(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: Greetings and Saludos to All of our ACFC fans. On the final day of June, Angel City Football Club (ACFC) set it aside to present its celebration of Pride month to its highly supportive and appreciative fans. The Summer weather in the City was a hot 86° just before kick-off at BMO Stadium, the site of the National Women’s Football League (NWSL)’s Week 14 match-up with the League co-leader, the Orlando Pride.

The Pride, one of the only two undefeated teams left in the League, arrived for Angel City’s Pride Celebration match sporting an impressive overall record of (9-0-5=32 points), while ACFC showed a struggling overall record of (4-7-3=15 points). Players to watch for the Pride were: Forward, #22/Barbara Banda (Zambia); Midfielder, #9/Adriana Leal da Silva (Brazil); and Forward, /#20/Julie Doyle (Newport Beach, CA), just to name a few.

On a very positive note, in an excellent team accomplishment, ACFC is currently one of the leading franchises with their BMO home attendance statistic through their first five matches, with an estimated total of 50,000+. The League has experienced a good overall increase in match attendance numbers per most teams through this same period.

[ACFC STARTING XI]: #13/GK/D. Haracic; D/#11/S. Gorden (Captain); D/#12/Merritt Mathias; D/#20/G. Thompson; D/#27 M. Curry; #7/R. Rodríguez; K. Fuller; #99/M. Hammond; #2/S. Leroux; #10/C. Emslie; and #21/A. Thompson

[CELEBRITIES IN THE STANDS]: Vanessa Bryant & her two youngest daughters

[MATCH SUMMARY]

[REFEREE]: Elijio Arreguin

[1st HALF]: The pitch was cast in a perfect half-sunny, half-shady environment. At minute (6:21)Alyssa Thompson was open on the right flank on her drive to attack the goal. She a good took aim but sent it too far to the left. Defensively, ACFC drew several rounds of applause for stops and blocks they made on Orlando as they were in attack mode. At minute marker (19:30), Orlando swept down on the goal and found Forward, #9/Adriana Leal da Silva wide open. She took a few dribbles and then blasted her shot past goalkeeper/#13/DiDi Haračić for the match’s first goal, making the BMO scoreboard read, Orlando (1),  ACFC (0). The Pride’s suffocating defense on the pitch rewarded them with a very good time of possession for most of the first (20:00) minutes of the contest.

Then at minute (25:00), the Pride’s Brazilian star, Adriana, struck paydirt again after a Haračić deflection in front of the goal sent it inwards to the goal. Rather surprisingly, the ball came right to Adriana, and she merely tapped it in for the easy goal, making it Orlando (2),  ACFC  (0).  The next (2o:00) minutes of the half was a back-and-forth by the teams, but Orlando certainly enjoyed a big edge in the time of possession and shots on goal. In the 3rd minute of stoppage, #21/A. Thompson took a side-angled shot but the Pride’s Goalkeeper, #1/Anna Moorhouse, easily caught it and extinguished the threat. ACFC simply could not sustain any momentum and had very poor angles for good shots on goal. Referee Arreguin added (4:00) minutes of Stoppage time to the period.

[HALF-TIME SCORE]: Orlando Pride  2  Angel City FC  0

[2nd HALF]: The tempo was equal to the start of the match. Orlando simply played as if they were totally in the driver’s seat for the remainder of this second half. It strongly appeared that they were the team with more physicality and stamina when racing up, and/or, downfield against ACFC. At 5:45 pm, three-fourths of the pitch was covered in a dark shade, making it a bit easier to see everything unfolding on the pitch without the glare that caused the players to squint quite often in the first half.

The Birdies had their best shot at putting up a goal at the (60:00) minute mark when #2/Leroux took a 30-yard looping pass from her teammate, shook her defender in the 18-yard Box for an open look at the goal, but somehow, someway, she uncharacteristically missed her shot wide left and the crowd simply ooohed and ahhed at the attempt. There would be no other ACFC serious scoring threat after this play.

At minute (67:00), ACFC Head Coach Tweed then started to make her substitutions with #24/Messiah Bright and #6/Megan Reid going in and Curry and Leroux exiting. The crowd gave a big round of applause for the subbing in of the popular, #3/Jasmyne Spencer, at minute (70:00). Then, returning to the action,  a yellow card was issued to Orlando’s Defender,#6/Emily Sams when she tripped #20/G. Thompson while dribbling just above the 18-yard box. But the free-kick attempt was easily blocked as it rolled to the Pride’s goalkeeper, #1/Anna Moorhouse.

At the (90:00) minute mark, a VAR was then called for after the ACFC “corner kick” revealed a possible penalty kick for a foul on Orlando. The review showed no penalty and the crowd simply let out its final disappointing groan. Referee Arreguin added (6:00) minutes of Stoppage time to the match.  

And on what was the final offensive play of the match, at the (90:00+6:00 minute mark), due to a ball-handling error, coupled with an alert situational awareness by the steady play of Forward, #22/Barbara Banda, who stole the ball, then rewarded herself with the final goal of the match. She simply took her time and teed-off on it for the match’s final goal. This play would the match with the Pride taking home their valued road victory and keeping them undefeated at (10) in-a-row up to this point in the season.

[FULL-TIME SCORE]: Orlando Pride  3  Angel City FC  0

[ATTENDANCE]: (Sold-out) 22,000 

[“PLAYER OF THE MATCH”]: #20/Gisele Thompson

[NEXT UP]: Saturday, July 6th vs. NJ/NY Gotham FC at BMO Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:00 pm and can be seen on the ION CableTV Channel.