“We Are L.A. Strong!”

(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: The Angel City match was celebrated with the Club’s annual “Pride Night” theme. In a joyous moment of the match, fans were notified that ACFC defender Savy King was in the stadium sitting with her teammates just three weeks after the medical incident that resulted in her undergoing a heart procedure.

[PRE-MATCH NOTES]:  The Chicago Stars arrived in town with one of the poorest records in the NWSL. They possessed a (1W-8L-1D=4 points) and found themselves in last place in the standings.

On the other hand, it was the debut match for new Head Coach, Alex Straus, who led the Bayern Munich, (Germany), to its third consecutive Frauen-Bundesliga Championship. His newly inherited team presented a very decent record of (4W-4L-2D=14 points) and was tied for 7th place in the overall League standings.

[ANGEL CITY FC STARTING XI]: Goalkeeper/#19 Angelina Anderson (Vice-Capt.); #7 Julie Dufour; #4 Katie Zelem; #6 Megan Reid; #8 Macey Hodge; #29 Moriya Miyabi; #11 Sarah Gorden (Capt); #14/Alanna Kennedy; #16 M.A. Vignola; #17/Kennedy Fuller; #33/Riley Tiernan; and #21/Alyssa Thompson

[MATCH SUMMARY]

[REFEREE]: Brad Jensen

[1st HALF]: The match got underway with decent rhythms on both offense and defense. Although Chicago was the underdog, due to its poor record, Angel City would not take anything for granted as it looked to add those highly regarded three winning match points to its record while climbing the proverbial standings ladder. Fuller connected on the Club’s first goal of the match at minus (29:00) when she hammered home a tremendous blast into the netting, catching the goalkeeper flat-footed with little or no time to react. The ACFC defense that Coach Straus observed was very much to his liking as the score at halftime was in his team’s favor (1-0). The ACFC defense was quite impressive, as it only allowed the opponent a scarcity of shots and shots on goal.

[HALF-TIME SCORE]: Angel City FC  1    Chicago Stars  0

[aigpl-gallery-slider id=”139167″][PHOTO GALLERY]: East L.A. Sports Scene Productions, By Frankli Robles, Lead Photographer. 

[2nd HALF]: Chicago came onto the pitch knowing that in their next (45:00) minutes, they would have to put up a score to tie the match. And that’s what they set out to accomplish. 

At minute (58:00), there was some attacking activity noted by the Stars when they manufactured a scoring attack from the right flank area of the pitch. Getting credit for the goal was #26 Nádia Gomes, who had just entered the match as a substitute. Chicago then took the lead at minute (66:00) when #34 Ally Schlegel, after taking a great pass from #77 Maitane López, scored it and then had to immediately go on lock-down defense if they were to steal a victory on the road.

But ACFC had other ideas, strongly battled back, and at minute (80:00) #16 MA Vignola captured the prize of scoring the equalizing goal at (2-2) when she found the ball right in front of the netting and then simply put it through for the tying goal. Referee Jensen then added 3 minutes of stoppage time to the (90:00) match, and it ended with no further scoring, thereby giving each team a single point for their night’s efforts.

[FULL-TIME SCORE]: ACFC  2   Chicago Stars  2     [ATTENDANCE]: 17,538

[OF SIGNIFICANCE]: Statistically dominant was ACFC as they held a 62% to 38% differential in time of possession, and they recorded a total of (15) shots compared to (10) for Chicago. Shots on goal inside the Box favored ACFC by a (9-4) count. New Head Coach Alex Straus, unfortunately, could not lead his team to its inaugural Angel City FC/NWSL win in this regular-season matchup. But, no worries, as it will come very soon!      

[ANGEL CITYFC PLAYER OF THE MATCH]: #17 Kennedy Fuller