ACFC 2-4 KC Current

Watching Saturday’s game, I finally got to see an attacking front three combining well, pulling the defense out of position, and finishing with aplomb. Unfortunately, it was Kansas City’s front three of Alexa Spaanstra, Bia Zaneratto, and Temwa Chawinga doing the damage. Overall, I thought this game was a mess, from an Angel City perspective. I thought that we were outplayed in every single facet of the game, and frankly, the scoreline is flattering to us. The obvious talking points are goalkeeping and VAR, but I think that’s only a small piece of the puzzle. I think that Angel City’s problems go much, much deeper than that. I’m going to take a look in depth at all six goals to try to figure why they happened, and what that says about the team. I’m going to get pretty deep into the weeds on them, so just skip ahead to the end if you just want my overall thoughts. It would probably be helpful to have the video of the goals queued up if you really want the whole experience. All stats are from FBRef.

Goals

6’ Kansas City - This play begins with a simple ball over the top that shouldn’t cause too many problems, down Angel City’s right side. The current tactical setup seems to be having one fullback push forward, while the other defenders make up a back three. In this case, Madison Curry is high up the pitch, and Sarah Gordon has moved across to cover the right side. The initial ball looks comfortable, Gordon has the positioning, but she misjudges the bounce (it seems like maybe there was bit of backspin), and instead of keeping herself between the ball and Bia, it suddenly becomes a 50/50 ball in the air. And while Gordon is blessed with many skills, height is not one of them. Bia outmuscles Gordon, wins the ball, and has an excellent first touch to take the ball into space. At this point things are looking dangerous, but not too dangerous. Bia is the furthest KC player up the field, and Nielsen is still between her and the goal. Chawinga is making a run up through the middle of the pitch, but Ali Riley is marking her. Chawinga is faster, and gets ahead of Riley, but Bia can’t make the pass because Nielsen has the angle cut off. So instead of trying to thread the needle, Bia makes the soft pass across the box, out of the reach of the Angel City defenders. Chawinga has to cut back to receive the pass, so Riley has now gotten between her and the goal. At this point, Curry and Henry have gotten back, and Di Bernardo, the KC midfielder, has also made the run diagonally, coming from Angel City’s right, through the middle. So it’s a 5 on 3 in Angel City’s favor, and again, looks dangerous, but manageable. But this is when things really fall apart. When Chawinga gets the ball, she initially cuts back to her left, into the center of the box. Riley follows, moving to her right, but this also brings both of them closer to Henry and Curry and opens up a massive hole on Angel City’s left. Di Bernardo sees that hole and continues her run into that space. So our numerical advantage is nullified. Riley, Curry, and Henry all move toward the ball, and Nielsen has dropped all the way off to the six yard box, effectively marking nobody. Chawinga makes a nice layoff to Di Bernardo and she buries it. Even so, the shot only had an xG of .25, and a Post Shot xG of .3. Anderson does seem to get her hands on it, but she also seems surprised.

So how many things went wrong here and why? I feel, just watching from the outside, that there is a lack of trust throughout the team, and that leads to the mistakes. Starting with Henry, I think that she should have been the one to follow Di Bernardo out of the midfield, but instead she moves towards the ball, seemingly not trusting or expecting Riley and Curry to make the tackle. Nielsen is immediately backing into the goal, seeming not to trust Anderson to make the stop. And Anderson doesn’t trust that Nielsen has the far post covered, leaving the near post open, where she gets beat. I also think that there is a communication problem. Riley lets herself get pulled out of position, but I don’t blame her too harshly for that. Ideally, when Chawinga cuts to her left, Riley would hand her off to Curry, but I don’t think that’s realistic. Riley usually isn’t playing left back and Curry usually isn’t playing with her, and it really shouldn’t happen that a left back is passing off defending to a right back. I think that it makes sense for Riley to stay with Chawinga, but she could have pointed out the runner (Di Bernardo) to one of her fellow defenders. Nielsen, even more so, is at fault for this lack of communication. Having dropped so deep, she’s in a prime position to be directing traffic and she should be organizing her other defenders. Anderson could also have been handling that communication. Curry, the rookie in her first start, is actually the player that I think is least at fault. She got back as fast as possible, and she occupied the space that a right back should occupy. What’s most concerning to me in this sequence is that most of the players at fault should know better. Henry, Riley, and Nielsen are all veteran players, and it’s a bad sign that none of them are communicating, or trying to organize the defense. They all just seemed to panic. Anderson is only in her second year, but a goalkeeper can and should be constantly talking with her defenders, and I also think that she could have had stronger hands for the shot. This wasn’t a single, individual error, though. This was a complete breakdown of the whole defensive structure.

