ACFC 1-3 KC Current

People often talk about a game of two halves, but this was more like a game of two halves and then second half stoppage time. I think they were three distinctly different phases of the game, and Angel City played well for two of them. There’s no need to get into the fact that it’s pretty bad to let in two goals in the last six minutes. Everyone already knows that. But the way we played for the rest of the game was solid, and will give a lot of teams trouble. I’ve always cared more about performance rather than results, and I actually thought that this was a better performance than the win vs. NC Courage. Except, of course, for that final six minutes. My feeling is that downturn had a lot to do with fatigue. To my knowledge, those kinds of physical stats aren’t shared; they’re the proprietary property of the club. But I’d bet that we saw way more sprints in the first half than the second. There were several times in the first half when I saw Angel City players, especially in the defense and midfield constantly chasing down balls, harassing KC players, and overlapping when we had possession, and that resulted in a lot of hard running. I remember thinking around the 30’ that I wasn’t sure that they could keep up that level of intensity for a full match, though. The thing is, it almost worked. And I think that Becki Tweed deserves credit for the fact that every player on the squad looked ready to run through a brick wall for her.

xG

There’s a really interesting breakdown of the xG when you divide it into the three phases I mentioned at the beginning: 1st half, 2nd half, and from the 90’ onward. Overall, KC won the xG battle handily, 2.96 xg to 1.0 xG for ACFC. That seems pretty overwhelmingly in favor of KC, but let’s break that down into my three phases. For KC, it’s .55 xG in the first half, .79 xG in the second half, and 1.62 xG in those final five minutes. This is largely skewed by the fact that Lavogez got a .9 xG on her second goal, because the models like your chances when you’re only 2 yards out and there’s no keeper in front of you. In fact, the three highest xG shots that KC had were all in that final six minutes. Angel City, on the other hand, had .8 xG in the first half (actually just the first 34’), and only three shots in the second half, but that was still good for .22 xG. Remember, in the game against North Carolina, we only had .4 xG for the whole game. So if we only look at 89 minutes, then it would be 1.34 xG for KC and 1.0 for ACFC. Not bad, but of course, 89’ is not a complete game.

I’d also like to look at a couple of individual xG stats from KC. Bia was held to 2 shots (1 on target) with .1 xG. Temwa Chawinga also had 2 shots (1 on target) for .4 xG, but both of those shots came in the second half stoppage time collapse. Di Bernardo also scored an absolute golazo. Now it’s true that she’s really good, and she put a similar shot onto the woodwork later in the game. But in general her goal had an xG of .02. The one off the woodwork had an xG 0f .03. If we limit opponents to taking those kinds of shots, they’re not going to score too many goals. Yes, Di Bernardo equalized. That doesn’t actually mean that the defense did anything that wrong. Forcing players to shoot from 25+ yards out is a good thing. This is in stark contrast to the game in KC, when every goal we conceded was due to some kind of mistake. If they beat you with a shot like that, I think all you can do is say well done. And otherwise, I think that we successfully handcuffed KC’s top attackers, something that literally nobody else has managed to do. We forced them to beat us with their depth players, and unfortunately, their depth players included the likes of Debinha and Lavogez.

3-4-3

Really interesting tactical switch from Becki Tweed, and I applaud the decision to make the switch, as much as it scared me to see us trying something new against the top team in the league. I think that it worked, though. As I mentioned above, I think that we successfully negated the threat of KC’s top players. I’m generally not a fan of three at the back, but I think that her it gave individual centerbacks license to be aggressive, and step up into challenges. I think that it also allowed our attackers to stay more central, and let the wingbacks provide the width, something that I think Spencer and Alyssa Thompson did very well. It also provided the opportunity for Alyssa and Emslie could play on the same side, something that really paid off on the goal.

I also think that Angel City played more pragmatically, with a lot less passing from Haračić. She only had 32 pass attempts in this game, compared to 56 against North Carolina and 59 against Chicago. In general, it felt like the plan was to limit time and space for KC, and to try to hurt them when the opportunity presented itself.

