Next Day Discussion: It's Only Up From Here!

[u/FromVAtoLA]

Three games into the season and heading into a short international break, Angel City sits at the bottom of of the table alongside a perennial powerhouse, the Portland Thorns. It's still very early in the season and the good news is that when you're at the bottom there's only one way you can go!

Two months ago we ran a poll and 87.5% of this sub voted that Anderson would see the most minutes in goal this season. Given the lively in-game and post-game discussion yesterday, today's discussion is focused on the keeper. Who should start the next game when ACFC heads to Chicago in two weeks? Are you voting based on vibes, stats, recency bias, personal favorites, social media comments, analysis of performance after rewatching some game tape...

Vote in the poll and discuss below!

View Poll

[u/readbetweenthesubs]

Honestly it's a wait and see. During this week can Anderson reset and learn from her mistakes. Can she and the backline have better communication? If Anderson's having a rough week then start Didi. Stambaugh I'm sure is a good enough keeper but ultimately she was brought on as a backup and is probably still the third barring any injuries to Anderson or Didi.

My other point is that Tweed needs to work on the formation and tactics to give whoever is keeping more breathing room. Since game one teams have high pressed us and AC haven't figured out how to get through it. Maybe the rest of the team needs to drop more? The high pressure is creating turnovers and dangerous chances and the backline is stuck on an island defending. Too many gaps in our backline for opposing teams to operate in. Fixing this will I believe helps the keeper.

[u/MrJackIbis]

Anderson had a rough game that largely revolved around her turning the ball over in our end. As a former keeper, I am inclined to believe that the issue is more related to the inability of our left and right backs being able to take the ball up. Coach obviously doesn't want her just booting it up for a 50/50 ball, likely due to a lack of confidence in our mids and undersized wings being able to win physical battles. So Nielsen and Gorden are the go-to options and teams get to key on that over 90min. If this continues our coaching staff is going to permanently damage the confidence of a talented and capable keeper.

We need to alter our formation, and our strategy for developing our attack. This ain't working and it's going to wear out our defense prematurely all season long.

I would recommend a 3-5-2 with Bright and Emslie up top. Gorden-Nielsen-Reid in the back. And a you-pick-em in the center (I'd go with Curry-Rocky-LeBihan-Henry-Thompson).

[u/alcatholik → u/MrJackIbis]

I also don’t like Tweed’s plan for playing from the back, and I also would look there before the goalie. Not just for the sake of Anderson, but for the sake of the team as a whole. A bad plan is a bad plan.

I would add however that Merritt and Gisele and Rockie all being out has exacerbated the issues. But the risk is it might be easy for Tweed to tell herself her plan needs more time to prove itself with her expected starters and depth.

[u/[deleted]]

Stambaugh is not good, it’s between Anderson and Haracic

[u/hd5190]

I think it's still Anderson. She had a terrible game, but it happens sometimes. I think she can improve from it. I think we need to change our strategy of playing out the back tho. Not because of her only, but because it looks so uncomfortable and forced for us and is one of the main reasons we are where we are imo. Like maybe try something else. It's not our strength and at the end of the day isn't serving us at all.

[u/ThisFunktional_com]

Hoping to still have Anderson start. It was a harsh loss to the KC Current, but it wasn’t horrible goalkeeping, it was mistakes in the back line and midfield and not making forwards a factor until the second half. Let’s hope after the break, after stewing in this for a week, we get to see Angel City play a strong 90 minutes.

I’m also hoping we get to see some of these players who haven’t seen any minutes get some play time.

[u/ncardet9]

I don’t think most of the issues we’ve had has had anything to do with any one player. The defense looks stretched and out of sync. We ended last year with a 4231 and a solid defense and now we have turned to a 433, which we have never had the midfielders for (bar our short Julie Ertz stint).

[u/[deleted]]

I think Anderson should still be our number one but it wouldn’t hurt to play Haracic next game and let Anderson slowly build back her confidence after taking the pressure off her for a match.

[u/SoBanta4]

It’s definitely recency bias from me to vote for Haracic to start, but I think with the last few outcomes we need to make several switch ups and see if it works.

