Angel City Football Club's Quotes Ahead of Home Match against Portland Thorns FC

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NWSL Angel City FC

Angel City Football Club's Quotes Ahead of Home Match against Portland Thorns FC

September 20, 2024 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release


LOS ANGELES - Angel City Football Club (ACFC) prepared this week to face Portland Thorns FC at BMO Stadium on Monday, September 23 at the club's Hello Kitty Night. Kickoff is at 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET. The match will stream live on CBSSN, regionally on Bally Sports SoCal, and internationally on NWSL+.

Below please find quotes from the club's Head Coach Becki Tweed and defender M.A. Vignola:

ACFC Defender M.A. Vignola

On preparing to face Portland on Monday:

"Portland is a really good team. We talked a lot about how with the stretch of games that they had, they're definitely going to come into BMO with that little hunger and fire. With us being home, it's definitely good for us to be able to take the initiative and kind of run the game."

"We need to be the ones who initiate the press. When we're going to go, when we're not, we just have to dictate the momentum of the game, which is going to be really important."

"The biggest threat that we talked about this past week was Sophia Smith up on the front line. She has the ability to want and find herself in good spaces. However, I think that once we can break that first line of press, we can get her kind of out of the game and also dictate that high press on her. That's going to be the biggest thing for us."

"They also have good sprayers of the ball with Sam Coffey in the midfield. We just need to make sure that we stay as compact as possible and initiate that high press like I've been saying."

On her journey of battling injuries this season:

"It's been a long one. In the beginning of the season, it was the second game that I got hurt and the coming back process took a little bit longer than I thought it would. It was probably a total of seven to eight weeks that I was out trying to build back my fitness and then dealt with a couple more tweaks to it."

"The biggest thing for me was just to stay as in the moment as possible, as much as I want to be out in that field. I learned that my role for that beginning or majority of the season was to be everyone else's cheerleader. I needed that to kind of gain my confidence back for when I get back on the field and take it day by day."

"It was tough because I always had high expectations for myself, especially for this season. The journey has been long but we have six games left, and I'm ready to hit the ground running for the rest of it."

ACFC Head Coach Becki Tweed

On the club's mindset moving forward in the season:

"We need to focus on one game at a time. The goal for every game is three points now. We know we're disappointed not picking up any points in the last two games; in games we should've picked up points. We put ourselves under a bit of pressure, and we know that every game is a must-win now."

"In this league, you can't get away with mistakes and you get punished for them. We have to start punishing teams more. There is so much more to it than an individual mistake or a singular moment. We have to make sure we stop conceding as many goals as we do and continue to score goals. That will ultimately pick us up points, but now it's crunch time and we don't have room for error. We have to continue to grow, grind and find a way to get results. That's going to be the test over the next six weeks that everybody on our squad is up for."

"Where we have conceded the most goals this season. IT isn't that we have been played through or we have missed in our press, it's all defending transition and it is all linked; to the in-possession piece especially. We need to be smart about areas we do give the ball away, because when you give the ball away in central spaces, it is coming straight back at you."

On preparing to face Portland on Monday:

"Portland has been on a tough run and haven't picked up results, but they also have world class players. When you look at their squad and the players that they have, they can truly win a game at any moment. We know what we have to take care of and what we need to do ourselves. We know that we need to perform, and we need to have good individual and team performances to win this next game."

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