It has been quite a week for Angel City FC.
Two days after Freya Coombe was dismissed as head coach, Angel City, mired in a four-match losing streak traveled down south to San Diego to face a Wave FC team that came into Saturday afternoon’s match tied for first place.
Angel City fell behind early in the second half behind a goal from Kristen McNabb, but instead of folding under the pressure, Angel City got themselves back up and responded. Goals from Paige Nielsen and Mary Alice Vignolia enabled interim head coach Becki Tweed to get her first win in her first try, as Angel City pulled the 2-1 upset win at Snapdragon Stadium.
“[This was] huge,” Vignolia said. This being San Diego and being our first win in a while, it means a lot. A road win is always big. It being San Diego makes it so much better.”
Scoreless for the first 56 minutes, San Diego pulled ahead when Sierra Enge played a ball to Alex Morgan just outside the penalty area, Morgan then played a ball for McNabb, who charged in and volleyed a one-timer that sailed past keeper Didi Haracic at the far post to give Wave FC the lead. Angel City this time had a response. Clarissa Le Bihan sent a corner kick into the penalty area, the ball bounced inside the box, Nielsen chested the ball down and fired the left-footed shot past keeper Kalien Sheridan into the back net to level the match.
“We needed that one. We did. We knew that with the momentum, it would take the entire team to grind a game out,” Nielsen said. “That is what we did today. We were in it together and it was a team performance. Not our best performance actually, but we did the dirty things right.”
Not satisfied with settling for a point on the road against its regional rivals, Angel City pressed for a second goal. Scarlett Camberos had two chances to play spoiler against her hometown team, but the first chance sailed over the framework and the second chance was saved by Sheridan. Jasmyne Spencer however had perhaps the best look at a second Angel City goal, as she touched a ball to evade Naomi Girma, then fired a left-footed shot that just missed the back post by a mere inches.
Angel City however was not deterred, as they got one more chance in the 88th minute and cashed in. Camberos pounced on a loose ball and quickly dribbled towards goal. Camberos got inside the penalty area, played a ball to Vignolia on the overlap and Vignolia fired the left-footed shot off Sheridan into the back net for her second goal of the season, which comes in back to back games, and it sent the Angel City fans who had made the two-hour trek to San Diego to cheer on their team into a frenzy.
“This win is very special, and I will always remember it,” Tweed said. “This is a great moment and something I need to process and enjoy it. For me, I am already thinking about next week and how we can be better and continue to grow. We needed this as a group. We needed to come together, and we needed these three points more than anything.”
