ACFC 1-2 NJ/NY Gotham FC

This was the game we deserved, but not the one we need right now. Ever since my outbreak of optimism over the end of the San Diego game, I was afraid that that momentum would be lost over the international break. And maybe it was the break, or maybe it was the fact that Gotham are just rounding into form, but things definitely came crashing back down on Saturday. The scoreline, I think, was actually pretty flattering to us; this was a game in which Gotham took control of their city. And with the help of some flight credits from the holidays, I was able to go to New York to see it.

Team Statistics

Initial team statistics don’t look too bad on the surface. Possession was 51%-49% in favor of Gotham. Shots were 17 to 10, also in favor of Gotham, but Shots on Target were 6 to 5 in favor of Angel City. Digging down a little more, though, and we can start to see Gotham’s dominance. They had 1.7 xG, compared to only .4 xG for us. When we look at the individual shots, it actually looks even worse. Angel City’s highest xG chance was Alyssa Thompson’s header in second half stoppage time with an xG of .1. Gotham actually had 5 shots with an xG equal to or better than that, and 2 others that were only .01 xG less. The Possession also looks a lot worse when we remove the Defensive and Middle Thirds. Gotham had 188 Touches in the Attacking Third, and 31 Touches in the Attacking Penalty Box, compared to only 121 and 16 in those categories for Angel City. I like to look at Passes Into the Attacking Penalty Box also, because I think that a completed pass to a teammate in the box is usually more dangerous than a carry. Gotham had 12 Passes Into the Attacking Penalty Box, while Angel City only had 2. Gotham also had 32 Shot Creating Actions to our 14. So, did Berger make some great saves against us? Yes, she did. And was Haračić at least partially at fault on Dunn’s goal? Again, in my opinion, yes. And maybe with a different role of the dice, we could have at least stolen a point. But the fact is that Gotham generated a lot more quality chances than we did and I think that they deserved to win the match.

Chances

Before we get to the goals, I wanted to look at a few illustrative chances for both teams that did not, in fact make it into the back of the net.

14:15 - Haračić receives the ball back from Vignola. Vignola is wide left, and Reid is short right, while Haračić is right in the center. Haračić is looking up, seeming to want to play a longer ball. Ella Stevens decides to challenge Haračić, because of course she does. Just last week she managed to win the ball off the goalie and just dribbled it in, scoring that goal with the mythical .98 xG. Haračić is completely focused downfield, and doesn’t seem to see Stevens coming, but does her kick off. Stevens, however, manages to get a boot on it, but it just deflects to Vignola. There’s a few things I want to talk about here. First, is the break down in communication. If Haračić wants the ball played long, she should push her defenders up. And if an attacker is rushing the goalie, someone NEEDS to call that out. Our seats were pretty close to this end, and I’m positive that nobody did. The next issue is the positioning of the the Defensive Midfielders. When Haračić goes to make her pass, Ella Stevens is blocking a path to Nabet, and Rose Lavelle is blocking the path ro Rodríguez. These aren’t necessarily bad positions, as I think that they are both in decent spots to receive the ball from the fullbacks. But either the defensive midfielders need to know that they have to provide an option for the goalie to play it out, or the goalie has to know to take the safe pass out wide, and then let the fullbacks move it up. Instead, the only options that Haračić had were options that she didn’t like. On top of this, the rest of the team seems very spread out over the field, and it’s been weeks since Tweed spoke about Angel City being too expansive, but nothing’s changed. In fact they just had an international break to work on this. In this sequence, it seemed like four players were trying to play out of the back, and seven players were trying to play direct. and zero players actually knew what was going to happen. I’m don’t even have an opinion on what style we should play, but it should be a prerequisite that all eleven players are trying to do the same thing, and that when we have the ball, everyone at least has a decent idea about what the next step is. And finally, just as part of putting facts over narrative, this was another bad giveaway by Haračić that she got away with. Anderson lost her job as the starter after some terrible giveaways that ended up in the back of the net. Haračić has not been any better in that respect, other teams just haven’t punished her for it (see Tyler Lussi in the game vs NC Courage for another example). My takeaway from this is actually not whether Anderson or Haračić is better in goal, but rather that we just shouldn’t be putting our goalies in the position that they have to make these kinds of plays.

16:46 - This play begins with Vignola getting the ball and trying to carry the ball into the box, before getting dispossessed. She then tries to press Gotham into winning it back, but she’s the only one who is pressing (again, do we press after losing possession or not? Either Vignola was wrong, or the other attackers were). Gotham plays the ball back to Berger who just clears it out, almost to the halfway line on Angel City’s left. As Vignola had pushed so far forward (as she should, I think), Reid comes across to collect the ball, but misses it entirely, and the ball bounces through to Ella Stevens. She doesn’t collect it cleanly, but finds Dunn on the overlap. Dunn puts the ball into the box to a wide open Rose Lavelle, but Haračić makes a great stop.

