Three Reasons Not to Miss ACFC's Friendly against FC Juárez

This Sunday, August 18 at 7:00 p.m., Angel City plays their first game at BMO Stadium in over a month, hosting Liga MX Femenil’s FC Juárez in an international friendly as the team gears up to go on the road against San Diego the following week.

Las Bravas, the women’s side of Liga MX’s FC Juárez, were founded in 2019. After finishing at or near the bottom of the table in their first few seasons, Juárez’s stock began to rise in 2023, with the team making their first Liguilla appearance in Clausura 2023. The club is noteworthy for having the only female owner in top-flight Mexican soccer, Alejandra de la Vega.

With Angel City fresh off a run to the Summer Cup semifinals, the team is now gearing up for the return of the regular season, with a playoff spot on the line. Though Sunday’s friendly won’t count towards that goal, it’s still a game you won’t want to miss, for both on-and off-the-field reasons.

1. Squad Rotation

While the Summer Cup saw some fresh faces on the field, the coaching staff had to strike a balance between using the tournament as a training opportunity and aiming purely to compete.

“I think the Summer Cup was something that we went into with the mentality that we wanted to win,” said Head Coach Becki Tweed after training this week. “I think the balance of finding players playing time versus getting consistency in lineups and performances was really important.”

The results—three wins, four goals, and a penalty shootout victory, plus the return of Christen Press, the professional debut of Casey Phair, and the first four starts for Messiah Bright—indicate the group was successful in finding that balance.

Though the team will aim to win Sunday’s friendly, with no trophy on the line, that balance can lean a bit more towards getting less-experienced players earning valuable minutes and experimenting with different combinations of players as there are unlimited substitutions in this match. 

“This is an opportunity for us to play everybody, for everybody to get some good time, and to just look at some different things,” said Tweed. “Giving people the chance to play at BMO and to get minutes under their belt is going to be important. I think it's a really good time for us to create that competitiveness, that hunger to go into San Diego next week,” which, she adds, is ultimately the main focus.

2. SoCal Connections

Like many Liga MX Femenil teams, FC Juárez’s roster boasts a number of Mexican-American players, including five—Enya Hernandez, Annia Mejía, Janelly Farías, Destinney Duron, and Jasmine Casarez—from Southern California. Three of those players also played collegiately in California: Duron at Cal State Northridge, Farías at UC Irvine, and Mejía at Cal.

Farías, who the Guardian once called “Mexican soccer’s most outspoken and fearless player,” has had a noteworthy career both on and off the field. Her senior year of college, after her family rejected her for being gay, Farías quit soccer.

The birth of a nephew helped her reconnect with family, and in 2015, the World Cup in Canada inspired her to return to the sport. She worked multiple jobs to support herself while playing for the now-defunct San Diego SeaLions of the Women’s Premier Soccer League, eventually going pro when she signed for Chivas in 2019. She has since played for América and Pachuca, joining Las Bravas in 2024.

Alongside her playing career, Farías has used her platform to advocate for women and the LGBTQ+ community, including on her podcast, Transforma Su Impacto.

3. Banda Las Angelinas

Be sure to arrive early for the gameday Street Fair, which opens at 4:00 p.m. on the north side of BMO Stadium. The festivities start with Norteño sounds courtesy of DJ Que Madre and tacos from Tacos Don Cuco Tijuana, whose adobada was named one of 2024’s 101 best tacos by the LA Times.

After Que Madre, hit the dance floor with Banda Las Angelinas, an East LA all-women banda group breaking barriers in a traditionally male genre. After starting with just four members in 2018, the group has become a staple at venues like the Pico Rivera Sports Arena, releasing a full-length album earlier this year. 

"It's kind of intimidating sometimes to have to perform with males at the same time," Genesis Paz, a band member, told ABC7 in 2021. "I feel like sometimes they're like, 'oh, females.' Yeah, we can do it, too."