There also seemed to be a commitment from the whole team to defend. Angel City had 37 Tackles + Interceptions in this match, compared to only 24 T + I in the match at KC. 14 of those 37 T + I came from midfielders or attackers, which is remarkably striking since I’m counting five players as defenders in this match. I’d also like to single out Madison Curry here. She’s only played 66.8% of the available minutes, as she really only came in as an injury replacement for Vignola. Yet she leads the team in tackles, she’s played on the left and right, and now she’s stepped in as a centerback in a back three (which is definitely NOT the same role as a fullback). It’s frankly amazing that a rookie is able to not just handle this many challenges, but excel. Yes, Lavogez beat her twice, but I don’t know how much more Curry could have done that wouldn’t have resulted in a penalty. She once again was tied for the team lead in tackles for this match. My biggest regret about this formation was that Jun Endo couldn’t be a part of it, as she has thrived in a 3-4-3 for Japan. My second biggest regret (maybe tied for first, actually) is that we no longer have three centerbacks on the roster if we want to continue utilizing a 3-4-3 in the future. When we play a 4-3-3, I often feel like the midfielders just get marooned, with very few touches. If that’s going to be the case, I think that it’s not a bad idea to put one of those players somewhere else on the field where they can be more useful. According to what was said at the press conference, they only worked on the new formation for three days, and it’s amazing to me that they were this organized. It was really night and day from the last time they played Kansas City. At the beginning of the season, there was a lot of talk about how Angel City was trying to play “prettier” football, building from the back, with nice passing sequences. I think that we should comprehensively scrap that idea. Angel City plays at their best when they’re being direct, in my opinion. I’m not saying long ball, by any means, but sequences like Emslie’s second goal vs. North Carolina or Leroux’s goal in Kansas City. I think that we should embrace the identity of the team that’s going to punch you in the mouth (metaphorically). I’d be curious to know whose idea it was to play “prettier” football, because it feels like a mandate from the front office, and almost in response to Bay FC’s stated intention to be a possession based team, rather than something that Becki Tweed had wanted. Regardless, I liked seeing experimenting with the formation and tactics to limit an opponent and maximize our team’s skills.

The Goals, and Those Final Six Minutes That I’ve Turned A Blind Eye Towards Thus Far.

34’ Angel City - It’s hard to say exactly where this goal begins, as it comes at the end of a long spell of possession for Angel City in KC’s half. But we’ll say that this phase of play begins with Rodriguez winning the ball, there’s some brief passing, and she has it on the right side of the field. Rodriguez makes a pretty long pass to Hammond in the center of the pitch, who turns and sees Emslie moving out into space on the left, and finds her. Just a quick note here on Hammond: she was 16 of 17 on Medium Passes and 6 of 7 on Long Passes, better than any other midfielder. She had 2 Switches in this game, and for comparison, the rest of the team in the entire rest of the season only have 3. The way her passing range can stretch the field could be an important weapon for Angel City. Anyway, Hammond finds Emslie in space. She squares up her defender and Alyssa makes the run in behind, more towards the corner than goal. Two defenders converge on her, but she manages the return pass to Emslie, who all the defenders forgot about. She takes one touch to get around Pederson, and unleashes a left footed shot from the left corner of the 6 yard box. I can’t overemphasize how difficult it is to score from that angle with her left foot. Just pure class. But I think that quickly shifting the ball from the right to the left was a crucial part of making this goal happen, and Rodriguez and Hammond are the unsung heroes. I’m also really liking seeing Alyssa turn provider, rather than finisher.

53’ Kansas City - I don’t think there is too much to say about this goal. As I stated before, it’s an absolute banger, and it’s not really a very open look. Megan Reid is right there, though she’s kind of blocked off by Feist. The biggest thing to look at is that everyone has completely collapsed in towards goal. When Feist receives the ball, Angel City is basically in a Back 7 with both wingbacks and both defensive midfielders dropping back to the same line as the centerbacks. Reid is aggressive, and steps forward to keep the pressure on Feist, but there is that pocket of space in front of the line, since everyone dropped back. The really concerning part is that KC forced all those players back with only four players of their own. So yes, this was preventable, but it’s still a ridiculous shot. Again, only .02 xG.

