ACFC 2-4 Washington Spirit

Another tough loss, with the worst part being an injury to Gorden that looked serious. We’re definitely hoping she’s okay, because I think what she brings to this team go far beyond numbers. The most problematic aspect to me from this performance isn’t the loss, or the four goals conceded. It’s the lack of consistency on a week to week basis. Against Houston, it was arguably too conservative, and not generating enough in the final third. In this match, it was often wide open, which is pretty much counter to the usual practice of focusing on defense on the road, to try to get out of there with at least a point. And the only conclusion that makes sense to me is that we’re not in control of any of our games. Washington thrives on chaos and wanted a very transitional game. Houston wanted a slower game where they wouldn’t have to commit numbers forward and they might be able to steal a win with a goal off a set piece or a counterattack. Utah wanted to play a physical, gritty game. North Carolina wanted to keep possession and continuously generate chances. All of those teams got what they wanted, despite differing results. In fact, the only game that I think we didn’t let the opponent control the game, was the Kansas City game at home. I think that KC wanted to hit us on the counter, but instead, we let them have the ball. And it worked for 89’, but in the end, their quality came through. Every week, we play an incredibly different style, and never seem to build off of the previous week’s experience, and I think that’s because every week, we’re letting our opponent dictate the style of play. And honestly, this came as a bit of a revelation to me. I’ve been saying for a while that we need a tactical identity, but of course, it stands to reason that without one, the other teams identity will fill the void.

Finishing and Goal Scoring

Something that has really stood out to me at this point in the season is the lack of different goal scorers. Currently, Emslie has 5 Goals, Leroux has 3, and Curry has 1. We’ve also gotten the benefit of 2 Own Goals. When we look at Assists, Alyssa Thompson has 3 and Emslie has 2 and that’s all. Le Bihan should get something for the Own Goal against Washington, but officially, she doesn’t. So that’s 11 Goals scored with only three players as recorded goalscorers, and only two players getting assists. When we compare that to other teams, we find that even teams really struggling are doing better than we are in this regard. Utah has a league worst 6 goals, almost half of what Angel City has scored. Yet even they have 4 separate goalscorers. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Kansas City now have 14 different goalscorers on the season for their 25 goals.

The glaring omission from our goal scoring list is Alyssa Thompson. She leads Angel City in shots on the season with 18, but only has 3 on target. Her shots total 1.7 xG. My own feeling is that she’s trying too hard; she keeps trying to pick out the top corner, when just getting low, hard shots on target will suffice. I also think that we can expect some regression to the mean over the course of the season, and when she finally rids herself of the pressure of that first goal, I think that more will follow pretty quickly. So I’m actually not as worried about her.

Next on the list of total Shots is, surprisingly, Meggie Dougherty Howard, despite missing a few games now, with 13, 6 on Target, and an xG of only 1.1. Leroux is third on the list, followed by Curry and Fuller tied for fourth with 9 Shots. Emslie is sixth with only 8 Shots, and I don’t think that her current rate of 3 Goals off those 8 Shots is sustainable (penalties don’t count for this statistic). Rodríguez is next with 7 Shots. Most strikingly, Bright is only tenth with 5 Shots, 1 on target, while Katie Johnson has 0 Shots, despite having played 89 minutes. So our actual forwards are not taking many shots, and yes, Johnson and Bright are coming off the bench, but the fact that they are having such little impact when they do is a big part of the problem. Of the other players at the top of Angel City’s Shots list, something that really stood out to me was the Average Shot Distance. For Dougherty Howard, it’s 20.1 yards. For Fuller it’s 16.9 yards. Curry is 17.3 yards, while Rodríguez is 17.9 yards. These are all averaging at the edge, or outside, of the box, and that’s not an easy place to score from. Somehow we need for other players to contribute, and get shots from more dangerous positions. Vignola getting back on the field is a start. Last year she had 3 Goals, and I thought she was adept at overlapping runs to get into the box. But in the Washington game, after Thompson’s 5 Shots, our only other players with more than a single shot were Curry with 3 and Rodríguez with 2, both players I see as more defensive.

I also want to talk about Curry, here. Her goal back in the game in KC was exactly the kind we need other players contributing, but I was a little bit surprised to see her with the 3 Shots in the this game and the fifth most shots on the team, especially as she wasn’t a starter at the beginning of the season. I feel like she’s already taking on a lot of responsibility, playing the minutes that she is. Now it looks like she may have to be playing out of position as a centerback (though definitely fingers crossed that Gorden isn’t seriously injured). She really shouldn’t be looked at to be a key contributor in generating offense too. I think that she’s been doing well, even in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, but it feels like a failure of management that she’s being asked to do so much. I see it as the difference between putting a player in a position to succeed, and putting a player in a position where you hope that they can bail you out.

