ACFC 1-1 North Carolina Courage

Before we get into the game, I have to ask if anyone else had trouble with the Ion broadcast? At the start time, at what the Fubo menu said was the ACFC game on Ion, was actually a Panthers v Sabres hockey game. About 15 minutes in, I finally got video of the ACFC game, but the audio was wrong. Initially it was songs, like Eye of the Tiger, and then it became a Trump rally. So I muted my television. At halftime, things got back on track. I know I’m not the only person that had this, but it also seems like most people didn’t. No idea what happened.

But moving on to the soccer. The headlines are all going to be about what happened in stoppage time, but I think that there is a lot to look at prior to that. We often hear of a game of two halves. but this wasn’t even two halves. Prior to the introduction of Press and Leroux at 65’, it was all North Carolina. At that point, Shots were 9 to 1, with Angel City’s sole chance being Zelem’s early shot. The Courage had generated .86 xG from those 9 Shots, with Lussi and Sanchez particularly missing good chances.

But then we had the substitutions. Press and Leroux came on, and immediately made a difference. I thought this was Press’ best game by far since she’s been back, and that was even before her goal. Both of them had 3 shots a piece, with Leroux getting .7 xG and Press getting .2 xG. A lot of that came from one mad sequence in the 70’. From 60’ to 90’ Angel City had a 6-0 Shot advantage, but it was still 0-0. Then in stoppage time, North Carolina seized that advantage again, outshooting Angel City 4-1, with two shots on either side of Press’ goal. We’ll talk about the goals later on, but I think that both Sean Nahas and Becki Tweed are going to rue the missed opportunities from earlier in the game. Both teams had their chances, but both were wasteful.

That first 65 minutes is particularly troubling for Angel City. This was a must win game. North Carolina had already clinched a playoff spot, but we all knew about their home undefeated streak, and that it was going to take a great performance to beat them at Wake Med. In these circumstances, I wanted to see Angel City putting the pressure on the Courage. But what we got was North Carolina dictating play, and Angel City generating very little. By my count, Angel City only had 11 completed passes in the attacking third during this stretch, and four of them were backward. It didn’t look like a team that was fighting for a win, and I think that Angel City was lucky not to be behind 2-0 by the 65’. In the end, yes, leading 1-0 in the 98’ should be enough to get a win. But if we had, that would have been the definition of papering over the cracks.

Formation

There was a lot that I didn’t like about this formation. There had to be some changes, as Madison Hammond was suspended due to yellow card accumulation. From the lineup that Angel City released, it seemed like it was going to be five at the back, but then it looked like it was the usual 4-2-3-1, except that Gisele was playing Right Wing, and Emslie was the No 10, which made Curry the Right Fullback. Then Spencer came on for Vignola at halftime, which looked like it moved Curry to Left Fullback, with Spencer on the Right. But then Curry came off for Press, which moved Gisele to Left Fullback. With all of that chopping and changing, I don’t think that Curry or Gisele had their best games. It’s also a huge red flag to me that in a must win game, we’re asking two players in their first year in the league to excel at multiple roles simultaneously. I also don’t think that this got a lot out of Emslie. She only had 23 Touches in 76 minutes. She’s definitely a wide player. But we have to look at why that choice was made. We cut Le Bihan in the summer, and Fuller is now with the USYNT at the U17 World Cup. Rodríguez is the other player who we might expect to get consideration (either alongside Zelem, pushing Dougherty Howard into the No 10, or as the No 10 herself), but she has only started one match since the Olympic break. Tweed clearly doesn’t see her working with Zelem, but the fact that a winger is being put into a central role, rather than starting Rodríguez says a lot.

This also seems like something that should have been planned for. Barring injury, Fuller was definitely going to be at the U17 World Cup, so we knew, basically from the moment we signed her, that she wouldn’t be available in October, when we might be chasing a playoff spot. But after we cut Le Bihan, who I think should have been playing this role all along, there really isn’t another true No 10. Which puts Angel City in the position of having Emslie, one of our best players, out of position, and diminishing her impact.

