(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: To begin the second half of its 2024 season, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), at last resumed play for our Angel City Football Club (ACFC) after the lengthy break attributed to the Paris Olympic Games, the competition in the NWSL X LIGA MXF Summer Cup, and the recent friendly match against México’s FC Juarez on August 18th.
Last weekend, they traveled south to take on the San Diego Wave, with its recently appointed interim Head Coach, National Soccer Hall of Famer, Landon Donovan, in charge of the team. Angel City (ACFC) made the trip to Snapdragon Stadium to match up with their Southern California territorial rival in this highly interesting NWSL Western Conference contest.
A question here for you. Did they take advantage of this scheduling situation to keep their playoff hopes alive and healthy with a huge victory on this August 24th, Saturday afternoon? Answer…a definitive, yes, they absolutely did!
Media-wise, the match gave our local City of Angels and loyal ACFC fans a great opportunity to watch it all on “Live” TV as produced and carried by local independent station, KCAL, Channel 9.
[Next]: Chicago Red Stars on Sunday, 9/1 at 1:00 pm. The match theme will be “Kids Day.” If you can’t make it out to BMO Stadium, then you can view it on VIDEO BROADCAST by going to 
(with local live CBS Station access) or catch the RADIO BROADCAST on iHeart.
ANGEL CITY FOOTBALL CLUB DEFEATS SAN DIEGO WAVE TO BEGIN 2ND HALF OF SEASON
[MATCH SUMMARY]
[ANGEL CITY FC STARTING XI]: Goalkeeper-Heračić, Gorden, (Captain), Curry, Spencer, Reid, Hammond, Dougherty-Howard, Fuller, Thompson, Bright, and Emslie. On a sidebar note, it was slightly more than one year ago that Becki Tweed carried her Interim Head Coach title into this debut match that took place here on June 17, 2023.
[REFEREE]: Eric Tattersall
(San Diego, CA) – Angel City Football Club defeated the San Diego Wave on the road (2–1), on 8/24, by way of the first two goals of this season earned by the second-year Mega Star, and last year’s #1 Draft pick, Forward/Striker, #21 Alyssa Thompson.
[1st Half]: The first half saw few scoring opportunities for either side. However, that changed at the 20th-minute marker when Forward, #21/Alyssa Thompson put on a show with her speed, her feints, and striking skills to completely fake goalkeeper, Kailen Sheridan, out of her path, and subsequently she finished her job of putting Angel City in the lead at (1-0).
Then, just (9:00) minutes later, Thompson struck gold once more when she dribbled from her left to right, stopped at the top of the 18-yard Box, encountered some Wave defenders in the vicinity, and with a straight-on and direct aim at the goal, she then rocketed her shot toward the target. Goalkeeper, Sheridan got a hand partially on it, but it still managed to reach the netting for her much-welcomed brace of the day. The Snapdragon scoreboard now read, ACFC 2 Wave 0.
The Wave’s Hanna Lundvkist had a chance to score in the 40th minute and came close when her “header” hit the crossbar from just inside the 6-yard box, and was cleared. The end of the first half followed shortly thereafter.
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[PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY]: Angel City Football Club
[HALF-TIME SCORE]: ACFC 2 San Diego Wave 0
[2nd Half]: The match continued at a brisk pace with the visitors still in a hunting for more mindset. This meant that the Wave would have to shake themselves out of a first-half slump and take the offensive initiative to get back into the match, hopefully with a chance to defend their home-pitch advantage, coupled with a very enthusiastic and supportive fanbase looking to explode with approval.
But ACFC had other ideas in mind and that was to register a win and take home the (3) big points for their efforts. And they’d need to start a winning streak that matches their aspirations to earn one of the coveted playoff spots. San Diego played to a different rhythm than their opponents and could not muster any successful attack until Defender, Abby Dahlkemper, scored late in stoppage time at the (97:00) minute marker for San Diego. They then swung right back into offensive attack mode immediately and frantically went after the tying goal as hard as they could.