45+3’ Kansas City - It looked like we were almost going to get to halftime only a goal down, but that wasn’t to be. This play begins from an Angel City free kick in midfield. Henry takes a short pass, to Nielsen on the left. Riley, Emslie, Leroux, Dougherty Howard, Fuller, and Alyssa, are all in a line, even with KC’s back line. Emslie drops off to receive the pass from Nielsen, and tries to turn with the ball, but is dispossessed, and KC starts their counter. They work the ball up to Bia who receives the ball with her back to goal at just about the halfway line. At this point it’s a 6 on 5 in Angel City’s favor. Bia receives the ball with Gordon pressuring her, but Bia does a good job to hang onto the ball and makes a slick turn to leave Gordon behind. At this point, Gordon is about 12-15 yards ahead of the defensive line, and consequently, Curry has tucked in a little bit more centrally to occupy the space that Gordon generally fills. Both Emslie and Thompson are getting back on defense. Bia passes forward to Wheeler on the right, who drops off to receive it in the half space, in front of the defensive line, which has been solid up to this point. But again, it all breaks down. Wheeler dribbles back inside, slightly centrally, and Riley goes with her, just like the first goal, opening a pocket of space on Angel City’s left. Chawinga has made a diagonal run, and Nielsen had been marking her, but let’s her go to turn and face Wheeler. When she does this, Curry steps in to mark Chawinga, which she should. But she’s facing towards Angel City’s left and is maybe not even aware that Spaanstra is creeping in behind her.

So at this point we have our two fullbacks marking KC’s two central players, both of them pulled in. Our two centerbacks are marking nobody. And just like the first goal, when Riley gets pulled inside, Di Bernardo moves into that space. Only this time she receives the ball a little bit further out and makes a one-touch cross instead of a shot. Emslie has gotten back, but sees Di Bernardo’s run much too late to do anything about it. Similarly, Thompson was back in enough time, but doesn’t seem to realize that Curry is already marking someone and leaves Spaanstra open. So even though it’s a 7 on 5 in Angel City’s favor, 4 of our players are not actually marking anyone. The kicker, of course, is Nielsen, even though she’s alone in the middle, keeps dropping back and inadvertently plays Spaanstra onsides. I’m not really trying to pick on any one player here, but it does seem like there is a disconnect. Some are are marking, while others are playing zonally, and there should be a clear idea of what a player’s responsibilities are. I also feel like communication is an issue here. If the fullbacks have their hands full, they need to be asking for help. But it doesn’t seem like anyone is taking charge of the defense. Everyone is just being very reactive.

50’ Angel City - This begins with Gordon winning the ball deep in her own half. There’s a couple things that I think go right here, but others that don’t. After winning the ball, Gordon passes the ball up the right wing to Alyssa, who puts it back to Curry. There are three Kansas City players in this channel, right along the sideline. Too many times, I think that Angel City tried to force the ball up the wing, and eventually into a dead end. However in this case, Curry spots Dougherty Howard alone in the middle and gets her the ball. Dougherty Howard continues moving it to Angel City’s left to Riley, while at the same time, Emslie starts making a run up the left flank. Curry’s decision to pass to Dougherty Howard now means that we’re breaking up field with pace. Riley carries the ball for a bit, and then passes up to Emslie, just about entering the attacking third. Emslie stays wide and the KC fullback isn’t too aggressive. Emslie sees that, cuts inside to her right foot, and puts in an inswinging cross. Two things to note before we get to the goal: 1) Fuller is making a run into the box through the left center channel, and 2) Alyssa is making a run to the back post. Leroux drifts behind Gabrielle Robinson, out of her line of sight. As Emslie is about to make the pass, Robinson is seeing Fuller making a run, but not Leroux, and has that split second of indecision. Meanwhile, Izzy Rodriguez, the KC left back, knows that she has Thompson behind her, and knows that she doesn’t have any help, so Alyssa is her responsibility. Besides, until right before the cross, Robinson is marking Leroux. Emslie puts the ball on a sixpence, and because it’s an inswinger, Adrianna Franch can’t come out for it. It’s actually not a good header on Leroux’s part. She gets it down, which is the most important part, but it’s lucky to go right between Franch’s legs. The post shot xG was actually only .16. Leroux does a good job drifting away from her defender, but I think this goal happens for a lot of other reasons. Curry and Dougherty Howard getting the ball into space, and allowing Angel City to break with speed means that the KC defenders are running back towards their goal. And a defender running and looking back over their shoulder is going to have more blindspots than a defender in position, facing the action. The runs of Alyssa and Fuller give the defenders something to think about other than Leroux, and Emslie puts in a spectacular cross. Leroux does a good job finding the seam, but notably, I don’t think that she creates that space for herself. I’d put her choices down as the fifth most important in creating that goal, and she still almost undid all the other work by heading it straight at the goalie. For her career, she’s 62.8% on Aerial Duels, so I’m not prepared to say that she’s become a true target forward and that sending crosses into the box is a winning formula going forward.

