New Year, New Faces: Katie Johnson

You can read the first two entries in this series here (Anderson) and here (Pluck).

Angel City signed forward/midfielder Katie Johnson out of free agency in January after she spent 2022 with SoCal rival San Diego Wave.

Johnson is a USC graduate who won the NCAA championship in 2016 with the Trojans. In the 2016 College Cup, she scored the game-winners in both the semifinal and the final—with a brace in the championship match against West Virginia—and was named Most Outstanding Offensive player for the tournament. That season, she was also voted Female Comeback Athlete of the Year by her fellow USC athletes.

In 2017, Johnson was drafted 16th overall by the then-Seattle Reign (now called OL Reign), and she scored four goals in 23 appearances that season, often coming off the bench. She was traded to Sky Blue (now NY/NJ Gotham FC) the following year, again scoring four goals, this time in 19 appearances. In 2019, Chicago traded for her, and she spent the next three years with the Red Stars before her move back to California to join the Wave in 2022.

Johnson, whose mother is Mexican, has 23 caps and eight goals for Mexico.

Fans may remember that Johnson introduced herself in style last year when the Wave visited Angel City: after subbing in for Makenzy Doniak in the 56th minute with ACFC up 2–0, it took just a few minutes for her to tally the assist on San Diego’s lone goal of the night. When Megan Reid blocked an initial shot by Emily Van Egmond (which Johnson also set up), Johnson scooped up the rebound, took a few touches to beat her mark, and threaded a gorgeous through ball to Kristen McNabb between several Angel City defenders.

“It's funny, because I felt like that was more of a home game than any other home game that I had with San Diego,” says Johnson. “My family and friends were there right in that left corner, and I actually was enjoying the crowd, probably more than I should have! I just got energy from it and was excited to dribble and get at people.”

A Monrovia native, Johnson had spent her whole life in the LA area before going pro, attending Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and then USC. San Diego was a lot closer to home than any of her previous NWSL clubs, but as any Angeleno knows, that’s hardly an easy trip for family and friends to make on a regular basis. Having BMO as her home stadium will be a different story. “[Seeing] my family and friends every weekend is going to be really special,” she told AngelCity.com when she signed with the club.

That assist against ACFC was one example of the significant impact Johnson made in her 15 appearances for the Wave, despite not getting on the scoreboard. Her 2022 season was a successful year with one of the top teams in the league, and it underscored the ways her game has evolved and grown since going pro.

Johnson was a center forward her whole youth and college career; it wasn’t until her move to the Red Stars in 2019 that she started getting minutes both in the midfield and out wide. Asked which position she identifies with most strongly, she says she prefers to talk about playing style rather than the positions that appear on a lineup graphic.

“I hate saying position because I think every game, you're going to have a different role,” she says. “It can be a false nine, it can be a true nine. But I think any place I can find pockets and be football-minded versus being in a running match, any position that involves that is where I do best.”

Her first two years in the NWSL, though, her role was fairly clear: score. She’s notched some memorable goals during her time in the league, including this impressive turn-and-shoot effort against the Dash from her rookie season. But in Chicago, where she lined up alongside one of the best goalscorers in the world—Sam Kerr—her role evolved, and she mostly played on the wing, occasionally in the midfield.

“I think probably my defensive game grew a little bit, starting out wide and having one-v-one defending and getting deeper on the field,” she says. “Obviously being in the second line versus the first line [of pressure] is a little bit different. But I think it's learning on the defensive end that's really helped me.”

She also grew as a creator in 2019, ending the season with three assists, which works out to .26 assists per 90, putting her in the 85th percentile among attacking mids and wingers in that stat. At San Diego, that improved to .51 assists per 90, putting her in the 99th percentile among all midfielders.

In Angel City’s March 8 friendly against Club América, Johnson gave fans a glimpse of her assisting ability, finding Simone Charley with a pinpoint through ball on a transition play for ACFC’s third goal.

“I was more of a false nine in that game, and having Simone, who is really fast and can break on the counter, we link up really well, because I know I can play her forward, and it happens at practice as well,” she remembers. “So being able to turn up and know that she's coming and slow down and play a good ball through is what I did.”

In addition to her actual playing ability, Johnson brings a veteran presence to the Angel City locker room. “I think that as you get older, you have to learn about yourself,” she says. “I’ve realized how much of a mental game it is at this point. You really have to be mentally strong.”

Like any player who’s been in the league as long as she has, Johnson has had highs and lows. She’s been traded three times, twice after just one season with a team; she also made it to the 2019 Championship with Chicago. She says she values the chance to relay what she’s learned along that journey.

“I've grown as a player and as a person,” she says. “I've been able to fight through those adversities and prove to myself that I'm worthy to play in this league. And I hope now that I can give Alyssa advice on what I'm seeing in my game so I can help her excel.”

So far, she says working her way into the group at Angel City has been smooth. “I feel like coming into this team has been pretty easy because they're all such great footballers,” she says, asked about her relationship with the team’s forwards. 

“It just feels really fluid with every single one of them… I don't have to explain why I'm doing something; it just happens naturally. Like, ‘I'm going to pop off the line so that you can run behind.’ That's shown since day one, which I'm really happy about.”