Maybe the way to look at this, though, is not that Curry is taking too many shots, but that the other attackers are just not taking enough. Angel City is 10th in the league in Shots per 90, and 10th in Shots on Target Percentage. If you subtract Non-penalty Goals from Non-Penalty xG, Angel City is at -2.4, meaning they’ve scored 2.4 Goals less than we’d expect based on the quality of their chances, which is good for 9th in the league.

I know a lot of fans are critical of the finishing quality (and the last couple of games have been rough in that regard). And the 10th in On Target Percentage and 9th in np:G-xG are not great, but they’re also not the worst. I think that the bigger problem is that we’re not getting enough shots in general, and there’s especially a lack of shots from our attacking players. We could definitely do with improved finishing (especially from Alyssa Thompson), but in terms of scoring more goals, I think that it’s more a matter of generating shots. And that includes our players who are scoring. Emslie and Leroux have 8 and 10 shots respectively. For comparison, Rodman has 29, while Sophia Smith has a staggering 45. And if we look at other team’s attackers coming off the bench, Linnehan in Portland has 9 Shots and Michelle Cooper in KC has 10 shots, much better numbers than Bright and Johnson’s 5 and 0. Of course, the biggest issue, I think is getting our attackers the ball in the first place, which gets into the buildup play. I think that discussion is going to have to happen in another article, as it’s a fairly lengthy topic.

Goal Analysis

9’ Washington - This is just a bad goal to concede. It begins with an Angel City throw-in in the defensive third, on our left. Curry takes the throw, and it’s apparent that she doesn’t have a lot of options, as she’s takes a while, and looks all around, before finally taking it. Curry finally decides on a short throw to Le Bihan, but she is immediately outmuscled for the ball. There’s a little bit of pinball, with Rodríguez getting into the mix, before the ball comes out to Hatch by the sideline. Hatch goes for the corner, then cuts back, and Curry loses her footing, giving Hatch some time. I think also, that Hatch really sold Curry on a cross, and Curry overcommitted here. As Hatch drives in with her head up, Sarr has found the perfect pocket at the corner of the 18 yard box. She’s basically equidistant to Rodríguez, Reid, and Nabet, with none of them truly marking her. Hatch gets the ball to Sarr, who drives at goal. At this point, all 10 ACFC outfield players are in the defensive third, and 5 are in the box. Sarr goes directly at Nabet, but then cuts to her right, gliding past Rodríguez, who doesn’t make too much of a challenge, I’m guessing because she doesn’t want to risk a penalty. Curry does try to make a challenge, but she’s too late, and Sarr puts the ball right into the center. At this point, there are only 2 Washington players in the box, Sarr and Rodman. There are 8 Angel City players in the box. And yet Rodman gets in front of Gorden and has a perfect one-touch redirection to put the ball in the net. Through this whole sequence, Reid looks to be trying to cut off a cross behind the back line that never comes. This isn’t a goal that was the result of a tactical mistake, in my opinion. It just looked like poor positioning, and poor tackling by pretty much the entire team. There’s really no excuse for giving up a 2 v 8, not matter how good those 2 attackers are. I also want to say here that I thought that generally, Angel City handled the high press pretty well. I actually thought that we did better breaking the first line when they pressed (when they sat back, we seemed to find it really difficult). But that’s the thing with a high press: it doesn’t have to work all the time, just a couple times, to bear fruit.

20’ Angel City - I’m not entirely sure where to begin describing this sequence, as Angel City had a good spell of possession leading up to it. But we’ll start with Gisele Thompson winning the ball back off a clearance on Angel City’s left in the attacking third. She drives in centrally and lays the ball off to Rodríguez in the center, but facing both Washington’s midfield and defensive lines. Le Bihan is smart here, though, and when Gisele drives in centrally, she drifts out wide and no defenders follow her. Rodríguez gets the ball out to Le Bihan, who floats a ball into the box. A Washington defender gets to it, but it falls to Emslie. She goes down under a challenge, and Washington clears it, but not very well. Curry collects well outside the box, and puts a shot in. But rather than try to pick out the top corner, she just puts a low, hard shot into the mixer. It deflects off a Washington defender right to Le Bihan, who has remained in that space on the left, and did well to keep herself onside. This time she puts in a low, hard cross, looking for Leroux, waiting at the back post for a tap-in. It doesn’t get there, because Annaïg Butel gets a foot on it, but fontunately for us, it deflects into the net.

