Angel City Football Club and San Diego Wave FC kick off the third year of California’s first NWSL rivalry Thursday both in search of consistency.
After making the playoffs in their first season, Wave FC followed that by winning the NWSL Shield, finishing first in the league with 37 points.
Angel City went on a second-half run to finish in sixth, qualifying for the playoffs in their second season.
Entering Thursday, Wave FC is in eighth place (3-4-2, 11 points) and Angel City is in ninth (3-5-1, 10 points). Wave FC have scored the third-fewest goals in the league with nine, but they’ve allowed only nine. Angel City has scored 11 and allowed 16, coming off last week’s 4-2 loss at Washington Spirit.
“We know what we need to do,” ACFC coach Becki Tweed said. “We have to look at ourselves and our character and who we want to be. We are the people standing in our own way right now and we’re fully aware of that.
“We’re not going to hide from it or blame anything.”
After winning three of their previous four, Angel City has dropped consecutive games, starting with the 1-0 loss against the Houston Dash on May 12.
“We’ve got to be more in control of our own destiny. We can’t leave our destiny up to other people,” Tweed said. “That’s on us as a squad, and that’s on us as a staff. We have to reflect and look at the spaces that we have to get better in.”
Wave FC suffered a 2-1 loss last week to expansion club Bay FC, but Alex Morgan and Jaedyn Shaw both missed the game. Casey Stoney said this week that “pretty much everyone is available.”
Stoney was also in Tweed’s shoes in regards to her own team’s offensive struggles following their loss to Bay FC.
“It’s not good enough, we’ve got to start scoring goals,” she said after the loss. “You can’t have that many chances, can’t be in the final third that many times and not score … we have to better in those areas.”
The teams will meet again Aug. 24 at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego and Aug. 1 at Titan Stadium at Cal State Fullerton in the NWSL/Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup.
Injury updates
Angel City received a boost with M.A. Vignola’s return last week. Vignola had been sidelined with a bone bruise. Also this week, Meggie Dougherty Howard and Ali Riley returned to training.
Sarah Gorden left last week’s game against Washington with an ankle injury. Tweed said she doesn’t have a timeline for Gorden’s return, adding that’s it will be a “day-to-day, week-to-week” thing.”
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International duty
This is the last game for Angel City until June 8 due the international break. As of Wednesday, Claire Emslie (Scotland), Casey Phair (South Korea), Riley (New Zealand) and Gisele Thompson (U.S U-20) will depart for international duty.
SAN DIEGO WAVE FC at ANGEL CITY FC
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium
How to watch: Bally Sports SoCal; CBSSN