Angel City Offseason
After the flurry of recent signings, I wanted to take a step back to look at all of the incoming and outgoing players together and at some of the trends in those deals. As the move for Messiah Bright brings Angel City to it’s max roster size, I’m not expecting any more deals, but of course, we can’t rule them out either. First, I’ll look at the outgoing players, with their age, position, and role/playing time. The role is admittedly subjective, and playing time is only league play, not Challenge Cup. The Incoming section will include my opinion on the player’s prospective role.
Outgoing
Mac Pluck, 23, Midfielder, Limited Role (played 2 minutes)
Kelsey Hill, 25, Defender, Limited Role (played 0 minutes)
Scarlett Camberos, 23, Forward, Squad Player (910 minutes, 19 games played with 10 starts, but not a first choice winger when everyone was available)
Savannah McCaskill, 27, Attacking Midfielder, Starter (1,865 minutes, 22 starts in 22 games played)
Brittany Isenhour, 26, Goalkeeper, Limited Role (played 0 minutes)
Dani Weatherholt, 29, Midfielder, Starter/Squad Player (1,451 minutes, 21 matches with 15 starts, but only 122 minutes in the last five games, and was an unused substitute in the playoff game vs. Reign)
Simone Charley, 28, Forward, Squad Player/Limited Role (only 58 minutes, but I think she would have been a regular off the bench if she hadn’t been injured)
Incoming
Gisele Thompson, 18, Defender, Squad Player (I think that Riley and Vignola are still the starters at fullback, but Gisele will get opportunities off the bench)
Meggie Dougherty Howard, 28, Midfielder, Squad Player (She played 579 minutes last year for the Wave, and I’d expect we’re looking for something similar)
Felicia Knox, 23, Midfielder, Prospect (For all three draft picks, I think if they make four appearances this season, that’s a win)
Jessica Garziano, 23, Midfielder, Prospect
Madison Curry, 23, Defender, Prospect
Casey Phair, 16, Forward, Squad Player (She has the benefit of senior international experience, but I think there will be some adjustment to becoming a professional, and I see a role off the bench as most likely)
Rocky Rodriguez, 30, Midfielder, Squad Player (I’m probably in the minority here. I think most people expect her to be a starter. I expect her to play in close to 18 games for Angel City, but never for a full 90. And she may be the starter at the beginning of the season, but I think that Hammond will take it over by the end.)
Hannah Stambaugh, 25, Goalkeeper, Prospect (I don’t see Stambaugh making any league appearances as the #3 goalkeeper)
Messiah Bright, 24, Forward, Starter (She played 1,370 minutes last year, and I expect an even higher number with Angel City)
Trends
Clearly, there is a focus on young players. At first this maybe seemed coincidental; any team that could bring in a player like Gisele Thompson or Casey Phair without spending financial or draft capital would probably do so. But adding an extra pick on draft day, and then trading for a 24 year old to be the “established” striker is indicative of a policy to build a young core. My concern for this strategy is that it puts a lot of pressure on Becki Tweed and her coaching staff to develop all, or at least most, of these players. In at least some circles, these are considered possible generational talents, and if Gisele is going to be the next Lucy Bronze, and Phair is going to be the next Abby Wambach, then they’re going to need a lot of support to get there.
In the brief time of Angel City’s existence, however, I don’t think that we’ve seen great player development. I think a big share of that responsibility falls on Freya Coombe, who, from what I’ve heard, had her preferred players and wouldn’t change that hierarchy no matter how well a non-starter practiced. We’ve seen better results from Tweed, but I personally feel like Paige Neilsen, Maddison Hammond, and M.A. Vignola are the only outfield players the showed real progress by the end of the season (I’m going to leave goalkeepers out of this for the moment). The biggest concern for a lack of development is Alyssa Thompson, who I thought seemed at her best at the start of the season, and the stats bear that out. She had 3 goals in her first 6 NWSL games, and then only 1 goal in the next 14. In the first half of the season, she had 9 Goal Creating Actions and in the second half, only 5. There’s a lot to explain this, especially with the World Cup. Thompson only played more than 45 minutes on two occasions after the World Cup, so she wasn’t developing any rhythm. I also can’t imagine how mentally difficult it is to basically have both your club and international coach fired during your first professional season, and at 18 no less. She faced a lot of challenges, to be sure, but the fact remains that she didn’t seem to improve over the season.
While the number of young players looking to grow will be a challenge in terms of how much attention the coaches can give to each one, how much playing time they get, etc. I do think that they will benefit from being on the team together. There is a unique pressure to coming into the league as a teenager with high expectations, and I think they’ll do better navigating that together, and especially with the experience that Alyssa had last season.
But that brings us back to the question of is it possible for all of these players make a jump at the same time? We’re looking for strong development from Gisele, Phair, and hopefully at least one draft pick, we’re looking for a step up in the second season from Alyssa and Bright, and we’re looking for Hammond to become a regular starter in midfield and Vignola to keep her trajectory towards becoming a USWNT starting LB. I do think that Tweed is one of the better coaches in the NWSL to take on this challenge. She has extensive experience and success with youth teams, but we also can’t forget that she has not spent a lot of time as a head coach. I feel like bringing in one or two more established players that you’re expecting to play meaningful minutes would make this season easier for her (probably most people would say that’s exactly what the Rocky Rodriguez signing was). I’m not saying that Tweed won’t succeed, just that I don’t feel like she’s being put in a position to succeed. Obviously, fingers crossed that she pulls it off and that we see all of these players reach their potential.
The other facet that I wonder about is whether this is all part of a longer term plan. This upcoming season will be a difficult one to win. Portland still look strong and Gotham look very strong. There’s also the matter of the Olympics, which is going to throw a wrench into things again. And depending on how things go, our players that participate may return injured, fatigued, or generally hung over. I don’t really know how anybody can go through something as mentally and emotionally draining as a major tournament, and then just get back to the everyday routine of club life without some kind of break. So maybe the plan isn’t to go all in for 2024. Maybe it’s just about bringing in cheaper, younger talent this year, getting them some development, and having a better idea of who to build around in 2025. At that point I believe the contracts for Press and Leroux come off the books (as of right now, I can’t imagine that they would be renewed). So maybe it makes sense to wait right now, and then go for a big name signing next year. It is hard to be patient, though, when you’re seeing our rivals signing players like Fleming, Oshoala, and Lavelle.
I also think it’s possible that the front office is just a little wary of big name signings at this point. Signing Press hasn’t worked out the way that anybody wanted. Trading for Leroux only really worked out for Orlando, but not at all how Leroux or Angel City wanted. Signing Ertz probably went exactly how Ertz wanted, but was pretty bad for Angel City. And I think that Henry played well for Angel City, but was only in 5 games, and if this loan to Lille is a precursor of a move back to France, that will also be disappointing. To be clear, I have absolutely no information that Henry isn’t coming back, but as Angel City never publicly addressed the loan, and after how things went with Vanessa Gilles, I’m pretty wary. I’m doubly concerned by this, actually, because if she is leaving, then it would have been nice to have that open roster spot and clarity in January so we could sign a replacement. But back to my original point, there are reasons to be cautious about going after a big name player. My personal take, however, is that I want Angel City winning the NWSL to be the least of our ambitions. I want us to be the top club in the entire world, and I think that the ownership group shares that ambition. At some point, that will mean bringing in the biggest stars in their prime.