ACFC 0-1 Bay FC

Two wins in a row was probably just too much to expect. That hasn’t happened since we beat Chiacgo and North Carolina in succession in April. I was hoping for some momentum, and actually, I think that we did it. Prior to Bay’s goal, I really liked the football on display from Angel City, and I thought that we were the better team. The goal itself didn’t actually worry me when it happened. It was a defensive breakdown, but I thought that there was still plenty of time, and that we just needed to keep doing what we were going to get back into the game. Instead, it felt like the original plan got thrown out the window as soon as we conceded and we immediately reverted to a Plan B of very straightforward, predictable football. In the first 30’, we had four shots with the following xG: .06, .17, .80, and .18. Those are all quality chances, ranging from good to How-Did-That-Not-Go-In?! But in the following 60’ we only had 4 more shots, one with an xG 0f .14, but the others were all .07 or lower. Two of those came from Megan Reid on set pieces. Plan A was working, even though we went down 1-0, but instead we went to Plan B, which only generated one shot from an attacking player in 60 minutes.

My personal opinion, which is based solely on my observations, is that Plan A is the way that Becki Tweed wants to play. I think that Plan B comes around because there are players that are not buying into this strategy, and it’s the players, not Tweed that choose to throw Plan A out the window. Last season, when Tweed took over, it was about getting results, and results only. This led to a pretty direct, gritty football that got the job done, i.e. the Plan B football that we’re seeing now. We were often outplayed, but who cares if we got the three points? This season, I think that there are players that revert to that same plan as soon as things start going badly. And actually, that’s what I think happened against Lousiville, too. The game got away, but one long ball with a fortunate flick, and then one outstanding pass and we won the game. So there is reason for players to think that Plan B works. The problem is that last year, the whole team and coaching staff were on the same page that that was the plan. This year, there is a disconnect, with different players and coaches trying to accomplish different things.

Tweed, in several interviews this season, has talked about how there has been “good dialogue with the players.” I didn’t think too much of that at first, as it seems like just a general media phrase. But now I’m wondering if there was and is pushback from some players about changing the style of football? Angel City has often looked in two minds, and I’m starting to really wonder about this. Becki Tweed is pretty young for a head coach, and a lot of players on the team knew her as an assistant. I wonder if there are veteran players that are challenging her authority. Again, I have no sources saying this. It’s only what I’m seeing on the pitch and hearing in press conferences.

Whether this is true or not, I do think that Tweed has been put in a bad situation. My impression was that it was a mutual choice to try to move to a more possession based attack, but I don’t think that the front office backed Tweed at all. Of the outfield players signed for this season that have at least one year of professional experience, we’re only looking at Messiah Bright, Meggie Dougherty Howard, and Rocky Rodríguez. Bright’s best skill is her ability to carry the ball, not hold up play or combining with her teammates. Compared to other NWSL forwards last season on a per 90 basis, Bright was in the 83rd percentile in Progressive Carries, but only the 43rd percentile in Progressive Passes Received, 33rd percentile in Passes Received, and also 33rd percentile in Passes Attempted. That’s not the profile of a striker that will keep possession and keep the ball moving. Dougherty Howard was coming off a season with only 579 minutes played, and compared to other NWSL midfielders in 2023 on a per 90 basis, she was in the 21st percentile in Passes Attempted and 15th percentile in Passes Completed and Completion Percentage. The big signing was Rocky Rodríguez, both in terms of reputation and transfer fee (and I really, really think that transfer fee was way too high). Rodríguez is better here, but again comparing her to NWSL midfielders on a per 90 basis, she’s 67th percentile in Passes Attempted, 73rd percentile in Passes Completed, and 69th percentile in Pass Completion Percentage. That’s not bad, but if you’re trying to be a team with more intricate passing, building out of the back, and you’re spending $275,000, then you should really be getting a player that’s in the top tier of passing ability.

During the offseason, none of these signings stood out to me, as I was viewing them as fitting into the more direct, pragmatic style that Angel City had employed in the second half of the year. Rodríguez, especially made more sense to me because I envisioned her playing next to Henry, and I thought the responsibilities were going to be Rodríguez winning the ball back, and Henry distributing. They both had skills that complemented each other. But as we all know, Henry got traded away after four games. At the beginning of the season, both the coach and GM talked publicly about playing prettier football, building from the back, and keeping possession. But looking back on the offseason through that lens, this does not look like a team built for that purpose. It looks like a team built for gritty, opportunistic, direct football, which is exactly what I think Tweed was told she was not allowed play. The fact that Tweed has, at times, gotten this team to play with a good buildup (as we’ll see looking at the first 30 minutes of this game) is impressive. The fact that many of these players’ instincts are to revert to something more direct is not surprising.