Mathias and Lussi

Merritt Mathias announced that she will retire at the end of the season, and as she came from North Carolina, this seemed like a good time to revisit the trade. Mathias didn’t play much for Angel City, but she has had a sterling NWSL career. She was an original member of the NWSL, selected 22nd overall in the inaugural draft by FC Kansas City. She had stops in Seattle and North Carolina before coming to Angel City and won 3 NWSL Championships and 3 Shields during that time. She joined ACFC in January 2023, traded for Tyler Lussi. At the time of the trade, this made a lot of sense for Angel City. Freya Coombe was playing Lussi at fullback, even though she’s a winger, so bringing in an actual fullback, especially with that resume, seems like an upgrade. From North Carolina’s perspective, I also think this made sense. They probably felt like Ryan Williams was ready to take over as the starter, so they could afford to trade Mathias. In actuality, this trade has been very lopsided in favor of North Carolina. Lussi has played 40 matches, with 2,562 minutes for the Courage, scoring 10 Goals, with 2 Assists during that time. Mathias has featured in 13 games, playing 371 minutes. There are some questions about whether the ACFC medical team should have spotted some of her injury concerns at the time of the trade, and that’s not the first time we’ve said that. This isn’t really meant to be a criticism, though, but rather to point out that we just can’t predict how these things are going to play out. At the time, this really seemed like a balanced trade.

Goals

90+7’ Angel City - Reid wins the ball back for us, and Rodríguez does a good job to hold onto possession, before eventually making a lateral pass to Zelem. She receives the ball in her own half, deftly evades the press, and then beats a second defender to completely break the line in North Carolina’s midfield. As she gets closed down, she plays a beautiful outside-of-the-boot pass to Christen Press on the right. Press collects, squares up Rauch, really sells the shot with her right foot, before cutting inside onto her left. There are five Courage players collapsing on Press at this point, but she bought that half-yard of space that she needs, and threads the needle on a perfect shot. Seriously, watch the behind-the-goal angle if you can. Various North Carolina players have almost the whole goal covered, but Press finds that one hole that’s open. Beautiful goal, and vintage Christen Press. So good to see her scoring again.

90+10’ North Carolina Courage - From an Angel City goal kick, one in which Harčić was shamelessly time wasting, the ball goes all the way up to midfield, on the right, and Leroux is actually able to bring the ball down. However, she is swarmed by three North Carolina players, and Denise O’Sullivan comes away with the ball. Rodríguez isn’t able to close her down in time, and O’Sullivan makes a pretty spectacular pass upfield to Wingate. She lets the ball bounce past her, takes a touch, and finishes cleanly. The issue on this goal, from an ACFC perspective, is with the backline. Spencer is pushed further forward, since the ball is on the right, so it’s Gorden, Reid, and Gisele in the backline, and they are basically in a line as Harčić is setting up the goal kick. But right before she takes it, Gisele steps forward to get in front of Wingate. But as Leroux controls it, Gorden actually takes two steps back. So as O’Sullivan makes her pass, Reid is marking Kerolin, and Gisele is marking Wingate, and they’re close to being in a straight line. But Gorden is marking nobody, and is two steps behind them, playing Wingate onside. Wingate also steals a step on Gisele, by being in her blindspot. My guess is that Gisele thinks that Wingate is either right there, or if she’s not, she’s offside. I think that Gisele is somewhat at fault for not checking her blindspot, but I also think that the fact that she’s been gone for a month, and that she’s getting moved all over the field, right and left, attacking and defending, makes it harder to know what to do in the moment. For me, she’s the Right Back of the future, and she should be playing that role to get comfortable with it. I think that Gorden is more at fault here. I don’t see any reason for her to drop deeper, and if she’s going to do that, she needs to communicate with the other defenders, so they drop as well. No matter what, it’s bad organization at the back, and this is the fifth goal Angel City has conceded in stoppage time this year. Mistakes like this shouldn’t be happening at the end of the season. Also, Harčić starts way deep in her goal. Anderson is a much more of a sweeper keeper, and her usual position is a lot higher. Who can say if she would have been able to smother out the danger before Wingate could take a shot? But the fact that Harčić doesn’t have that in her toolbox is a liability in situations like this. But it’s all around sloppy defending. I also want to point out that Spencer is assigned higher up the pitch, but maybe in this situation, she should stay back, so Gorden and Reid don’t have to shift over as much? That’s on the coaches, not Spencer. But however you want to assign the blame, Angel City can’t close out a game yet again.

