Angel City Football Club’s 2024 NWSL season has officially ended after their final regular season game in Portland on November 1st. However, their fate had been sealed two weeks before. The last embers of our 1% chance hopes were snuffed out by Abby Dahlkemper’s late game-winner at Paypal Park in a game we had no control over. With that, Angel City was officially eliminated from playoff contention, Bay FC hung on to a playoff spot we had hoped to eventually snag, and the North Carolina Courage were handed their 11th road loss of the season. Angel City would play the Utah Royals the next day. The vibes at BMO Stadium were understandably off both on and off the pitch. It felt like everyone, players and fans alike were finally feeling the full weight of the disappointment we had been trying to stave off all season. The reality is that a postseason that included Angel City started feeling less and less tangible with every passing week. So now that Angel City’s 2024 has ended up a disappointing 12th in the table, let’s conduct the 2024 postmortem and look to what’s next.
The Ugly
The team’s on-field performance this year was disappointing, to say the least. However, when there’s disarray at the top, it’s tough to prevent that tension from trickling down through the rest of the organization. Right before the 2024 season started, a Forbes article revealed that Angel City was looking for a new controlling stakeholder amidst trouble between the ownership group at the time. Some of that conflict was later detailed in another article, mostly Uhrman’s alleged mismanagement of funds and personnel throughout her time at the helm of Angel City. All this infighting in the press may have caused fans to breathe a sigh of relief when Willow Bay and Bob Iger purchased a controlling stake in the team. However, these behind-the-scenes ghosts came back to haunt Angel City in the dying weeks of the regular season when the league handed the team a 3-point deduction, a $200,000 fine, and suspension of President Julie Uhrman and General Manager Angela Hucles Magano for the remainder of the calendar year for violating the salary cap. This decision elucidated the hiring of Assistant General Manager Matt Wade about two weeks prior, which at the time had felt a little random. Since then Angel City responded by calling out the NWSL for not supporting mothers on main and Willow Bay called the current NWSL policy on childcare discriminatory at the ESPNW Summit. So… Yeah it’s all still feeling like a bit of a mess leaving fans, and surely players, wanting reassurance that positive change and stability are on the way. There’s so much more that could be said on this front but I’ll leave it at that for now.
Injuries plagued the team again this year. It was confirmed in February that forward Jun Endo had suffered an ACL tear that would sideline her for the 2024 season. Her positive spirit, fun hair, and attacking prowess were greatly missed this season, and I cannot help but wonder if there was a plan for her to play a more creative or progressive role in 2024. We will never know. I just hope that next season, Endo is back with a vengeance.
Throughout the season we would see multiple players bounce between being in the starting XI, on the availability report, and off the game-day roster completely without much explanation. Perhaps the most notable example is our fearless captain, Ali Riley. After playing in the first three matches of the season, she was listed as OUT for Upper Thigh for a bit and then oscillated between being on and off game day rosters only playing in two more matches for some late game minutes. After a few cryptic-ish Instagram Stories in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, it was eventually revealed that Riley had suffered a nerve injury that she had been rehabilitating behind the scenes. Despite traveling to France, Riley was ultimately ruled out of the competition by New Zealand coaching and medical staff. She was placed on the Season-Ending Injury list for Angel City in August. I do not think it can be overstated what Riley means to Angel City and vice versa. Ali brings an enormous amount of positivity and belief to the group. While she was still involved with the team this season, it was obviously in a different capacity than originally intended.
Although I think Endo and Riley were perhaps the most crippling blows to the squad, many others were in and out of the squad and had fitness issues throughout the season. Teenager Gisele Thompson was in and out with a recurring ankle injury. MA Vignola went down in the first half of the season and took a while for her to work back in. Even when she was looking good, she seemed to be on limited minutes. Our new signing, Messiah Bright never seemed to be able to stay fit. We barely saw Katie Johnson due to knee problems. Meggie Dougherty-Howard was sidelined for chunks of the season for both upper and lower leg problems. These injuries contributed to Angel City’s inability to trot out a consistent starting XI that could build confidence and chemistry together. Instead, there seemed to be almost constant change to the midfield and outside backs. Despite all the tinkering, the lineup still managed to feel stale every time.