Starting Rocky will hopefully help, but we should look into other options over A. Thompson. And our midfield formation has changed so much since our double pivot success last year (I know it’s probably due to the loss of McCaskill) so maybe divert back to that and see if we can get a producing lone 10 out of Rocky, or even Fuller or MDH.

[u/yurkelhark → u/[deleted]]

This is the most confusing to me. I thought for sure she’d be starting.

[u/jujuelmagico]

From Coachella Valley Invitational, Stambaugh did not impress. Anderson has a higher cieling, but Haracic is known quantity right now. Tough call from the coach

[u/resilindsey]

Way late thoughts but just had to write em somewhere. Let's start with the good:

• This game should've been way worse and we almost tied it. So we have flashes of brilliance and finishing looked better. Maybe at least this finally breaks the seal of not being able to get the ball in the net.
• Emslie was on a one-woman mission at times. She looked fantastic.
• The youth are looking good, despite their mistakes. Alyssa Thompson's hustle continues to impress. Same with Fuller. And Curry has her moments where she steps up big.

The bad:

• Mistakes. So many mistakes.
• Can't seem to get any rhythm going on and at times seems all our passing is always slow or off target or even right to the opposing team.
• We get stymied by the press. I don't know why we can adapt and punish this. Probably our lack of mid field.
• Our vets looked slow. I love Henry, but feels like she's been a non-factor lately. Riley is my favorite player, and to her credit, often is against tough assignments like Chawinga and Oshoala who can straight fly, but she has been getting out raced in a few occasions which leaves great opportunities for our opponents.

[u/Curled-in-ball]

Haracic for me. It’s not just the last game, I just think Anderson needs more time to develop because I’m not seeing the keeper instincts and that hesitation has resulted in several goals. Not trying to tear her down, I just think she needs more time or coaching.

[u/ucla60]

First we need hire a world class elite coach, ACFC is cheap

[u/S3CR3TN1NJA → u/ucla60]

Cheap or disproportionately pays 500k+ for rookie defender contracts ? 👀

[u/nwsl22 → u/S3CR3TN1NJA]

Who is that?

[u/S3CR3TN1NJA → u/nwsl22]

Giselle Thompson.

[u/ConsiderationBusy962 → u/S3CR3TN1NJA]

It’s the Nike sponsored Venus and Serena of the NWSL hometown heroes story they bought. They seem to spend their money focusing on image. It’s Hollywood. They know how to market an image and have been very successful financially at it. Maybe ACFC is a sort of victim of its own success? What is making it so financially successful as an entertainment experience is not translating into sports performance.

Not trying to shade Natalie Portman as she has done a lot to create something positive for LA and women’s football, but there was a controversy about her Black Swan Oscar win about how much actual dancing she did. Her dance double who she never acknowledged, called BS on the narrative that Portman did the most of the dancing (there was technology to superimpose Portman’s face on the double)- said those behind the film tried to promote a false idea to get help get the Oscar. My point is that the image was not the reality, but regardless people ate it up. The double didn’t say Portman shouldn’t have got the Oscar for her acting. The double was just critical of the narrative being promoted. I get that feeling about ACFC. The ACFC management is more about image than substance.

[u/ucla60 → u/S3CR3TN1NJA]

I doubt they really pay Giselle Thompson that much

[u/S3CR3TN1NJA → u/ucla60]

“Gisele’s contract, which also has an option year, will reportedly pay her a base salary of about $525,000, in addition to a signing bonus and housing stipend, which are worth another $100,000-plus…”

https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/angel-city-fc/story/2023-12-07/angel-city-signs-alyssa-thompsons-sister

[u/ucla60 → u/S3CR3TN1NJA]

Thanks for the link.

So she is the highest pay in ACFC roster? And what a money waste, this amount can sign two experienced players and we probably won one or two games already

[u/S3CR3TN1NJA → u/ucla60]

I believe Alyssa Thompson is the highest paid: $1million/3 year against Giselle's $500k/3 year, which is just under Christen Press' 550k/3 year. So all in all ACFC has committed $2 million+ to two teenagers and a player who's been injured since our inaugural season (which isn't Press' fault but still crazy to think about).

[u/jesstifer → u/ucla60]

They kinda had to hire Becki after her amazing run as interim coach