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NWSL Angel City FC

Angel City Football Club Defeats Top-Ranked North Carolina Courage at Home

July 9, 2023 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release


LOS ANGELES, CA - Angel City Football Club beat the top-ranked North Carolina Courage 2-1 at home tonight following a goal by midfielder Savannah McCaskill and an own goal set up by forward Elizabeth Eddy. Midfielder Brianna Pinto scored for the visitors.

The Courage opened the scoring in the 15th minute when forward Tyler Lussi chipped the ball over the head of Angel City defender Paige Nielsen to midfielder Frankie Tagliaferri. Tagliaferri sprinted forward to beat defender Megan Reid and sent a diagonal pass back toward the penalty arc, where midfielder Brianna Pinto was making a run. From just inside the 18, Pinto one-timed the ball to the lower right-hand corner of the goal.

Angel City pulled one back just three minutes later when defender Kiki Pickett miscleared a corner kick, letting it fall to forward Scarlett Camberos. She burst past Pickett inside the box to send a low cross to the goal mouth, where McCaskill was lurking, and the ball bounced off her torso and into the net.

The home team came close in the 40th minute when defender Sarah Gorden got on the end of a corner kick by forward Clarisse Le Bihan. Gorden volleyed the ball toward goal, where it bounced off the far post to McCaskill, whose close-range attempt was saved.

Statistically, the hosts dominated the first half, with 45% of the action taking place in their attacking half, and with Angel City recording 13 shots to North Carolina's three.

The Courage came out swinging early in the second half when in the 47th minute, Tagliaferri sent a ball into the six-yard box for forward Olivia Wingate, but keeper DiDi Haračić saved her headed shot.

In the 49th minute, defender Jasmyne Spencer had a near miss. Le Bihan turned two defenders to play a cross into the far side of the penalty area. Spencer was crashing the box unmarked and shot from an angle with her right foot, but Rowland blocked the ball out for a corner kick.

McCaskill took a crack from distance in the 65th minute after midfielder Madison Hammond tapped a short sideways pass to her just outside the penalty arc. Her curving shot was on target in the upper left-hand corner, and Rowland did well to make the diving save.

LA got the go-ahead goal in the 77th minute when midfielder Elizabeth Eddy nutmegged Pickett inside the 18 and sent a low cross into the six-yard box, where Courage defender Kaleigh Kurtz tried to make the stop and instead redirected the ball into the goal.

Angel City has a three-week break for the World Cup before their next game, a Challenge Cup match at home against the Portland Thorns on Saturday, July 29 at 7:00 p.m. The game will stream live on Paramount+.

SOAR INTERNSHIP PROGRAM PRESENTED BY BIRDIES AND ANGEL CITY FOOTBALL CLUB

This evening's match was sponsored by Birdies and featured the SOAR Internship program for high school students, which is supported by Angel City and the direct-to-consumer shoe brand. Ten percent of Birdies' sponsorship put into action both companies' deeply-held belief that women can go everywhere with the right support system. The six-week program follows a curriculum consisting of weekly educational sessions, education workshops, and career panels focusing on leadership, teamwork, sports, entrepreneurship, and public speaking.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

ACFC Midfielder Savannah McCaskill

On momentum coming into the match:

"We knew coming into the game that we needed three points. We should have had three points in the last two games, if we're being hones.The Gotham game was good to get a point on the road, but we should have gotten three points out of the Houston game."

"Going into this game, we knew that three points was the job. It took every single person to get the job done. Going into the break, it's even better because we feel we earned the break, and now puts us back in a closer playoff spot, which the rest of the season is ours to battle for."

"That's the outlook going into the second half of the season, everyone goes away for this week, recharge, regroup, get our minds right, bodies healed and get some players back from injury so we can get ready to go again."

On the biggest change of the team:

"We really got back to basics. As a group, we've talked about standards, but we let those slide. In the first half of the season, as a group, we knew that if we didn't turn things around, we weren't going to be playing for anything come the second half of the season."

"It was a mindset change for the whole group. We either buy in and we do it 100% now and try to get ourselves back in to play for playoffs, or we continue down the path that we were on. Thankfully, everyone chose to step up and the group training has been incredibly competitive. Everyone's tackling, training, and playing as hard as they can in training. They are showing up every single day to prepare for games."

"That's been a huge shift. The mindset, the competitiveness of the group. From the top player to players that might not get a ton of minutes, still showing up every single day, ready to grind and put the work in. It showed in the results, we haven't gotten all three points every single time, but we've gotten results. That's huge, and going forward that's going to be the mentality and standard that we have to uphold."

On her performance tonight:

"There were some really good improvements in areas that we hadn't had in prior games. There's areas that we can continue to improve on. That's the most shots we've had ever this season, the most shots on target that we've had this season, and the way that we saw out the last 15 minutes of the game was absolutely a master class."

"We talked about it right after the game, we went up one and then we did not let them sniff at the goal the entire rest of the game. That's a huge change because we were giving up goals in the first half of the season. That's absolutely huge for us to be able to see this game out, against a team that's number one in the league, if not, number two."

"Being able to see that out and get the result against them is huge. It's a step in the right direction. It's the standard and now we're going to have to continue to build on that in order to keep winning games and moving us at the table."

ACFC Midfielder Elizabeth Eddy

On signing with the club as a National Team Replacement Player:

"I was cut by Houston Dash at the beginning of the year. I was technically unemployed for a bit but kept training, and then at the last second Angel City called and it made the most sense to come here. I'm super happy to be here."

On scoring the game-winning goal:

"They made a cut on the right with the ball and a great pass from a teammate, and then I was going to enter a one-on-one duel and then she kind of overstepped and I got a shot off before the center back slid hard and it wasn't even on target. In soccer, if you get it hard across the center of the goal, sometimes it will go."

On coming into the match:

"It's what every player dreams of, which is to really make an impact on a team, especially when you're new."

ACFC Interim Head Coach Becki Tweed

On what's special about playing at BMO Stadium:

"The fans are massive for us. Having the fans and the support. Taking a moment to look around and appreciate how far women's sports has come is amazing. This is a place where you can really feel like everyone's rooting for you and everyone's on your side. When things get hard it's like that extra boost."

"You can either take it as pressure or you can take it as a boost and this group is continuing to embrace it and they want to play for the fans, they want to play for LA, and you could really see that tonight."

On the team responding to going down a goal:

"We responded brilliantly in those moments. You can go two ways and our response tonight was really, really good. You can see the group as a collective, pulling each other in and we knew that we weren't good enough up to that moment. We took our foot off the gas and that punishes you in this league, and that's what happened. We always have the belief that no matter what, we can come back and you saw that tonight."

"We put in a good performance. There are still spaces that we can improve. We're disappointed to concede a goal, but for us to come from behind is really important. Again, another steppingstone forward to how resilient we can be for the rest of the year."

On being unbeaten in her first five matches as Head Coach:

"It's crazy. I don't even know how to answer this question. I don't take stuff in very well. Don't take in wins. I'm already thinking that we have a break, but what's next?"

"I'm disappointed that it's not five wins. I'll be really honest with you, I'm always pushing to win and get three points in every game that we can. Momentum is really important. I don't believe in luck. I believe you create your own luck. Monday to Friday, we're starting to do that now, and hard work pays off. Hopefully we can continue to grow."

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