51’ Kansas City - So just one minute later, it all falls apart again. Right off the kickoff, Kansas City tries to send the ball wide, but Emslie intercepts it, heading the ball to Leroux. Emslie, Dougherty Howard, Fuller, and Alyssa all start making runs up field, hoping to catch KC in transition. Leroux, despite not having any real pressure on her, doesn’t try to make the turn, though, and passes the ball back to Nielsen. Riley goes wide at this point, but Nielsen doesn’t even look to her, instead passing the ball back to Anderson. I have to assume that this is what Becki Tweed wants: keep possession, make the safe pass, build out of the back. Unfortunately, half the team had started running up the field when we intercepted the ball, so when Anderson gets the ball, there are only five Angel City players in our defensive half. Nielsen and Gordon both do what they’re supposed to and move to the sides of Anderson. They’re both wide open. Anderson takes her time, though, and waits until Bia starts to close her down (and I should note that Bia is not super aggressive in this, just kind of a courtesy pressure, in my opinion). At this point I don’t know what happens. I don’t know if Anderson panics or it’s just miss hit. She doesn’t go fo the short options to the open Nielsen or Gordon, or even the short option to the not-as-open-but-still-kind-of-open Henry. She doesn’t go for the medium pass to the open Curry or Riley on the wings. She sends a 30 yard pass with no great pace up the middle, maybe to Dougherty Howard? But even Anderson has no illusions about this and is sprinting back to her goal before the ball is even intercepted. Dougherty Howard challenges for it, but she’s never going to win. The ball comes out to Spaanstra, who makes a very good one-touch pass to Bia. Nielsen comes in with a very, very hard challenge on Bia. I’m guessing that she was trying for a yellow card, just to end the play. But Bia is very good at holdup play, withstands the challenge, and makes the turn. And because Nielsen committed 1000% to her tackle, there is now a huge hole on the left side of the field, which Chawinga is more than happy to run into, and receives the pass from Bia. Riley is about 20 yards away because two seconds ago, she was trying to be open for a pass from her keeper and was staying away from all KC players. Spaanstra was also making a run, so Gordon couldn’t fully commit to coming across until it was too late. Chawinga looks like the clinical finisher that she is and buries her shot.

Look, let’s be clear, this was a horrendous mistake by Anderson. She had at least five better options than the one she made, and even if it was just a misplayed pass, she took way too long to make a decision. For Nielsen, committing to that tackle was a big gamble, and one that she lost. But I also see Kansas City doing all the things that Angel City doesn’t. After the interception, it’s a one-touch forward pass to your striker. Then it’s that striker withstanding pressure, making the turn, and making another forward pass. They pounced before the defense could get set. In contrast, only 30 seconds earlier, Angel City intercepted the ball in a similar area of the pitch, but under no pressure, proceeded to make two passes backwards and let KC off the hook. Even if Leroux had made the short back pass to Henry, instead of all the way back to Nielsen, Henry could have picked out about four different runners and started the counterattack. Again, I’m guessing that Tweed wanted this, because neither Leroux or Nielsen even look around for options, they just make the back pass. But if this was the plan, and the whole team was drilled on it, then half of them wouldn’t have tried to start a counterattack. Yes, Anderson is very at fault, but again, the whole team doesn’t seem to know what they’re supposed to do. It’s a collection of mistakes, each one compounding the previous.

78’ Angel City - I don’t know that there is as much to analyze here, but there’s a couple good points. First, it should be noted that Curry earned this corner with a nice teasing ball, that was probably going out, but forced Franch into making an awkward choice. Emslie chose the outswinger this time, and the set piece worked really well. Nielsen and Bright, the clear targets, were not actually in the mixer, they were out closer to the penalty spot. They get more of a mismatch, and ensure that they win the initial header, which ends up being Nielsen. Riley has her back to goal, but does a great job laying it off. And Curry knows it’s the speed of the shot, not placement that matters, and so she just hits it first time. This looked like a designed set piece that worked perfectly. And another great delivery from Emslie. No idea how she hasn’t gotten ACFC Player of the Match in either of the last two games.