Prior to the Goal

In only the 2’, Le Bihan steals the ball at midfield, moves the ball up to Gisele Thompson, who’s getting forward on the right wing. She squares up her defender, and then absolutely puts her on skates before putting in a dangerous cross/shot. Leroux, somehow, gets to the back post before the shot comes in, which is why it’s always better to arrive late. She could have had an easy tap in. This is the .06 xG chance of the first 30 minutes, which is technically the lowest chance, but viewed as a cross instead, I think it was a very good opportunity.

The biggest chance came in the 15’ after Angel City was able to keep possession in Bay’s half of the field. Reid puts in a long diagonal, that Le Bihan flicks on to Emslie on the right. Emslie puts in the cross, and Vignola, playing left wing, arrives in the six yard box ahead of Savannah King, and wins the header. My feeling is that Vignola’s shot is off target, but that’s not conclusive. Instead, though, the ball deflects off King’s hand right to the center of the box, where Leroux shoots from 4 yards out, right into the Bay keeper. Now give Leroux credit for her positioning, staying onside, and being the first to react after the deflection. But the finishing here is awful. It actually seems harder for her to hit the ball into the goalie, as the natural angle, if she had just opened up her right foot and deflected it, would have been into the wide open net. She went with her left foot, though, and Roland gets the save. Regarding the handball, I always think that’s harsh when the defender is only a yard away, and can’t react. But we do see this given all the time. Remember when Vignola was given a handball last season after the ball hit her torso? The hand also potentially stopped a goal. I fully expected this do be given. I also really don’t understand how the referee on the pitch isn’t being invited to look at this.

The 29th minute brought about one of the best plays I’ve seen from Angel City in a while. Haračić sends the ball out wide to Gisele, who has to control it at an awkward height, but she does, and starts an amazing run. She gets fouled by Castallanos, but rides the challenge, the ref gives advantage, and Gisele carries the ball all the way up into the attacking third, where she lays the ball off for Emslie. There’s a bit of give and go, before Gisele gets the ball back and takes it to the endline, where she puts in a cutback to Le Bihan. This is such a good play by Le Bihan, as she’s moving into the mixer, but just as Gisele heads for the endline, Le Bihan moves back out away from her marker into space. Another Bay player moves to pick her up, but now the defense is scrambling, and that always opens up opportunities. The real beauty, though, is that Le Bihan never actually plays the ball; she goes for the dummy. Had she received it, it would have been with one defender on her, and another in front of her, and a bad angle to shoot from. But she lets it roll through to Rodríguez at the top of the box, who has all the time in the world since Le Bihan pulled the defense out of position. Rodríguez tries to pick out the top corner, but it’s off the woodwork. This really should have been a goal.

What I like about all of these chances is that we were moving the ball quickly. Some chances were more transitional, and some were more possession based, but there was that nice balance where things weren’t slowed down, but they also weren’t forced. It was smart, quick passes, and they were generating opportunities. During this phase of the game, Angel City was also just dominating the right side of the field. Gisele and Emslie were combining well, and I really thought that we had Bay on the ropes. That looked like an avenue that we could exploit all game long.

Claire Emslie

Emslie, in particular, I want to highlight because I think that she’s being very unselfish. She’s often playing deeper, and focusing more on the build up, rather than trying to get into the box to finish chances. And she’s good at this, but she is also good at finishing. Her role is part of the identity crisis I see the team having, because I think that she is our best creator and also our best finisher. In recent games, she’s been working to generate chances more for her teammates, and Gisele, in particular, has thrived, with that extra opportunity. But Gisele can’t overlap if Emslie doesn’t concede that space to her. In this match, Emslie led the team in Shot Creating Actions (4), Key Passes (2), Passes into the Penalty Area (3, which is as many as the rest of the team combined). And it pains me not to see Emslie scoring, but I think she’s probably right. Kansas City just had their 17th different goal scorer, while Angel City only has 6, and that’s just because we got two new ones against Louisville. For the team to thrive, more players need to be involved in the offense. So it probably is the best thing for Angel City for Emslie to try to give chances to other players, but those players need to start finishing what she is creating for them.

