Messiah Bright
The deals seem like they’re just about everyday now. With preseason underway, that’s a good thing. Let’s get players in early so that they have time to integrate into the team. The latest is Messiah Bright, acquired from Orlando for $130,000 in intra-league transfer funds, and I’m a little conflicted about the move. First, the reasons to be excited. She finished last season as a Rookie of the Year finalist, with 6 league goals. That was good for an 8th place tie in the league scoring race, and tied for 5th in non-penalty goals. She was also 8th in xG, and 7th in xG per 90. She has a good reputation for hold up play, and has the size at 5’9” to be more of a target forward than anyone else on the roster (except Casey Phair). If you go back to look at the goal she scored against Angel City on April 2nd, 2023, you can see all the attributes she brings. She has the speed to hold off Sarah Gordon, the strength to hold off Megan Reid, and the awareness to slip the ball past an onrushing Haracic. Over the course of the season, she scored headers, goals outside the box, goals off the rush, and goals in crowded areas. She does fit the role of a #9 better than probably anyone else in Angel City’s history. And I do think that this is a good deal for the price. The word is that Bright had requested a move, so that might have helped.
But at the same time, this deal isn’t the blockbuster that I was hoping for. Bright’s shots-on-target-percentage of 29.3 isn’t great, and her return of 6 goals from 6.2 xG over 22 games is also not what you’d like from a top striker. It’s actually encouraging to me that she didn’t massively overperform her xG, as it seems unlikely that those six goals were a fluke, which is a concern when you’re only looking at a one season sample size. Her goals per 90 (G/90) of .39 is actually right about equal to Katie Johnson last year (.38 G/90), but those 6 goals were better than anybody else at Angel City, so this move should be viewed as an upgrade over last season. It’s also not as if Bright was in a situation in Orlando where she was having to make it all happen herself. Marta and Adriana are great players to have on the pitch alongside you, and they definitely created opportunities for Bright. I think that Angel City will provide better options for her on the pitch, but maybe that’s just my bias. Still, as I mentioned in the Rocky Rodriguez article, I wonder if it would have been better to take a free option at midfield, like re-signing Dani Weatherholt, and then spending big on a top striker. We saw Jenni Hermoso move to Tigres this winter, and Ada Hegerberg is available in the summer. Could Man City have rejected a $400,000 bid for Khadija Shaw? (I’m assuming ACFC has that much money to spend, but since we spent $275,000 on Rocky Rodriguez, I think the answer is yes). I’ll talk more about this in my next article, but the move for Bright does feel like a more measured approach.
So I guess I feel like this is a good signing, but with a number of question marks around it. It all comes down to whether Bright can take a step to improve in her second season. She is very much in the mold of striker that I think we needed. Best case scenario, we see Bright be the focal point our attack has needed and finish next season with 10 goals, Alyssa Thompson also finish with 10 goals, and Emslie finish with at least 10 assists. If we see that happen, then I think we’re definitely in the playoffs and we can call this a great signing.