90’ + 2’ Kansas City - I also don’t even know what to say about this one. This one is entirely on Anderson. Coming off a free kick, this is kind of a mess from before the start. Anderson is not set, still trying to organize a one person wall, even though the ball is more than 40 yards out. KC doesn’t even try to put it in the box at first, instead moving it across to the Angel City left. From there Wheeler puts a ball into the box, but not particularly driven, just lofted. There are 4 ACFC defenders and only 1 KC attacker in the center of the box. But Anderson calls all of them off. Nielsen even ducks out of the way for her. It looks to me like a catchable ball, but Anderson instead chooses to punch it, and it only goes about 5 yards and straight to Bia, who puts it into the empty net. I don’t know what Anderson thinks the team is gaining here, unless she does catch it. But a punch seems pretty equal to a free header for Nielsen. I would bet on Nielsen winning that ball and clearing it 100 times out of 100. It really looks like Anderson is

This is maybe going to be the hardest goal for the team to get over, and I think that Anderson should be pulled for at least the next couple of games. I think that her biggest issue is with distribution, and I don’t think that Haracic is any better at that. I have no idea how good Hannah Stambaugh is at it. But what’s going to happen next time Anderson calls for a ball, but Nielsen knows that she can win that header? I think that Anderson just needs to be out of the spotlight for a little bit, for her own long term growth. Angel City also changed goalkeeping coaches in the offseason, and I have to wonder how much of an impact that’s made. Because Anderson does look a lot worse than last year.

Conclusions

I’ll touch on the VAR just for a minute. I didn’t think that it was offside. Claire Lavogez clearly plays the ball before Fuller touches it, and I think that a KC player deliberately getting a touch should reset things. But I also think that it doesn’t matter. In a best case scenario, the goal would have counted, and Anderson wouldn’t have botched the punch and we would have come away with a draw. But that wouldn’t have changed all the things that went wrong in this match. And as I detailed, there seem to be multiple instances of Angel City players just not being on the same page. It seemed rare, if not unheard of, for the defense, midfield, or attack to know and have confidence in what their teammates were doing. And watching Kansas City just made it worse. Chawinga and Bia both joined KC this year. This is only their third official match together, and yet they seem to have a better understanding of how to play off each other than Alyssa and Leroux. Where the KC players create space for each other, and make use of the space created, the Angel City players seem to just wait and watch when a teammate gets the ball. There’s nothing to expect, except watching her try and take on four defenders by herself. I know I’m seeming to pick on Leroux a lot in this article, and I’m not trying to, but I thought that she didn’t have a good match, in spite of the goal. Messiah Bright has also not made a good case for starting instead, but consider this: in 65 minutes, Leroux had 20 total touches and only 6 in the Attacking Third, to go along with 13 Pass Attempts (9 completed). In 25 minutes, Bright had 14 total touches, 5 of which were in the Attacking Third, and 11 Pass Attempts (8 completed).

I don’t want to say this is all Leroux’s fault, though. I don’t think that she’s comfortable playing as a No 9. I think that she likes to get the ball with a little bit of space, not with her back to goal and under immediate pressure. And regardless of who is playing the role, I think that our No 9 is too isolated. The wingers tend to stay wide, and with the new formation of a holding midfielder and two central midfielders (as opposed to last year’s version of two holding midfielders and an attacking midfielder), the midfielders are too far away. I think the previous system suits our players better.

Which brings me to my next concern, which is having Henry as the base of the midfield. She’s never been a defensive minded midfielder. On her FB Ref Scouting report, compared to other midfielders, she’s in the 77th percentile in tackles, 70th percentile in Touches in the Defensive Third, but 97th percentile in Shot Creating Actions, 91st percentile in Progressive Passes, and 88th Percentile in Passes into the Final Third. Henry should be the metronome in midfield dictating the pace of the match. With Lyon, she often had 70 Pass Attempts a game. With Angel City, it’s been a high of 50, and a low of 36 against Orlando. The game is often passing her by, and I saw at least five times that that was because her teammates were just not passing her the ball. I don’t know if this is because of Tweed’s tactics, i.e. maintaining possession by passing the ball around the back four. I don’t know if this is a personality thing and she’s just not fitting in. I thought that her loan to Lille in the offseason was trouble, and I think it hurt her and Angel City for her to miss preseason. But if her role is supposed to be running around putting out fires and making tackles left and right, it’s just not happening. I’d assume Rodriguez is going to take over this role, but really, who knows?

And finally, this emphasis on playing out of the back, really doesn’t seem to suit Anderson, and she won the goalkeeping job out of preseason. Of the 6 goals that Angel City has conceded, three are directly attributable to giveaways from Anderson. And there are even more then I would like to count that have been close, or where she’s just hit the ball out of play. But that’s three players, making up the spine of the team, that are all playing in a manner that doesn’t suit their skills. Tweed needs to realize this isn’t working. After the international break, Angel City is playing Chicago away, North Carolina at home, and Kansas City again at home. Those three teams are currently the top three teams in the league. I think it’s entirely possible that come May, Angel City might still not have won a game. And if that’s the case, I think we need to question at what point should Tweed be replaced? She seems to have lost whatever magic elixir she had last year. It’s still early, but as I detailed here, the way that Angel City is playing right now shows a real lack of understanding about what the team is supposed to do in any given situation. It often seems like the emphasis is on working harder, but I think that there needs to be a better game plan, and better teamwork, actually. We have two weeks until our next game, but I think that something dramatic needs to change between now and then.