Fortunately, the ACFC defense held its ground and turned back the Wave’s final attempt at equaling the match as time ran out and Referee, Eric Tattersall sounded his whistle concluding the contest.
Angel City’s three much sought-after points were officially credited and improved their record to (5-9-3 = 18 points), which moved them up several spots into 9th place of the standings, nearing an NWSL playoff spot.
[FULL-TIME SCORE]: Angel City FC 2 San Diego Wave 1
[OF SIGNIFCANCE]: The emergence and maturation of Forward/Striker, #21 Alyssa Thompson, as a bonafide and confident scoring threat as the second half of the season is underway. Her consistent scoring could pave the way to a Playoff spot. Also, in a sign of more good things to come, in her return to NWSL competition and her team, Forward, Christen Press, entered the match at minute (88:00) for Claire Emslie and put in nearly (10:00) minutes of good, solid work in her first match back.
Learn more about ACFC at www.angelcity.com and follow the team on social media @weareangelcity.
[GAME NOTES | ACFC COMMUNICATIONS]
{ACFC Milestones}
*Forward Alyssa Thompson earned her first NWSL career brace in all competitions, scoring two goals in the 20’ and 29’.
*Forward Alyssa Thompson (19 years, 291 days) became the second teenager to score multiple goals in a regular season match in NWSL history (first is Mallory Swanson)
*Midfielder Katie Zelem made her first NWSL career match appearance after subbing into the match in the 65’.
*Forward Christen Press made her NWSL regular season return in the 89’ for the first time since coming back from injury in June of 2022.
[POST-MATCH QUOTES]
{ACFC Forward Alyssa Thompson}
(On how her confidence has grown over the past few weeks)…“I’m feeling really good. I feel like in training, I’ve been feeling a lot better and my teammates have helped me a lot with just reminding me and keeping perspective that we have a really long season. It’s the second half season and we’re all ready to just play together. I feel really good that I got my first two under my belt, and now I can continue to grow.”
(On the importance of today’s victory on the road)…“It was super important for us. We have been talking a lot about the second half of the season and how we want it to be different from the first half. Getting this win already starts the momentum and we can build on that and just continue.”
(On how the club plans to continue their momentum in the second half of the NWSL season)…“We’ve been talking a lot about our grit and togetherness. I think how we played today is only going to get better. We as a team are all together and fight for each other on and off the field. We can only grow from here and continue to play the soccer that we’ve been playing.”
{ACFC Midfielder Meggie Dougherty Howard}
(Her thoughts on the team’s victory against her former club)…“It feels great. Three points always is an amazing feeling, but coming back and playing against your former team just adds a little extra specialness. So it feels really good to get the win.”
(On the growth of the SoCal rivalry)…“The more games that there are between the teams, the more it grows. Looking at the history of this rivalry, it’s been pretty even so far, so to get that win is great.”
“You could see today there was a bit of feistiness on the field and that’s only increasing the more games between the teams there are.”
(On Becki Tweed’s coaching qualities and giving the team confidence)…“It’s just talking about bringing what you bring to the team that makes you special and putting that belief in us. That is huge. Giving players the confidence that they’re on the team for a reason and they have something special to contribute, and when you’re on the field having that belief in yourself. It gives you that extra confidence to do what you do and to help the team in the ways that you do best.”
{ACFC Head Coach Becki Tweed}
(On the match overall)…“We deserved to win the game. We put in a good performance. We looked comfortable in possession, and played with freedom. We looked like we really enjoyed the game, which is something we’ve been focused on. The next level for us is to make this a three-goal game with a clean sheet.”
“I’m extremely pleased by the three points. This is a hard place to play away. The rivalry adds an extra twist, but overall I’m happy with the team’s performance.”
“We defended the box so well for 96 minutes until that last free kick that we need to look at and grow from. We used the Summer Cup to build momentum and confidence and today you saw a team that came onto the field with that confidence.”
(On Alyssa Thompson’s performance)…“She’s been working hard and this team has been here for her through it all. We have so much belief in her ability, and you could see that today. She played with so much freedom and with that spark and edge that she has. She’s a special player and the goals will come.”
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