90’ - Okay, admittedly things completely fell apart. Before we get to the goal, I just want to look at the personnel on the field. in the 80’ Angel City brought on Ali Riley and Gisele Thompson. for Alyssa Thompson and Jasmyne Spencer, which I’d view as a more defensive adjustment. Merritt Mathias was still on the bench, but she was the only defender left. I thought that at this point, Angel City were parking the bus, and looking to get out of the game with a point. And I’m sorry to be blunt about it, but this is exactly the situation that it would have been helpful to bring Nielsen off the bench. If you want to barricade the door, she’s going to be more helpful than a full back, in my opinion. So moving on to the actual goal. KC brings it up their left channel and Izzy Rodriguez passes ahead to Debinha, towards the corner flag. Gisele is marking her closely, and prevents her from getting to the end line. So Debinha just drifts back away from goal, as nonchalant as can be, dribbling all the way back to where Izzy Rodriguez is. At this point Debinha uses a run through the middle to fake like she’s going to pass to the center, but uses that to spin back to the outside and get past Gisele. Izzy Rodriguez has basically been standing still, but makes the overlapping run when she sees this. Leroux starts to go with her, but then lets her go, maybe because Rocky Rodriguez is also moving in, but not quickly. It’s actually Gisele who makes up the most ground in pursuit, while Sarah Gorden also comes out to challenge, but again doesn’t really close the ground. The fact that Gorden, Rocky Rodriguez, and Leroux all kind of close in, but none of them get there is what makes me think that fatigue was an issue here. Izzy Rodriguez gets to the endline and puts in a low cross. At this point Angel City has nine players back (plus Haračić, thus why I thought they were parking the bus), compared to seven for KC. But KC do exactly what they’re supposed to. Chawinga drops off to the penalty spot, LaBonta and Mace take up positions on the edge of the penalty box, Cooper makes a run to the far post, and Lavogez makes the run to the near post. They immediately spread out so wherever that cross goes, they have a target. Also, none of their players are static. Everyone is forcing a defender to make a decision. In the end, it goes to Lavogez, who I think does well to flick it on target. Curry is chasing her, but is a step behind, and I wonder if part of that is that she’s used to being a fullback, and it’s not natural for her to chase a player to the opposite side of the field. I also feel like Haračić was cheating a little to ensure that she wasn’t beaten on her near post, but it is a point blank shot, and there’s not a lot she could do. Tactically, I don’t think that there were any mistakes with this goal. I just think that players were tired and they fell asleep for just a split second. It still required a tremendous amount of skill by all the KC players, but I thought this was just poor execution by the defenders, rather than the systemic breakdowns the last time we played the Current.

90+3’ Kansas City - Prior to this goal, the Current more or less maintain possession for a full minute, mostly just passing around the back. This is frustrating, as Angel City is down a goal, yet there is no pressure at all on the ball, which also contributes to my feeling that fatigue was an issue here. Eventually, they move into the attacking third where Chawinga makes a loose pass and Dougherty Howard collects. She has an option to pass back to Gorden, but thinks better of it, maybe because Debinha is pressuring her. Dougherty Howard successfully evades that challenge, but KC know how to hunt in packs, and both Chawinga and LaBonta close is and dispossess Howard. Chawinga emerges with the ball and dribbles up the left inside channel, almost to the endline. She gets just a step on Gorden and puts in a cross. Reid and Haračić are practically shoulder to shoulder, yet somehow it gets through. It almost looks like it deflects of Haračić’s boot and over her hand. Lavogez is crashing the net and Debinha is arriving as a late runner, so Kansas City has two players to attack the ball wherever it ends up. Again, it’s Lavogez, who again gets to the wrong side of Curry. But I don’t know quite what more Curry can do; she’s risking a penalty if she tries to come across. I think that Haračić really just has to do a better job there. It’s a bad goal, but it’s also down to a lack of execution and fatigue, and I think these are things that can be worked on. The first step is having a structure and players knowing where they’re supposed to be, and I don’t think that was a problem here. There were two more chances for Chawinga after this, one that she really should have buried, but I’m just putting that down to the emotion of losing the game right at the death. That’s really hard, and I don’t think that there needs to be additional criticism of the players for it.

Conclusions

After the 4-2 loss in Kansas City, I felt like we look unorganized, with no clear game plan, and all the goals we conceded were self-inflicted. As our three games in April were against the top three teams in the league, that seemed particularly worrying, and I thought that it was a real possibility that we’d only have 1 point after six games. And that was before I knew about the trades of Henry and Nielsen. However, we got six points in those three games, the team seems to have rallied around each other after the trades, and Tweed has successfully jettisoned some tactics that don’t work and is open to trying new things. Don’t get me wrong; I think that Angel City is far, far away from being the finished article, but I do feel like we’re on a better track than we were a month ago. We have a number of winnable games in May, and I’d like to see continued progress, not just results, in those games.

Next game is 5/3 at Utah at 6:30p Pacific.