This Sunday, June 25, at 5:00 p.m. PST, Angel City hosts the Houston Dash at BMO Stadium in the two clubs' first meeting this season. The game, which is Angel City's 2023 Pride Night (presented by Heineken Silver), will be broadcast locally on Bally SoCal and will stream in the US on Paramount+ and internationally at NWSLSoccer.com. English- and Spanish-language radio broadcast swill be available at iHeart and KWKW, respectively.
For more information on broadcasts, click here.
You can buy tickets to the match here.
Matchup
This will be Angel City's third meeting all-time with Houston. Last year the two teams drew both games—0–0 at home and 1–1 in Houston, following goals by María Sánchez and Simone Charley.
Houston is currently in 7th place in the league with a 4–3–5 (W–L–D) record. Their most recent result was a 0–0 draw at home against OL Reign last weekend.
Angel City are in 10th place with a 3–6–3 record. Their last match was a 2–1 win away at San Diego, which saw LA give up a goal in the 57th minute, then come back for the win following goals by defenders Paige Nielsen and M.A. Vignola.
Scouting Report
The Dash are tied with the Orlando Pride for fewest goals scored on the season, with just 10. However, they also have just 10 goals conceded, making them the stingiest team in the league defensively.
'They're a workhorse team,' said defender Jasmyne Spencer this week. 'They're going to apply a lot of pressure and are very organized. We've been working all week on how we can find ways to break them down.'
The club has a new coach this season in Sam Laity, a longtime Reign assistant who briefly acted as interim head coach in 2021. Laity made a number of changes to the roster, with one of the most notable addition being forward Diana Ordóñez.
Ordoñez a member of the Mexican National Team who was born in Riverside but grew up in Frisco, Texas, is an imposing center forward who had a splashy rookie season last year in North Carolina, scoring 11 goals in 12 appearances.
Ordoñez typically lines up as a No. 9 in a front three, flanked by fellow Mexico international María Sánchez, and Michelle Alozie, a native of San Bernardino County. The two wingers provide both a scoring threat—Sánchez leads the team in goals scored, with three—and crafty service from wide areas. Sánchez has 13 chances created, while Alozie has eight.
'I think particularly Alozie and Sanchez are very good one-v-one attackers and they have great quality service,' said Spencer.
'We saw last year how good Ordoñez is in the 18-yard box,' she added. 'I think a lot of our success is going to have to come from denying her service and and those one-v-one battles against Alozie and Sanchez.'
Bouncing Back
Angel City had a huge win at the right time last week, coming from a goal behind to win on the road—against their biggest rival, in a game broadcast on CBS that had the second-most viewers in regular-season NWSL history, no less.
'I think in those moments you need the group to drag each other out and lift each other up,' said Head Coach Becki Tweed this week. 'I think that's exactly what we did. We've been through this a lot and... we know how to turn it around, and you don't get that experience without building on it. Something that we really wanted to pride ourselves on was coming through these moments and coming out the other side with points on the table.'
Now the task is to keep that momentum going at home. 'Momentum is something that's really important,' says Tweed. 'This league is crazy. Picking up back-to-back points is something that's really important and it can really push you on in the league.'
The team made big strides last week, but still has work to do. 'Something I spoke about a lot last week is completing performances, and when we look back and we reflect on the San Diego performance, yes, we got three points, but there's still areas that we have huge, huge spaces that we want to grow in still. So the focus this week was, how can we grow in those spaces and how can we continue the momentum?'
