playing in a fashion that we expect to win, not just that we hope to.

Individual Players

Let’s start with Sydney Leroux. This is a case for me of why we cannot look at statistics alone. Her .5 xG came from 2 shots, one a looping header, and the other a toe poke with Lysianne Proulx, the Bay FC goalie, right on top of her. At the time, I didn’t really expect either shot to go in, and watching it back on video, I still don’t expect either shot to go in. Both shots seemed very saveable. Overall, I felt like she did not feel comfortable with the congested nature of playing as a No 9. I really think that she would be far batter playing behind Bright, and having the ability to pick out pockets of space. In total, Leroux finished with 2 Shot Creating Actions (SCA), both shots that led to other shots, in 90 minutes. Bright, on the other hand, finished with 1 SCA, her tremendous run and pass in the 91’, in only 8 minutes. In fact Bright actually finished 2nd on the team in Expected Assists (xA) with .6, despite the aforementioned 8 minutes of playing time.

In 1st place for xA was Kennedy Fuller. She was tied for the team lead in xG with .5 and led the team with a .7 xA. It’s hard to believe that she’s only 17. Not only did she display incredible skill, but I liked that she wasn’t overawed by the occasion, and often displayed her own initiative in making runs, or dropping back and making tackles to disrupt Bay, etc. She did will in a number of categories: 3 Key Passes, 3 shots, 4 Shot Creating Actions, 1 Tackle, and 2 Interceptions. The only real knock in my opinion is her pass attempts, with only 24, but I think that has more to do with the team then it does with her. Based on the very little I’ve seen so far, I think that she’s a tremendous talent, and as she’s given more responsibility in the offense, I think the team will perform better.

Another sub that I thought made a difference was Madison Hammond, although that’s also largely to do with the change in shape. It looked to me like Hammond was deployed as more of an out-and-out Central Defensive Midfielder. She did well, completing 7 of 8 Passes and creating 1 Shot in her 13 minutes, but more importantly, it allowed Henry to push further forward and have a greater impact on the game. Henry played well too, I thought, with 5 Shot Creating Actions, but I think that she also suffered from most of the progressions coming up the wings. Henry’s a world class passer, and she needs the ball more often. It took her awhile to get into the game, as it did with the whole team, but she grew into it. It certainly doesn’t help that she’s only been back in LA for about a week.

The most jaw dropping individual statistic was that Emslie attempted 19 crosses! 19! But only one of them was considered to be complete. Even so, Emslie led the team in Shot Creating Actions with 7, 3 from live passes, three from dead ball passes (in this case corners), and 1 from a shot. I know some people weren’t happy with the corners, but I wasn’t one of them. I wouldn’t have said they were great, but I think that generally, she put the ball in the mixer, beat the first defender, and kept it out of the goalie’s hands. I’m baffled why Bright was brought on in place of Emslie. Bright seems like the target forward that all of those crosses were crying out for. Tweed said in her press conference that she felt like the team was playing well, and that she didn’t want to mess that up with substitutions, but I felt like Bright really needed to come into the game sooner, and in place of Leroux. I think that Bright, Alyssa, and Emslie can be a really good front three, and I hope that we get to see them playing together soon.

I was also confused by substituting Alyssa for Gisele. So much has been made about how well they know each other, and how they always seem to know where the other is on the pitch, and so not playing them together when we’re chasing a goal didn’t make a ton of sense to me. I also think that we need to talk about the full backs in general. Vignola wasn’t quite her marauding self, though I thought she had a decent game, apart from the horrendous giveaway that led to Bay’s goal (though I wouldn’t put all the blame on her). I thought Riley, on the other hand, was pretty quiet. Not bad, exactly, just quiet. In 77 minutes, she had 2 Crosses and 1 Shot Creating Action. In 13 minutes, Merritt Mathias also had 2 Crosses and 1 Shot Creating Action. There are obviously all kinds of caveats to that, but it’s not a good look, and I think that the fullbacks in general could have contributed more. I do wonder if having the wingers switch sides during the game makes the fullbacks less inclined to jump in. Maybe we need keep the wingers dedicated to a specific side so that they can develop more of a relationship with the fullbacks? I also thought that Gisele showed some real flashes of talent, as well as speed. I thought this season was going to be something of a passing the torch at Right Back, but that might happen sooner than we think. At least, it’s something to keep an eye on.

I also need to mention Asisat Oshoala. She scored her goal in true clinical fashion; give her one good look, and that’s all she needs. I thought that Sarah Gordon in particular did a good job of locking her down otherwise, but I think that Oshoala showed that she’s going to be a top striker in this league. Aside from the goal, I thought she did a good job harassing our defenders, and occasionally coming back and trying to nick the ball from one of our midfielders. I thought that she was a threat throughout, despite how well our defenders managed her. When Kundananji is back from injury and they’re playing together, well, watch out.

Trouble in the Ownership Group

So why hasn’t Angel City brought in a player of that stature during the offseason? The answer might be that there’s trouble in the owners box. Kevin Baxter writes in the LA Times that the board hired Moelis & Co, a New York Investment Bank that specializes in investment advisory services, to find a new majority owner that will have board control. Angel City brought in nearly $31 million in revenue last year, which is apparently nearly double what the next best NWSL club managed. But they have also spent more than any other club, according to Baxter. I’m assuming this figure is in terms of operations, as I can’t see anybody spending more than KC has done on their stadium. Some members of the board, most notably Alexis Ohanian, have wanted to cut back on that spending. Baxter says that this squabble has been going on for about 6 months, and has divided the board, thus leading to the search for a new majority owner to take control. Back in January, Baxter had written another story for the LA Times about the changes in the ACFC roster and mentioned that letting McCaskill, Weatherholt, Charley, and Isenhour leave in free agency was, “in part to keep the payroll below the league salary cap of $2.75 million.” This never made sense to me, as the salary cap had gone up by $775,000 this season. Cap considerations shouldn’t have been a problem at all. It suddenly does make sense, though, if it’s the budget, not the cap, and a sizeable portion of the board is balking at costs. It had seemed a little weird that we didn’t make a run at a single big name free agent, or that we didn’t make a splashy transfer for a European-based player. But those kinds of things require the board being unified and willing to write some big checks. And at the moment, that doesn’t seem likely to happen. I hope this is resolved quickly.

Next up is 3/22 Away at Orlando, at 5pm on Amazon Prime