The Workable
This is likely to be a controversial take, but unless Angel City has a proven alternative option, I am open to Becki Tweed sticking around as Head Coach for another season. If the club continues to fill the role with mediocre options, the job becomes a revolving door which further destabilizes the players in this ultimately young club. The fact that the team was for sale for half of the season while in the meantime, Julie Uhrman and Alexis Ohanian made digs at each other in the Wall Street Journal, likely negatively impacted Tweed’s ability to influence the roster during either the offseason or the summer transfer window. Both were relatively quiet for Angel City. In hindsight, many of our offseason moves seemed to be out of convenience, opportunity, or luck rather than intentionally fleshing out a true plan for the season. That’s not to say that I don’t like these players, I think there is a place for many of them on this team. It just feels like perhaps Katie Zelem was the only player who was brought in this year with some preconceived intention. If she can get herself and her passes up to NWSL pace, I see the vision and I think she’s a net positive. So I’m open to seeing what Tweed’s possession style of play looks like with a functioning midfield and a goalkeeper that is more comfortable and effective with their feet.
Angel City needs to graduate from operating like a tech start-up and start operating like a serious football club. Fully stepping into that would probably mean firing Tweed. However, I’m not sure that’s their plan. That doesn’t mean they can’t at least take some steps in the right direction. If they’re going to keep her, they need to build up their sporting department and genuinely invest in Tweed. Not just in supporting the execution of her vision for the team, but also in developing her skills and confidence as a head coach. In theory, this should be being carried out by new Technical Director Mark Wilson, as he has stated that he’s involved with staff development. She struggled this year. In many ways. You could see it on her face at various points in the season. Sometimes for weeks at a time. However, she’s a young coach and I think she has the potential to improve. Part of that can be facilitated by allowing her the experience and surrounding her with appropriate support and resources to carry out her job. Ownership cannot hang her out to dry the way they did this season if they want to double down on Tweed and see growth next year.
The Good
During the lead-up to the 2024 season, the joke that Hollywood FC was turning into Teenager FC was uttered more than a couple of times. However, the young players that Angel City brought in were undoubtedly some of the brightest spots on a pretty dark season on the pitch. Some of my favorite moments of the season were watching Madison Curry and Gisele Thompson link up with Kennedy Fuller or Alyssa Thompson upfield. I think that Messiah Bright could be in this group if she can get and stay fit. All of these players show a lot of promise and they’ll only improve and grow in their chemistry together. It’s exciting to think that this was just their first year together.
Christen Press, Angel City’s marquee player, tore her ACL in June of the club’s inaugural season. After 781 days, Press returned to the pitch and sank a penalty against club rival San Diego Wave during the inaugural NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup. In her 100th NWSL appearance, Press scored her first goal in 854 days. Besides Angel City dropping points in this game by allowing the Courage to score a buzzer-beater... The script writers couldn’t have written it better! Jokes aside, Press elevates the team with her experience, sophistication, and finishing. I look forward to an Angel City that builds around her more.
The (Hopeful) Future
As mentioned previously, Willow Bay and Bob Iger are now the controlling owners of Angel City. I hope this turns out to be a good thing, however, they will need to prove themselves. As of this writing, we have not heard anything from them. So much remains unknown. I think fans hope that this move brings stability, money, and seriousness to this team. It would be great if they could push Angel City toward their goal of becoming a world-recognized football club by bringing in key signings, professionalized facilities, and trophies. If the amount of content under each of the preceding subsections didn’t tell you enough, 2024 was a rough season for Angel City. I believe this team could be so much better than what was shown in 2024. It’s frustrating to see them fall short over and over again. We will have to wait and see whether our new owners can deliver and elevate this team to reach its full potential.