Now the player that I really want to focus on in this sequence is Rocky Rodríguez. When Reid misses the ball, Rodríguez is only about three yards away, and in my opinion, when your left fullback is all the way up the field, and then the ball bounces over your centerback, a defensive midfielder should immediately be trying to get back to provide cover. But that is not what Rodríguez does. In fact, at that moment when Reid misses the ball, Rose Lavelle is about 8 yards behind Rodríguez, and yet by the time Lavelle gets the ball in the box, she’s almost 20 yards ahead of Rodríguez. I think that Rocky absolutely has to track Lavelle’s run here, and in fact, she’s so far out of position, that when I saw this in person, it never occurred to me that it was her mistake.

Unfortunately, the sequence doesn’t end there. Yazmeen Ryan collects the rebound from Haračić. Curry had been pulled all the way to the left to cover after the ball went over Reid, but sprints back now, going past Lavelle to take up a position on the six yard box with Gisele Thompson. Both Reid and Nabet try to close down Ryan, but they’re not really close enough to make the challenge. At this point Rodríguez does kind of catch up to the play, and she also goes for Ryan. So, Ryan collects the ball, we have six Angel City players in the center channel (including Haračić), and only the one Gotham player (Ryan). The other Gotham players are all spreading out, and sure enough, Ryan finds Lavelle, again wide open. This time the ensuing shot is blocked by Gisele Thompson, and Angel City is able to clear the ball.

I remember thinking after this sequence, “How is Rose Lavelle, of all people, that open, not only once, but twice?” Even despite the two goals that we did concede, I thought that this was the most catastrophic sequence of the whole game. And even though I focused on Rodríguez, I think that there were mistakes from almost every defender. I also want to be clear, I’m not saying that Rodríguez is lazy or terrible or anything like that. I know that she had a tough international break, having to fly all the way down to Buenos Aires and back. Maybe when she saw that Stevens didn’t control it cleanly, she thought that things were under control. But they say that attackers need to be optimists and defenders need to pessimists. Rose Lavelle was optimistic that her 50 yard run would put her in open space to get a shot away, and she was right. Rodríguez was not nearly pessimistic enough about how much the defense would break down. Also, with Gorden out, she’s the most veteran presence amongst the defensive group, so I think that she does need to shoulder more responsibility.

45’+3:00’ - Okay, turning to a good passage of play. Angel City had an extended run of possession in the first half stoppage time. Coming off a Le Bihan corner, the ball is cleared out to Alyssa Thompson (just a quick aside, Alyssa should be in the box on corners*). She gets out out wide left to Vignola, who has a nice interplay with Rodríguez, and Rodríguez puts a fantastic through ball back to Vignola. She takes it to the endline, and puts a terrific pass across the face of goal, but Berger kicks out a boot to deflect it away. Gotham clears, it, but it’s immediately recovered by Angel City and quickly cycled around. It ends up on Angel City’s right side with Gisele Thompson. She takes it one v one against Nighswonger and beats her with a nice stutter step, before putting in a cross towards the back post. And guess who’s there? Her sister Alyssa, arriving just on time. Alyssa beats her marker, and puts her header on goal. Unfortunately, it’s right at Berger. I don’t think that Berger knew too much about it, but she did a good job to corral the rebound and make sure that there wasn’t a second chance. I think that this kind of play is exactly what we want to see from the Thompson sisters, however. I also really like how good of a job Angel City did to keep Gotham pinned in their own end for an extended period of time.

* It looks like on corners our taller players, such as they are, get forward, and Alyssa is one of the players to stay back. I understand the reasoning on this. She’s fast enough to cover a lot of ground, and she doesn’t really have a lot of height to win a contested header. However, she clearly needs a goal. It will take so much pressure off her to score a goal. And while she might not win the first ball, I think that she would have opportunities to pounce on any loose balls or mad scrambles and maybe, finally, get that elusive goal.

Goals

26’ Gotham - This begins with an Angel City giveaway in the attacking third. Leroux tries a square ball, but it’s behind Le Bihan and is intercepted by Rose Lavelle, who ironically was tracking back to cover Rodríguez. The ball goes off the ref, but stays with Gotham, Sheehan to be exact, and she makes a gorgeous outside-of-the-boot pass to find Ryan on Gotham’s left. At this point, it’s a 3 v 3, just inside Angel City’s half. Ryan takes the ball inside, and lays it off to Crystal Dunn on Gotham’s right. Dunn squares up Vignola, then gets the ball onto her right boot and gets the shot away. It’s a low shot to the far post, which is exactly what I think attackers should always do in those situations, yet they so rarely do. Haračić does get a glove on it, but it looks like she doesn’t really have her feet set, and the ball trickles in, just inside the post. Vignola, does what she’s supposed to, I think. She shows Dunn outside, to narrow the angle, and could have done better to block the shot, but she also doesn’t want to dive in and give away a penalty. I think that this goal happens in part because Haračić doesn’t make the save, and in part because Crystal Dunn is good at soccer. To me this is kind of just a These Things Happen Sometimes Goal. I think that the thing that I actually want to point out is that this was really just a well executed transition goal. As soon as they won the ball, Gotham were off and running. But the key players in this move, namely Sheehan, Ryan, Stevens (her off the ball movement does a lot to open up the middle for Ryan to cut in), and Dunn don’t represent a talent level higher than Angel City has. I think that we have the players to execute goals like this, we’re just not organized enough to do it.