There’s a couple of lucky factors in this sequence, namely the deflection and the poor clearance from Washington, but there’s a lot I like. Le Bihan’s first cross is a high percentage play. There’s a number of Angel City players crashing the near post, and maybe crossing to them gets a goal (actually pretty similar to Leroux’s goal in a minute). But that’s a tight window, for both the pass and the shot, and it gives Kingsbury a chance to make a play on the ball. Instead she goes far post, where Emslie is has checked her run and is wide open. Le Bihan’s cross doesn’t actually have enough on it, but since she opted for a cross that the keeper can’t get ahold of, it’s a much better chance that Angel City keeps the ball. It does fall to Emslie, who’s really done a great job creating space for herself inside the box, and she has good positioning to keep her body between the defender and the ball. Washington wins the ball here, but if this wasn’t a goal, I think that VAR would have taken a long look at this, because Rodman looks to go right through her back. Next, Curry does well to put the ball right back into the box before the defense can recover. Curry has to know that her shot isn’t getting through, but she’s hoping that the ball falls somewhere productive. And sure enough it does. It’s another high percentage play, where there’s a good chance that the ball stays with ACFC. If she had triead to really take a shot on goal from that spot on the field, her xG was only .04, so much better probablity for what she decided to do. And finally, Le Bihan’s second cross. She collects the ball and takes a touch, almost to the endline. That forces the Washington defenders to collapse towards their net, and I think that own goals are always more likely when a defender is moving towards their net. Leroux gets into a good spot, forcing Butel to make the awkward challenge on the ball. And then the cross itself. Le Bihan drives it on the ground, with enough pace that again, Kingsbury can’t make a play, and if it did get to Leroux, she’d just have to direct it on frame. So, yes, there was a little luck on this play, but there were also several moments were Angel City kept the play alive, and in my opinion, made the right choices. If you keep the pressure on in the opponent’s penalty area, good things are going to happen.

23’ Angel City - This goal comes off a free kick, and I won’t talk about the build up, as I don’t think that there was anything too noteworthy, but kudos to Gisele Thompson for winning the foul there. It’s not a super dangerous spot, I’d think, but this goal is all about Emslie’s delivery to me. With her left foot, Emslie puts in a ball with enough curve that the defense can’t reach it. Leroux connects from about 10 yards out, and there’s enough pace on it, that she she needs to get it on frame. It’s actually not a great shot from Leroux. It’s right in the middle, and actually has a Post Shot xG of only .04, but there’s so much pace on the free kick that Kingsbury can’t react. Also, I know I say this all time, but to me, Leroux is always better at attacking the ball, rather than being a static target. I really think that she’d be better playing from a little bit deeper, and running into the box instead of leading the line.

26’ No Goal Angel City - There’s six goals to get through, so I won’t go into as much detail here, but this is a great play. Great job by Le Bihan to find Spencer wide, great run by Nabet to get into the box, keep the play alive, and put in a cross, and great job by Alyssa to hang back about 10 yards out, collect the ball and calmy bury her shot. If Spencer hadn’t been offsides, this would have been the best sequence from Angel City in this game. And I wonder how things would have looked if we were up 3-1?

30’ Washington - This sequence begins with Washington winning the ball back kind of right where their defensive third meets the middle third. This isn’t exactly a lightning counter attack, there’s a bit of passing back and forth before Hershfelt gets the ball. Nabet steps up here and fouls Hershfelt, dragging her back, but the ref calls advantage. I think that both Emslie and Spencer are guilty of ball watching here, and maybe expected a whistle, but it doesn’t happen and Kruger gets the ball all by herself on Washington’s left at the halfway line. Washington’s attackers have spread out Angel City’s back line, and there is a huge seam between Reid and Gisele Thompson, and Croix Bethune heads straight for it. Kruger has the time to pick out her pass and puts it right at the feet of Bethune, who isn’t quite able to control it. No matter for Washington. Rodman picks up the loose ball, cuts into the center, uses Reid as a screen and puts the shot right between her legs. I think that Gisele could have done better challenging Rodman for the ball, but she’s a rookie going up against one of the best players on the USWNT, so I’m not going to blame her too much. Reid is once again not in a position to make any kind of a challenge. But despite the fact that the defending isn’t great, I think the biggest breakdown is in midfield. There’s no corrdinated press, with only Nabet stepping up, and then in two passes, Washington cuts out most of Angel City’s players. No press, but also not getting back, and consequently our midfielders are in no position to help at all. Also, great credit to Washington for having four different attackers making four different runs, so that our backline gets completely pulled apart, before the cross even comes in.

