LOS ANGELES – By their third season, Angel City Football Club was expected to be one of the top teams in the NWSL.
The season’s performance proved that there is still a lot of room to grow in that aspect.
“It’s been a real up and down, rollercoaster of a season,” Angel City coach Becki Tweed said. “We had some really, really high moments and we’ve had some really low moments and I think being able take those moments of adversity and grow and being able to put second-half performances together, consistently that would be brilliant and then we have to add all of that together.
“I’ve said every week, it’s a process, it doesn’t happen over night. Being a club from scratch is something that takes time, building an identity, building a culture is something that takes time and I think this season we have grown massively in our identity and what we’re trying to achieve and accomplish. Yes, there’s been bumps along the way and we recognize that, but everything that’s been a bump along the way is completely in our control.”
Late Saturday night, Angel City’s playoff hopes were ended as Bay FC defeated North Carolina, leaving Sunday’s final home game of the regular season without any meaning, other than being one of the 26 games teams play this season.
Sunday, Angel City (7-12-6, 24 points) fell behind on a first-half goal by Utah’s Claudia Zornoza in the 27th minute. In the second half, Sydney Leroux scored the equalizer in the 57th minute in what would end up being a 1-1 draw in front of 20,039 at BMO Stadium.
Angel City expected to be in the playoff chase for the majority of the second half, but suffered a big blow when the team was hit with a three-point deduction earlier this month by the NWSL due to an investigation that uncovered salary cap violations.
“When I reflect, there’s not many, if barely any (games), where I walk away and say we were outplayed today,” Tweed said of the season. “We’ve talked about it from Week 1, a lot of the times we’ve been our own downfall and that is a little bit of mentality. … Last week (against North Carolina) with 15 seconds to go, that’s something where we shouldn’t drop points.
“We dropped so many points from leading positions and that is down to us and we can change that, we can fix that, we have to change that and fix that.”
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This is the second of Angel City’s three seasons, where the club has failed to qualify for the playoffs. This season is obviously painful, considering the number of playoff teams increased to eight this season.
“When we look at the penalty (from the league), that’s not in our control as players and coaching staff, we just have to continue to do our jobs every day and continue to focus on games and picking up points,” Tweed said.
Angel City will conclude the regular season Nov. 1 on the road against the Portland Thorns.