With Angel City's historic 2023 season at an end, awards season is officially upon us, and ACFC has three personnel shortlisted for different honors: Interim Head Coach Becki Tweed for Coach of the Year, defender Sarah Gorden for Defender of the Year, and forward Alyssa Thompson for Rookie of the Year. All of Angel City's players are also eligible to be named to the Best XI and Second XI lists.
The short lists were voted on by players (whose votes made up 50% of the total); coaches, GMs, and owners (25%); and media (25%). Finalist voting starts today and ends Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific. The same groups, plus fans, are eligible to vote in the final round, with the vote breakdown being players (40%); coaches, GMs, and owners (25%); media (25%); and fans (10%). The full list of awards is below:
Submit your votes here.
Winners will be announced throughout Championship week, November 6–10.
Without further ado, here’s our case for each of Angel City’s shortlisted nominees:
The first-ever interim coach to be shortlisted for the Coach of the Year honor, Tweed took over from former head coach Freya Coombe in June after a run of poor results that had Angel City languishing in 11th place. In her first game at the helm, ACFC beat archrival San Diego on the road, the start of what was to be an eight-game undefeated streak and the club's first-ever playoff berth.
The case for Tweed to win is simple: over her tenure, which was exactly half the regular season, her team had the best record in the league, only losing once in both NWSL and UKG Challenge Cup games and ending the year with a 6–1–4 (W–L–D) record. That adds up to 22 points; no other team earned more than 17 points between weeks 12 and 22.
Everything else we know about the Bristol native—her work ethic; her belief in communication, transparency, and trust; the fact that Defender of the Year nominee Sarah Gorden called her 'f***ng fantastic' in the team's final regular-season press conference—is icing on the cake.
The only real case against Tweed is that she only led the team for half a season, so the sample size when it comes to her impact is smaller. One could argue, however, that righting the ship with the season in progress is a different, but no smaller challenge than getting through 22 games from start to finish. Tweed was handed a dejected group of players who couldn't seem to catch a break and implemented a culture where competition was at the forefront, hustle was rewarded, and every rep in training counted, to enormous success.
Plus, Reign manager Laura Harvey won the award in 2021, only having led that team for 11 games—and her team recorded one more loss in that time than Angel City has under Tweed.
Let's start with the obvious: Gorden is the only Angel City player this year to earn Iron Woman status, meaning she played every minute of every game for her club. It's the second time in her career she's earned that honor—the other was in 2021—and she did it after having to sit out all of 2022 with a torn ACL.
Gorden was an invaluable asset to Angel City in her first season actually playing for the club. Thanks to Gorden's jaw-dropping athleticism, opposing attacks in transition were all but neutralized; the former Chicago Red Star can match any forward in the league for speed and outrun all but the fastest. She singlehandedly kept Angel City in the game on more than one occasion.
She also provided a boost offensively with her excellent play out of the back, often serving as the starting point to successful attacks. She ranks in the top 10 in passes into the final third, with 173.
When Angel City drafted Alyssa Thompson in January, there were some who wondered how ready the 18-year-old was to step into a major role with an NWSL team. Her talent was obvious, but jumping straight to the professional level while still in high school would be a daunting feat for anyone.
Thompson put those questions to rest almost the moment she stepped onto the field, scoring a sensational goal in the fifth minute of her pro debut in the team's preseason friendly against Club América. She didn't slow down from there, scoring again in the team's regular-season opener against Gotham.
Altogether, the LA native notched four goals in 2023, including the equalizer against Houston on October 8 that revived Angel City's flagging playoff hopes. That's two fewer than Orlando's Messiah Bright, but Bright had no assists, where Thompson contributed two, the most of the three players on the shortlist. She also had the best dribble success rate (51%) and won possession 64 times to Bright's 57 (Nighswonger beat both in that category, but plays in the midfield).
Finally, the fact that Thompson is competing for this award against two players four and five years her age makes all that even more noteworthy.
All NWSL players, including those shortlisted for other awards, are eligible to be named to the Best XI and Second XI rosters, for which there are no shortlists.
In addition to Gorden and Thompson, we would like to humbly submit that the following Angel City players have had outstanding seasons:
Emslie isn't just Angel City's 2023 assist leader, she's also tied for second most leaguewide, with five on the season. Also notching three goals, the Scotswoman's ability to create space to cross or shoot against any defender in the league made her an ever-present threat on the wing. Emslie ranks first in the league in both crosses attempted and successful crosses, and is tied for third in chances created.
Angel City's midfield engine, McCaskill was an ever present link in the team's offense, serving as the connector between the midfield and the forward line more often than any other player. She ranked second in the league in through balls, seventh in chances created, and, interestingly, was the only non-defender to rank in the top 10 for passes into the final third, which highlights how active she was throughout the midfield, not just in the areas where a No. 10 typically operates.
Perhaps no player in the league was a bigger revelation this year than Vignola, who—plucked from obscurity in the Icelandic league in 2022—sat out almost her entire first ACFC season due to injury. The 25-year-old quickly established herself as one of the top attacking outside backs in the NWSL, ranking fourth among defenders in both shots and shots on target per 90 and seventh among defenders in crosses per 90. She also scored three goals, tied for the second-most by any defender.