Match Preview: Angel City at San Diego Wave FC | 8.24.24

Saturday, August 24, at 1:30 p.m., Angel City is on the road against San Diego Wave FC, their first regular-season game since July 6. The match will be broadcast locally in LA on KCAL; fans elsewhere can stream the game on Paramount+ or check their local TV listings. An English-language radio broadcast will be available on iHeart.

Matchup

Angel City’s last regular-season game was a 1–2 loss at home to NJ/NY Gotham FC on July 6. The lone Angel City goal in that game was scored by forward Claire Emslie.

San Diego’s last league game was  July 5 on the road in Portland, ending in a 0–1 loss.

ACFC and San Diego most recently faced off in the final group-stage game of the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, a game that ended in a 0–0 draw and a win for Angel City following a penalty shootout. The two teams’ most recent regular-season meeting, also a scoreless draw, took place in LA on May 23.

In the regular season, LA has a 2–2–1 (W–L–D) all-time record against the Wave.

Heading out of the summer break, San Diego sits just above Angel City, with the two teams in 10th and 11th place, respectively. The two are tied on points, with 15 each, though San Diego’s record is 3–7–6 and ACFC’s is 4–9–3. The Wave are ahead of Angel City on goal differential.

Scouting Report

Despite Angel City having faced San Diego twice already this season, recent changes at LA’s rivals to the south mean it’s not necessarily easy to predict what to expect this season.

For starters, the club parted ways with Head Coach Casey Stoney on June 24, with Paul Buckle serving as interim coach following her departure—meaning that the Wave had a different coach in each of Angel City’s last two games against them. This weekend’s game will add a third to that tally, as Buckle was replaced last week with former USMNT star Landon Donovan, who the club announced will lead the team through the remainder of the season.

In addition, defender Naomi Girma and forward Jaedyn Shaw, who were competing for the US at the 2024 Olympics during the Summer Cup, are back with the team, so Donovan’s team will likely look different at least in personnel terms from what Angel City most recently saw.

Like Angel City, the Wave can still make the playoffs with a good run of form over the last 10 games of the season, and will doubtless be hoping to turn things around in this final stretch.

Goals, Goals, Goals

Angel City’s 7–0 win against FC Juárez last weekend may not have counted for the standings, but it was nonetheless an emphatic conclusion to a strong run in the NWSL’s Olympic break.

The game saw a number of milestones for the team: their biggest-ever win, the most goals in a game in club history, their earliest-ever goal (scored in the first minute by forward Messiah Bright), and their first hat trick (also scored by Bright). In addition to the club milestones, Bright’s three goals were her first ever for Angel City and her first professional hat trick.

The win was ACFC’s fourth out of their last five games, capping off a month that saw them reach the semifinals of the Summer Cup, scoring four goals in the process. That means that between Juárez and the Summer Cup, the team scored 11 times—just five short of their combined total for the regular season to date.

While regular-season NWSL competition will be stiffer than the squads Angel City has faced over the last month, that run is surely a good sign as the team looks to pick up as many points as possible heading into the home stretch.