22,000 at the Banc on opening night, and three more times thereafter. In playoff contention at the start of all 22 of its regular season contests. Women’s professional soccer in Los Angeles for the first time in 13 years.
So much about 2022 should and will be cemented as a success for Angel City FC. But 21 matches after the euphoria of Night 1 against North Carolina, they found themselves on the wrong side of the playoff line.
There was reason for hope and celebration, as well as justified disappointment at the end result. But what did the woman in charge think?
I ran every club-provided postgame quote from manager Freya Coombe through an analyzer, and pulled her most spoken four- and three-word phrases.
So, here’s Angel City’s 2022 season through the most common words of its manager.
'In the second half'
This was by far Coombe’s most frequently spoken four-word phrase. On the surface, it tracks. I mean, how else are you supposed to differentiate the play on either side of the intermission?
But the use of “in the second half” was nearly twice as frequent as “in the first half,” and when you look across the board at their results this season, the second half’s role becomes clear.
Angel City took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after 45 minutes against OL Reign on July 30, a result – if it held – that would’ve sent Angel City above the playoff line into sixth, and the Reign below it to seventh.
The Reign instead poured in a triad of goals in the second frame, stealing all three points out of the Banc and sparking their run to the NWSL Shield. Angel City, of course, never found their third and ultimately never found their way into the top six.
“We have to be able to finish that game off,” Coombe said after that 3-2 defeat. “It’s not ideal, obviously, to have a draw at the end of that game, but that’s certainly better than us not being able to get any points out of it.”
It was a second half that set the course of the stretch run for both sides, and it came in the midst of a run of second halves that decided the fate of Angel City’s season.
Over a four-game stretch starting July 30, Angel City conceded a winner or an equalizer in the final 10 minutes three times.
“It was a relief to get in at halftime still being nil-nil,” Coombe said after an Aug. 19 draw with the Current, “because I don’t think we were deserving of that. But also, knowing that gave us a chance in the game, we had to perform better in the second half.”
Thanks to an 82nd-minute penalty from Lo’eau LaBonta, and the celebration of the 2022 NWSL season, that contest ended 1-1 in Kansas City. The Current went on to be the road warriors of the postseason, picking up a pair of away wins to reach the NWSL Final – an underdog role that Angel City once had in their grasp.
A 90th-minute own goal in Orlando two weeks earlier saw another three points fall by the wayside, and when the dust settled on Aug. 19, Angel City had just five points to show for that stretch.
It was ultimately a campaign that fell just four points short, with seven of them surrendered from a quartet of halftime leads.
'The final third'
Coming in a close second, “the final third” seemed to rear its ugly head often in Coombe’s postgame comments.
“We have to take our chances and be a little bit better in the final third in terms of how we are looking to score,” Coombe said after a 1-0 loss at San Diego Sept. 17.
Wave FC broke an attendance record that night, a mark Angel City set and matched three times prior. One of those was the first-ever meeting between the SoCal rivals back on July 9, a 2-1 victory for the hosts in a shorthanded struggle at the Banc. But two months later, Wave FC returned the favor, stealing their attendance record – and the SoCal shine – to boot.
Alex Morgan went on to win the Golden Boot and is one of five finalists for the MVP, as is the club’s first-ever draft pick, No. 1 overall selection and Rookie of the Year shoo-in Naomi Girma. Casey Stoney took home Coach of the Year, and San Diego got to play postseason soccer – and deliver – in front of a home crowd of more than 26,000.
The NWSL's SoCal expansion project was an undeniable success – playing five combined home contests in front of more than 20,000. But unlike their neighbors down I-5, Angel City lacked the end product to succeed.
Angel City struggled to even produce chances in the final third, finishing dead last in the league in average shot distance at 18 yards from goal. Of the 10 players who registered double-digit shot attempts for LA this season, only three – Vanessa Giles, Christen Press and Simone Charley – had individual averages below that mark.
That’s reflected in the quality of their looks, as Angel City was in the bottom four in both shot-on-target percentage – the proportion of a team’s shots that wind up on target – and goals per shot on target.
Angel City’s attack did not create many chances in front of goal, leading to fewer attempts on frame and even fewer that posed any real threat to opposing goalkeepers.
“I thought we did well in the second half in terms of our possession and had some sustained pressure,” Coombe said after a June 18 loss away at OL Reign – Angel City’s first game after losing Christen Press for the season with a torn ACL. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we did enough in the final third to challenge them and cause them problems.”
Part of the inability to generate close-range chances is born out of lack of attacking cohesion. Only three teams completed fewer live ball passes leading to shot attempts – only two generated fewer goals – while they scored the second-most off the dribble in the league.
Coombe wanted her side to “challenge” opponents in the “final third,” but it’s hard to disorganize defenses without effective passing in the tight spaces inside the box and near the goal.
Cari Roccaro had an incredible season, but she had never scored in her professional career before the start of the year. If I had told you she would finish as the team’s second-leading scorer, you would have had some serious, justified questions about Angel City’s attack.
There’s the offseason and the improving health of Press to reinforce the end product for Angel City next season, but in 2022, the lack of “final third” quality may have cost them a chance at October soccer.
'Injuries'
When I ran every post-match quote through, it gave me every single phrase – from eight words to one – that Coombe offered at least twice over the course of the season. What you won’t find anywhere on the list, are the words “injury,” “hurt” or “missing,” no matter how hard you look.
Sarah Golden went down before the season even started. Neither Press nor Sydney Leroux played in a game after the month of July. Vanessa Giles, Jasmyne Spencer and Paige Nieslen each missed significant time as well.
It’s the understood context of the season, and the explainer for every statistical mark listed above. Yet still, Coombe never offered it as an excuse, and it showed on the field night in, night out.
That aforementioned stretch of blown first-half advantages came on the heels of losing Press for the season, but Coombe’s side righted the ship and rattled off five straight unbeaten.
That run concluded with a 1-1 draw in Houston, and with matches in hand, Angel City still controlled its own playoff destiny. Coombe had her squad in playoff contention when they took the field for all 22 of their matches.
They never lost more than three in a row, and only lost by more than a goal on three occasions. Angel City was in nearly every game until the final whistle, just as they were in the playoff hunt right until the conclusion of the final day.
It was the second most successful expansion campaign in the history of the league – unfortunately, their SoCal rivals hold claim to the top spot – and it was thanks in large part to how Coombe navigated this season.
They never played like a side ruing those who weren’t on the field, and that’s what this team and its supporters can take away from its inaugural campaign in the City of Angels.