The Goal

Bay’s goal comes after some sustained pressure on their part. It starts, generally, with a long ball to Boade on Bay’s left. She beats Gisele and puts a cross right through the box that nobody gets on the end of. It does eventually result in a corner. The corner goes all the way through to the far side, where Menges collects and floats a ball into the neat post. Megan Reid is right there, but I think that this is the first mistake. Haračić is right behind her, but doesn’t call off Reid. There’s not a Bay player within 5 or 6 yards of them, but okay, there’s not a lot of time. Still, Reid heads the ball away, but keeps it on the field. It gets about to the edge of the box, to Le Bihan, who also heads it away, but everyone on Angel City is back defending, so Bay regain control. Bailey tries two crosses, both of which get blocked by Reid, but again, not cleared out of Angel City’s defending third. Menges gets the ball at the right corner of the box, from Bay’s point of view, and she’s being challenged by Gisele. Menges manages to get the ball inside to Bailey, who has her back to goal. Leroux is on her, but gives Bailey the space to turn and face goal. Most crucially, Gisele and Le Bihan, the two other defenders on this side, both follow the ball; neither of them follow Menges. Bailey, of course, then proceeds to thread the ball through to Menges, who has all the time, and options, in the world. She can shoot, she can cross, or she can go for the cut back. She goes for the cutback, which is always the most dangerous of those three, I think. She finds Boade running across goal, and Nabet is just a step behind, but it might as well be a mile. Boade takes the first time shot into the bottom corner, which is still a pretty difficult shot, but executed perfectly. The obvious breakdown here is three Angel City players converging on one Bay player and not winning the ball. But more broadly, I think that it was the inability to regain possession, or to clear the ball well out of the box that caused this. It was about the fourth wave of the attack that actually led to the goal, and if you keep giving a team opportunities, they’ll eventually take one.

After the Goal and Gorden’s Handball

Bay’s goal was actually their highest xG chance of the whole match. They do manage 7 more Shots in the game, compared to only the 4 from Angel City, as I mentioned. Bay had chances, but I thought defensively we did enough to limit them. Their best chance to extend, actually, was not a shot, but the non-handball on Gorden. Another pretty terrible play, in which Nabet gets dispossed in the midfield, and Castallanos quickly gets the ball out to Boade on the wing. She tries to pass the ball into Kundunanji, but Sarah Gorden blocks it with her arm. I don’t think it’s intentional, but her arm is away from her body, she’s facing the ball, she’s a couple yards away. I thought that this was a nailed-on penalty. I never want other teams to score on Angel City, but I cannot understand how this wasn’t given. The only thing I can think is that they didn’t give the one on King, when it also clearly hit her arm. The other really problematic thing is that the referee never looks at either one. It clearly hits the arm, so why not have him make the final call? It shouldn’t be up to the VAR official to decide this.

Angel City’s best chance, in terms of xG, after the goal was Gisele Thompson in the 59th minute. But this was a long ball to Emslie on the wing, and then a long cross from Emslie into the box. Everyone misses the header, and Gisele tries to take it on the volley, which is always hard, but if it’s on frame, it’s probably a goal. So great try by her, but not the kind of buildup that we were seeing at the start of the game.

Bay’s best chance in the second half was the one that Angel City picked as the Save of the Match. But I don’t think that it’s a great play by Bay. Bailey puts in a low cross from Bay’s left, and Reid goes to clear it, but only about five yards, to a wide open Kundunanji. Haračić makes a great kick save on Kundunanji’s low shot, however. I think on some of these, we need to be okay with just hitting it out and letting the opposition get a corner. I get that we haven’t been good on corners, but turning the ball over in our own box is worse, I think.

Otherwise, I don’t think there was much else to see. I wouldn’t say that we were outplayed, but I generally, I think that we did exactly what Bay wanted in the second half.

Brief and Final Thoughts

• I thought that Bay treated this like a rivalry match, but I don’t think that Angel City did.

• Bay has only two clean sheets this year, both against Angel City

• In the two matches combined, Angel City has 3.2 xG to Bay’s 1.9 xG, yet we lost both games 1-0. Is this a fluke? I feel like it sort of is, as we should have had two goals in this game, but I also think that the Bay players were just that little bit more clinical in both matches, and seemed a little more focused.

• It just looks bad to see Angel City players smiling and laughing after the game. I get it, I really do. Everyone has friends on other teams they want to catch up with. They’ve had an emotionally draining 90 minutes, and it’s just a relief to be out of that cauldron. But as a fan, I’d like to see the players as upset by the loss as I am. And frankly, we are at the point where people might start losing their jobs. We just saw Casey Stoney get fired, and she’s done a much better job with San Diego, winning two trophies, including one this year.

All stats are from FBRef