Sometimes the international break comes at the wrong time.
For Angel City FC, that was last week.
Angel City, unbeaten with two draws in the first two games of the season, went into the break riding the high of its first win after defeating the Seattle Reign. This is Angel City’s best three-game stretch to open the season since its inaugural season that saw the team earn six points, winning two of the first three games, and a welcome change after last season’s 0-1-2 start.
“The biggest thing for us, especially in practices, has been really honing in on the small things,” defender M.A. Vignola. “Even at the end of games when we know we’re tired, the other teams are tired, that’s when we don’t want to lose focus. That’s what happened a lot in the past and now we’re able to ride through games and stay as focused as possible.”
A total of nine Angel City players departed for international duty: Claire Emslie (Scotland), Alanna Kennedy (Australia), Casey Phair (South Korea) and Alyssa and Gisele Thompson (USWNT) joined their respective senior national teams.
Angelina Anderson joined USWNT camp as a training player and Savy King (U.S. U-23s), Bre Norris (Mexico U-23s) and Kennedy Fuller (U.S. U-19s) joined their youth national teams.
“It was a very busy week for staff and players last week,” Angel City interim coach Sam Laity said. “Now we have turned the corner and are thinking about playing a game on the weekend and that always adds a bit of extra spice to training and the environment.”
On Saturday, Angel City (1-0-2, 5 points) will try to pick up where it left off when it visits the Houston Dash (1-1-1, 4 points).
“We’re pretty happy with how things are going so far,” Vignola said. “It’s a turnaround of what the start of our season was last year, so it’s definitely on the up right now. We have improved each game, and I think our best show-out was against Seattle.
“We were able to show some good moments, the first two games, but it all started to piece together in that third game. We’re excited and happy that we have five points right now. We’re kind of at the top of the table, but we have a long way to go, so it’s really just taking it game by game right now.”
As of Wednesday, players were still arriving back from international duty. Laity said some would meet at the airport and some would meet the team in Houston.
It will be a busy week for Angel City, which is fourth in the 14-team NSWL standings. After Saturday’s game in Houston, the team returns home for a Friday meeting with Gotham FC.
“We did an internal review of the first three games performance of the team and individuals overall,” Laity said. “We know where the growth areas are. The key is that we keep moving forward. We have really positive energy coming out of the Seattle game.
“We know that Houston is going to be an extremely competitive game. The onus is on us to put our product on the field and, if we do that, we will be successful.”
ANGEL CITY FC at HOUSTON DASH
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Shell Energy Stadium; Houston
How to watch: Paramount+, NWSL+
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