On game days at home, I’m typically at BMO Stadium. This time around, I sat on the couch at a friend’s place in New York. It was a weird experience for a number of reasons. Seeing the home stadium on TV still bathed in daylight while it was fully dark outside the apartment I was staying in. Observing, probably, the lowest attendance in club history due to the No Kings protests from afar. Missing the ACFC community during a really challenging time in the city and in this country. Feeling pride that the club, players, and supporters groups came together to take a stand, firmly, against the ICE raids in Los Angeles.
Angel City fell at home to the North Carolina Courage 1-2. This is the Courage’s first win at BMO, typically they are on the other end of a 2-1 scoreline while in Los Angeles.
In the first and last minutes of the game, defensive disorganization led to the two goals against. First, a poor turnover in the buildout led to a deadly transition moment with Cortnee Vine putting a cross away against Angelina Anderson. Second, chaos in the box during set piece defending allowed Brianna Pinto to put away a ball that bobbled around in the scrum.
Claire Emslie remains injured, so Julie Dufour started again at the right wing. Madison Hammond got her first start of the season in the midfield over Katie Zelem. Dufour seems to be getting more comfortable and has gotten into the past two games in a meaningful way. She was involved in the great build-up goal in response to going down in the first minute. She and Gisele Thompson passed to each other through the lines down the right channel. G. Thompson sent in a perfect cross for Riley Tiernan to put away.
Hammond has looked pretty good in her minutes coming off of the bench this season, which is perhaps part of why she got the nod in the starting lineup this week. However, I feel like she ended up being sort of a net neutral and I’m not sure if a more disruptive Macey Hodge or more creative Zelem may have served the group better.
Despite the disappointing outcome, this game was a pretty fun watch. It was back and forth for most of the game. Unfortunately, though, the Courage made some impactful substitutions in the second half that allowed them to take complete control of the midfield and latch onto the momentum toward the end of the game and they kept knocking until they overwhelmed Angel City at the death. Bringing on Christen Press, Casey Phair, Katie Zelem, and Macey Hodge when Straus did felt too little too late. North Carolina’s win was earned though. Despite relatively even possession and the 50/50 split between the teams in field tilt, the Courage produced better chances, shot twice as much, and took more touches in their attacking third and penalty area.
I don’t want to harp too much on the goals Angel City conceded. It would just be more of the same. It’s obviously frustrating to watch the team give up goals in similar fashions and scenarios across games, across seasons, but I am just trying to remain hopeful that the upcoming international break will allow for good work in this department to be done. In the press conference Captain, Sarah Gorden, and Hammond talked about it being a mentality issue. Even before King’s medical emergency, I had felt like some of the defensive breakdowns among the backline seemed to come out of nowhere, as if they all just had a collective powering down before rebooting. It also felt like sometimes the team was improving in this area, but obviously mental lapses and franticness are things that still haunt them. Straus talked about the team being in the beginning stages of building something, and he seemed to really take seriously his responsibility to assist the players in addressing and overcoming these mental hurdles.
For better or worse, the juggernaut, Kansas City Current, stands in the way of Angel City’s international break. It’ll be a difficult test, but I more so look forward to seeing the team when they come out on the other end in August having been able to take the time to put their heads down and focus on themselves, uninterrupted.