Childcare

I want to talk about Angel City’s statement regarding the salary cap violations. For anyone that didn’t see, they released a statement saying that “we acknowledge our mistakes,” but that “Our understanding, based on the League’s Salary Cap Rules, was that childcare payments do not count against the salary cap. We believe that ACFC did not exceed the salary cap.”

First, and foremost, I agree that the league should support clubs offering childcare to their players. Frankly, I think that our society would be in better shape if all employers offered assistance in childcare to their employees.

Second, Steph Yang did some excellent reporting, as she usually does, and discovered that the League’s rule is that parental and dependent care expenses do not count against the salary cap, up to the IRS maximum of $5,000. Also, “any amount in excess of the IRS annual maximum will count against the Team’s Salary Cap.” And any care expenses should be reported, regardless, for tax reasons. As they’ve said, with the slight twist on Glengarry Glen Ross, Always Be (Dis)Closing. So that seems pretty straightforward to me. And actually, the more that I think about it, if the IRS maximum is $5,000, then there’s really no reason to pay that money separately. Leroux and Gorden will be taxed on that money, so the only reason to make it a separate payment is to hide it from the league.

Third, the math doesn’t add up to me. There are two mothers on the team, with a total of three children. For Angel City to say that they believe they did not exceed the cap, that would mean that the entirety of the $50,000 in excess was spent on childcare, which would be almost $8,000 a month. Also, that initial $5,000 per player is allowed to be deducted, so that would mean that we were on track to pay $60,000 in childcare over the course of the season. And since the salary cap was exceeded at the very start of the season, that means that over $9,000 was spent on childcare during those four weeks. I don’t have children myself, so if anyone who does wants to weigh in, I’d appreciate the firsthand account. But that seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

Fourth, the NWSL said that there were five players with sideletters. Even if two of them were the two mothers on the team, and even if these were the only benefits those two players received, then there are three other players receiving other benefits. We also know that this was brought to light when Angel City traded a player to another NWSL team and they asked if they were going to continue to receive their sideletter payments. That has to be either Henry or Nielsen, neither of which have children. So there were definitely other benefits being given out.

Fifth, Matt Wade was hired as assistant general manager on September 18th. In his introductory Q&A he said, “Probably my single most important responsibility is the salary cap—compliance with the salary cap, as well as future planning when it comes to roster construction.” Looking back on this statement now, it really feels like we should have hired an Assistant GM earlier. The $200,000 fine is way more than we’re paying someone to do that job (I’ve looked at the postings on LinkedIn). When Commissioner Jessica Berman spoke to Steph Yang about this, she said that if there are any questions, the league has five people you can call for an answer. I’m sure that Hucles Mangano and Uhrman have a lot to do on a daily basis, so maybe they never had the time to make that call. But it was a decision to make hiring an assistant GM a lower priority, to the point that it didn’t happen until almost the end of the third season. I think that having someone in that role last year could have avoided at least some of this.

Sixth, and finally, all of my previous issues with the transfer strategy and how we’d be over by a lot more if it wasn’t for Endo’s injury, plus all the contracts that were signed. It hit me that usually when a team goes for a youth movement, they are cutting salary. Veteran’s get paid more because they’ve proven themselves, usually. Our offseason was all about bringing in younger players, and yet we added salary.

Childcare is an important conversation, and I think that there does need to be a discussion about it, but I think that Angel City is deflecting and using an important issue to draw the focus away from the organizations many missteps. And maybe that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it’s not about the straw, it’s the weight of all of the other unnecessary baggage. The reason we went over the salary cap is roster mismanagement, not paying for childcare.

All stats are from FBRef

Angel City’s next match is the final home match, Sunday, October 20th, 4:30p at BMO, and on NWSL+