You can call a tomato a fruit. You can call Gisele Thompson a right-back. Both are true. Good information. Peer-reviewed data. There would be no feedback from the scientists and the scholars.
But wisdom is not putting tomato in a fruit salad, and more importantly, wisdom is recognizing that Gisele Thompson’s impact on the football pitch goes far beyond the historical understanding of how a fullback can affect a game.
The 20-year-old’s rise is coming at a particularly significant moment for Thompson, an LA-native playing for her hometown club. The World Cup arrives next year, followed by the 2028 Olympics back home in Los Angeles, giving her two-year window to that could very well send her career into the stratosphere.
If Thompson is going to make herself increasingly difficult to leave off those rosters, the argument starts with the unique collection of things she can already do from a position that doesn’t normally allow for this much versatility.
Her first priority is going backward, of course. She’s got that covered. She’s a part of a back line that has conceded the third-fewest goals in the NWSL this season. Her positioning and recovery pace make her a nuisance for opponents trying to sneak a through ball through the lines. She is only dribbled past 0.35 times per 90, an 86th-percentile mark for her position, and has made 83 ball recoveries this season (84th percentile).
And she’ll press you, my goodness she will press you. Want to receive a ball with your back to goal? Gisele Thompson is right behind you. Want a ball into space? She’ll be waiting there as well. Grabbing some produce at the grocery store? Don’t leave your cart for too long, she’ll take your apples and will be halfway across the parking lot before you even know what happened.
But defending mostly happens as a unit, and Thompson has publicly expressed the trust she has for Emily Sams as a right-sided center back after having shared a locker room with her in Los Angeles and with the US Women’s National Team. Sams and fellow defender Sarah Gorden and Evelyn Shores have undoubtedly contributed to the freedom Thompson feels to go forward at every opportunity.
Because that’s what makes her unique. She is an absolute terror going forward.
There are attacking fullbacks, and then there are fullbacks who make it their singular mission to create chaos in the attacking third. Thompson averages 4.15 touches in the opponent’s box per 90 minutes, the most of any player at her position in the NWSL.
And when she gets there, she makes things happen.
In a big ACFC win against KC Current earlier in the season, Thompson created a goal with a forward run over the top, after Jun Endo forced just a yard or two’s hesitation from the KC midfielder and fullback.
Thompson was quick to capitalize on the slight confusion, beating her defender to the long ball, beating the center back 1v1 in the box, and slotting home for ACFC’s first in a big home win against the Current.
In other moments, Thompson plays like a classic winger, just 15-20 yards deeper. She gets wide, receives it wide, and looks for her options. In ACFC’s 2-2 draw with Seattle in August, Thompson received the ball to her feet on the right wing, and with four Seattle defenders interested, patiently ran at her defender into the box, keeping all her options available.
With her ability to beat the defender to the endline so evident all season, the Seattle defenders had to cheat to the outside, giving Thompson the space she needed to take space into the box, cut inside onto her left foot, and finish into Claudia Dickey’s near post.
Thompson’s attacking versatility creates an unpleasant set of choices for whoever happens to be defending Angel City’s right side. Let Thompson run and you’ve given one of the league’s most dangerous attacking fullbacks room to create something. Commit somebody to stopping her and suddenly another attacker has space somewhere else.
And at 20 years old, she’s still only at the beginning of figuring out just how far this particular interpretation of the position can go. For Thompson, that next stage is unfolding at home, in Los Angeles, for a club that sits just miles from all the fields and parks she grew up playing in. What better place for a rising star to solidify her name amongst the best at what she does?
So yes, you can call Gisele Thompson a right-back. Technically, you’re correct.
Just don’t expect the label to tell anything close to the whole story.