34’ Washington - This sequence came from a corner, but I want to go back to what led to that. It starts with Haračić giving the ball away pretty cheaply to Trinity Rodman. She has an easier pass to Reid, but opts for the longer pass to Gisele, but the it doesn’t have enough on it, and Rodman picks it off. She tries to put in a cross, which Nabet knocks out for a corner. It’s a deep corner, and Leroux heads the ball out, but Croix Bethune is able to put a looping ball right back into the box. Tara McKeown puts in a shot from a bad angle that gets blocked, there’s a scramble in front of the net as Sarr tries to get it over the line, but Nabet makes a great goaline clearance. What’s a problem here is that Angel City completely collapses on goal. There are six defenders, plus Haračić, inside the six yard box, leaving a big pocket of space in front of them. So after Nabet’s clearance, Hal Hershfelt is able to take another shot, that Haračić saves. It’s a great save, actually, as the shot had a Post Shot xG of .47. McKeown collects the loose ball, and dribbles into the center, and literally all the Angel City defenders move across with her, but McKeown lays it off to Krueger, who puts a shot back across to her left, and into the net. This has some similarities with other goals that Angel City has conceded this year. It’s another goal from a corner kick, which makes 3 from 16 total goals conceded. And it’s another one where we just seemed to panic. There is a time and place for last-ditch defending, but it often seems like when things start to go wrong, all the defenders just seem to panic. I don’t know how else to describe it.

36’ Washington - This begins with Krueger intercepting a Le Bihan pass, right at the edge of Washington’s box. She makes a great pass up field, that looks like Sarr is coming back for it, but she let’s it bounce through for Bethune, who takes it in stride just at midfield. Bethune dribbles at full speed and Reid backs off. Sarr is making a run at this point, and you can see Nabet clocks her, but Sarr is far too fast for her. Still, Nabet doesn’t seem to try to go with Sarr; it looks more like she’s heading towards Bethune. Curry is also catching up to Bethune, and Gisele Thompson has come across as well. All four of them converge on Bethune, who is somehow able to flip the ball out to Sarr. She has a nice little chip over Haračić for the goal. It’s a shot with .6 xG, and .92 PSxG.

This goal is far too easy for Washington. Krueger’s first ball has every opportunity to get intercepted, but seemingly, all the defenders buy Sarr’s dummy. I think a little bit of this has to do with Curry playing centerback. As a fullback, she can usually be more agressive because she has people behind her. Here, she maybe needed to let Sarr go to keep the shape. Reid should have done a better job of slowing down Bethune, I think, to allow the other defenders to catch up and help out. Either Gisele or Nabet should have tried to mark Sarr. This was a 2 v 4, but it still finished with an attacker wide open. Again, everyone seemed to panic, and feel like they needed to make a last ditch tackle, when in reality, we had the numbers, so it’s just a matter of slowing them down so reinforcements can arrive and we should win the ball back. And again, someone needed to direct traffic. Haračić, or Reid, or even Nabet needs to call out for someone to mark Sarr. This goal was a failure of communication, as well as a failure of positioning and tackling.

Goalkeepers

One last thing I want to talk about is the goalkeeping situation. I saw some fans calling for her to be replaced, and giving up 4 Goals certainly isn’t a good look for Haračić, but I don’t think she was really at fault for any of them. I still think that her presence is better in goal, and if Gorden misses time, we will especially need that. There are a few things that I find interesting, though. Anderson faced 7.33 shots on target per game, while Haračić has faced 4.67 per game. Anderson has a superior Save Percentage 72.7% compared to Haračić’s 64.3% (the leader is Ann-Katrin Berger for Gotham with 90% in 5 games, for those wondering). Anderson also has a better PSxG +/- of -.7 compared to -1.2 for Haračić (neither is great). Anderson’s defensive actions outside the penalty area per 90 is also more than twice as high as Haračić, 2.00 to .83. So Anderson definitely had some bad outings, but the whole defense was pretty bad in those games. By a lot of metrics, she’s been better. This is all to say, that I don’t think that Haračić has a lock on the No 1 job. If it were me, I’d still keep her as the starter for the time being, but don’t be surprised to see someone else in goal at some point this season.

All stats in this article are from FBRef.

Next up is at home against San Diego at BMO on Thursday at 7p. It will be on CBSSN for those watching at home.