51’ Angel City - I actually don’t know that there is a lot to analyze in this. From a throw-in in the attacking third, on Angel City’s right, there’s a bit of back and forth between Le Bihan and Thompson, before Le Bihan crosses the ball in. Leroux draws the attention of Sonnett and Davidson. Sonnett is actually maybe too aggressive, as she kind of clears Leroux entirely out of the way. Berger has to play the possibility that Leroux will get her head on the ball, but when that doesn’t happen, Berger doesn’t have enough time to react and the ball sneaks through. This is exactly the cross that Le Bihan should make (and let’s not kid ourselves, it was a cross, even Le Bihan said so). It’s on target, so it’s dangerous whether Leroux gets a piece of it or not. But I doubt that Gotham will be too upset by this goal. This is also a These Things Happen Sometimes Goal. There were only two Angel City players in the box, and Leroux was really the only target, and the shot actually only had an xG of .02. But good things happen when you put the ball in dangerous spots. Credit to both Leroux and Le Bihan, and Alyssa Thompson gets her 4th assist. Last year Emslie led the team with 5.

62’ - Gotham - From a short Gotham corner kick, Rose Lavelle puts the ball into the box. There’s a bit of pinball, and then Leroux kind of slices a clearance. Sonnett collects it Gotham’s left, and moves to Sheehan, who gets it to Ryan, who gets it to Lavelle again, who has stayed on the right after the corner, with Emslie defending her. As Lavelle collects the ball, Angel City’s backline drops towards goal, expecting a cross, I imagine. It doesn’t come, but that opens up a pocket of space, and Sheehan runs into it. She holds up the ball, and I think is actually trying to turn the corner, but is stopped by Le Bihan. Unfortunately, Lavelle followed her pass in, collects the ball, and buries it near post. Emslie and Rodríguez are the two other closest defenders, and when Lavelle makes the pass to Sheehan, they both turn and follow the ball. Neither of them realize that Lavelle is making a run until it is too late. Rodríguez tries to make a challenge, but Lavelle is already past her when she does. It’s not great defending by Leroux, Emslie, or Le Bihan in this sequence, but they’re all attackers (and honestly it’s not bad defending either). Again, I feel like Rodríguez has to do better here. I’m not sure why she’s actually the Angel City player furthest forward, leaving someone like Le Bihan to defend the box, but from that position, she ends up with her back to both Sheehan’s run and Lavelle’s run. Tweed takes off Rodríguez immediately after this goal.

Other Odds and Ends

• There was an odd moment in the 73’ when Vignola went down with an injury. During the stoppage, Becki Tweed was talking to both Leroux and Le Bihan and was pretty animated. I read it as taking advantage of the stoppage to impart some tactical change. She didn’t seem angry with either player. But then, as the stoppage continued, they hold up the board to replace Le Bihan with Fuller. I really don’t know what happened here, if this was actually a call by the medical staff, or someone else. But it is pretty weird to impart a bunch of information to a player and then take her off the field. Again, this seems like the teamwide feeling that everyone isn’t on the same page. I’d also like to see Le Bihan and Fuller playing together some time.

• Fun Fact: the ages of the Starting XI were 27.9 Years Old for Gotham and 27.6 Years Old for Angel City. So not really as young of an Angel City team as people talk about.

• It was good to see Spencer with the captain’s armband at the end of the match.

• It was interesting to see Gotham’s Fan Fest, supporters, etc. It was good, but suffice it to say that Angel City does it better. There was also a good representation of ACFC fans attending the match.

• The big news today, if you didn’t see, is that Christen Press is supposed to join first team training this week. I’m curious, when she’s 100%, who’s spot she takes in the front three.

The next game is Saturday 6/15, at 6:30p Pacific, away to Houston, on Ion. There will be three games over the course of seven days, so this could be a crucial run, and maybe not having time to think about things will actually help the team. I’m going to be traveling during this week, so I’ll still have my match analysis, but it will probably take a little longer than usual to get it out. I’m also going to have a midseason progress report, so something else to look forward to.