In week two of preseason, training continues to ramp up at Cal Lutheran. The atmosphere was once again convivial but competitive. 'It's been good, it's been hard,' said forward Claire Emslie on Wednesday. 'Obviously having so much time off and then coming back, everyone's been so excited to be back and there's a lot of energy.'
Despite being a seasoned pro, 'this was my first time having this amount of time off,' says the 28-year-old Scottish international. In past years, she says, 'I'd always go on loan somewhere and keep playing.'
In 2019, Emslie went to the World Cup straight from winning the domestic double with Manchester City; after Scotland's run in France ended, she headed to Orlando, where she soon made her debut for the Pride. After the NWSL season, she then went to the Australian W-League, where she won the league and the championship with Melbourne City.
By contrast, after Angel City's 2022 run, she had a real offseason. 'This time I took two weeks completely off after the season,' she says, 'and then the third week was kind of off, but I was doing mobility and stretching and stuff.'
After that, Emslie got started on a strength and conditioning program from Angel City staff. 'It was lifting the first two weeks, pretty heavy, and then slowly introducing running,' she says. In chilly Manchester, England, where she spent the offseason, snow and ice posed a challenge. 'I still did it, but it was horrible conditions to train—and it's hard when you train on your own as well, right? So yeah, I was so happy to come back and play proper on a field with no snow.'
Joining preseason training with the rest of the team was also new this year, as last season, Emslie made the move from Everton to LA in July. Jumping in mid-season, 'The biggest thing was, you've no time to adapt,' she remembers. 'You just have to click straightaway, and you have to perform straightaway. There's no settling-in period.'
Not that Emslie needed to settle in—she scored the game winner at home against San Diego just two days after signing with ACFC. 'I quite liked it because I got to play a game straightaway, which is the funnest thing,' she says. 'The hardest bit was honestly just learning people's names. Going into the game, I still didn't know who people were!'
For the team as a whole, preseason is a crucial opportunity to set goals, gel as a group, and define the squad's identity. 'This year we want to win a championship,' Emslie says. 'That's why I'm here, that's why I moved over. I've got this time now, in preseason, to gel with the other girls. I want to build those relationships, learn people's runs, learn people's tendencies, so I can play better with them and link better with them.'
As far as team identity, Emslie stresses the need to maintain focus in key moments of games. 'If you play at Angel City,' she says, 'we don't give up a goal in the first five minutes or the last five minutes—or the 10 minutes after a goal.
'It's easy to say that. But you have to live it and you have to produce it,' she continues. 'Once we consistently do those behaviors, then it becomes an identity. It takes some time sometimes to consistently do those actions.'
In year two, the team plans to keep building that consistency. 'Being a brand new club, the first year, there's no history, there's no 'this is what we are.' It was kind of finding our identity,' she says. 'So now, yeah, there's definitely a lot to improve on and build off.'
