This Sunday, April 23, at 5:00 p.m., Angel City hosts San Diego Wave FC in the first leg of this season's SoCal rivalry. The game will stream live in the US on Paramount+ and internationally at NWSLSoccer.com. For more information on broadcasts, click here.
You can buy tickets to the match here.
Matchup
Angel City has played San Diego four times across all competitions, twice in the 2022 regular season and twice in the Challenge Cup.
In the Challenge Cup, ACFC drew San Diego 1–1 in LA in both clubs' first ever competitive game—a match in which midfielder Savannah McCaskill scored the team's first official goal—and fell 2–4 to their rivals on the road. In the regular season, defender Ali Riley and forward Claire Emslie both scored en route to a 2–1 home win against the Wave; the team then lost 0–1 in San Diego.
San Diego are currently 2–1–0 (W–L–D) in the regular season, in addition to having won their first Challenge Cup match 1–0 on Wednesday against the Portland Thorns. Their most recent regular-season game was a 0–1 loss to OL Reign in Seattle last Saturday, April 15.
ACFC has a 1–1–1 record in the regular season. Their last game was a loss to the Reign Wednesday night in the Challenge Cup, and their last league game was a 2–2 draw at home against Racing Louisville FC, which saw goals by forward Katie Johnson and McCaskill.
There's extra pride on the line against the Wave, Angel City's SoCal rivals. 'We want to represent L.A., we want to represent all of our supporters,' said McCaskill. 'And so I think that's where the rivalry aspect comes in—we want to have pride in how we represent our city.'
Scouting Report
Like Angel City, San Diego joined the league in 2022 as an expansion team. In their inaugural season, they earned the best record of any expansion team in league history, ending the year in third place and making it to the first round of the playoffs.
That success came partly on the back of Head Coach Casey Stoney's direct, effective attack, but especially thanks to the team's stingy defense, which allowed just 21 goals—the second-best defensive record in the league. One player to watch on that defense is US Women's National Team defender Naomi Girma, a Stanford product who the Wave selected first in the 2022 draft.
“They are a well-organized defensive team,' said Angel City Head Coach Freya Coombe. 'They're difficult to break down and don't allow many goals. That's going to be a test for us.”
Offensively, San Diego have a range of attacking threats. Their leading goalscorer is USWNT veteran Alex Morgan, but forwards Amirah Ali and Jaedyn Shaw—who, like ACFC's Alyssa Thompson, is just 18 years old—are also proven scorers.
The Wave play a different style offensively than Angel City, preferring a direct, transitional attack over lots of possession; in all four of their matches in 2023, they have had possession of the ball less than half of the time. By contrast, ACFC have only dipped below 50% possession in one match, against the Reign.
The two teams also differ sharply when it comes to shooting: San Diego have 33 total shots this year, just over half of Angel City's 62. However, San Diego's shooting is also about twice as efficient as ACFC. Their conversion rate, or the percentage of shots that wind up in the back of the net, is 12%, compared with Angel City's 6%.
Assessing April
Angel City has both positives and negatives to take away from the four games they've played this season.
The possession and shooting statistics above highlight some of those takeaways. 'We want to have sustained pressure in the offensive half, and we need to convert those moments into goals,' said McCaskill. 'That's one thing that we're struggling with right now—actually finishing those chances and making something of all that pressure.'
The team's shooting numbers—both their total shots and their shots on goal, which average five per 90 minutes—demonstrate they're more than capable of producing chances. The next piece is sharpening up the quality of those chances.
'We've had a lot of moments where we get into their half but haven't sustained pressure enough in order to create chances,' said McCaskill, 'or who are taking shots at the wrong moments.'
The other key moving forward, McCaskill says, is consistency. 'I think we've shown that we can be extremely dangerous whenever we do capitalize on chances,' she said. 'I think those chances are too sporadic throughout the game. We've shown that we can either finish really high or start really good, but I think there's been lapses. In order for us to really get to where we want to go, we need to be consistent on how we perform throughout 90 minutes.'
A Midfield Boost
The biggest news for Angel City this week was a major new signing: USWNT star and former Chicago Red Stars standby Julie Ertz.
Ertz, who is returning from a more than two-year break from soccer following an injury and the birth of her son, will add stability to the team's midfield.
'Throughout her career, she's shown she can be a solid six that's going to screen the center backs, break up plays, break up transition moments, and be a dominant force in the air,' said McCaskill. A player with that skill set is an asset both in the defensive phase and while attacking, she explained.
'She really adds a comfortability factor as far as our countermeasures behind the ball to be able to send numbers forward,' McCaskill continued. 'Hopefully that is going to help screen our center backs in order to break up plays so that we can have more sustained pressure in the offensive half.'
