Angel City FC takes on NJ/NY Gotham FC this Sunday, May 29, at 5:00 p.m. at Banc of California Stadium. The match will stream live on Paramount+; an English radio broadcast will air on iHeart, and the Spanish broadcast will be on KFWB 980 AM.
Last week, Angel City beat the Kansas City Current 1–0 at home. The only goal in the match, scored in the 70th minute, was a Kansas City own goal, but it resulted from Angel City forward Christen Press receiving a long pass from midfielder Savannah McCaskill, sprinting to the endline, and beating defender Elizabeth Ball to send the ball across the face of goal. It slid past KC goalkeeper AD Franch, then bounced off defender Taylor Leach's heels and over the line.
Offensively, ACFC have been finding success attacking in transition. In setting up the goal, McCaskill received the ball from midfielder Clarisse Le Bihan, after pressure from the two of them and midfielder Cari Roccaro forced the Current into a bad pass that Le Bihan pounced on. At other times, forwards like Press and Simone Charley have forced a number of turnovers that resulted in scoring chances.
'I had a conversation with Christen on Monday after training,' said Head Coach Freya Coombe after training, 'and she's pretty much like, 'well, you know, we can build out of the back, but it takes a while for the ball to get here. Why don't we just win it higher up the field?' And it was like, yes, we can do that as well!'
'We've got players that can really love to press and are really hard to beat,' she continued. 'We saw Simone chasing a number of lost causes last week, and were able to scrape those lost causes into opportunities for us, whether it's free kicks, whether it's shots on goal, just by harassing the center backs, which was great to see. And I think we've got that with Jun, with Tyler, with Simone, with Christen and Savannah as well.'
Another highlight against Kansas City was an outstanding early save by Angel City keeper DiDi Haračić. Current midfielder Alex Loera curled a close-range free kick over the ACFC wall, but Haračić got a hand on the shot to parry it out over the crossbar.
Looking ahead to the weekend, NJ/NY Gotham FC are 1–2–3 so far in the regular season and are coming off a 0–1 loss to Racing Louisville FC last weekend. Louisville midfielder Lauren Milliet notched the game-winner in that match. Despite failing to score, Gotham came out on top in terms of shots, shots on target, and touches in the opposition box. Their shots also hit either the post or the crossbar an unlucky five times.
Gotham's attacking corps includes some dangerous players in Midge Purce, Ifeoma Onumonu, and Kristie Mewis. The team's front three, which includes Purce, Onumonu, and Paige Monaghan, are all dangerous running in behind. In addition, Onumonu 'is a very smart player in terms of her ability to pull defenses apart and be able to drop into the space in front of the back line, as well as get beyond that,' said Coombe.
Purce, meanwhile uses her tremendous technical ability and quickness to beat defenders, 'especially on the weak side,' said Coombe. 'We see it time and time again when she's she's on the dribble.'
Finally, Mewis, an attacking midfielder, 'gives them another dimension, in being able to come from a deeper attacking midfield position,' Coombe said. She is also 'very comfortable in being able to pick up the ball in space and drive at defenses, as well as being a dangerous person to have in and around the box if that ball falls to her.'
ACFC's roster and staff have substantial ties with Gotham. Head Coach Freya Coombe and Goalkeeping Coach Daniel Ball were both in New Jersey last season, as was Haračić. Coombe said she was 'very excited to to face [Gotham], and looking forward to seeing other members of the group—and I imagine that DiDi shares the same view.'
