September 20, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release
LOS ANGELES – Angel City Football Club (ACFC) prepared this week to face Portland Thorns FC at BMO Stadium on Monday, September 23 at the club’s Hello Kitty Night. Kickoff is at 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET. The match will stream live on CBSSN, regionally on Bally Sports SoCal, and internationally on NWSL+.
Below please find quotes from the club’s Head Coach Becki Tweed and defender M.A. Vignola:
ACFC Defender M.A. Vignola
On preparing to face Portland on Monday:
“Portland is a really good team. We talked a lot about how with the stretch of games that they had, they’re definitely going to come into BMO with that little hunger and fire. With us being home, it’s definitely good for us to be able to take the initiative and kind of run the game.”
“We need to be the ones who initiate the press. When we’re going to go, when we’re not, we just have to dictate the momentum of the game, which is going to be really important.”
“The biggest threat that we talked about this past week was Sophia Smith up on the front line. She has the ability to want and find herself in good spaces. However, I think that once we can break that first line of press, we can get her kind of out of the game and also dictate that high press on her. That’s going to be the biggest thing for us.”
“They also have good sprayers of the ball with Sam Coffey in the midfield. We just need to make sure that we stay as compact as possible and initiate that high press like I’ve been saying.”
On her journey of battling injuries this season:
“It’s been a long one. In the beginning of the season, it was the second game that I got hurt and the coming back process took a little bit longer than I thought it would. It was probably a total of seven to eight weeks that I was out trying to build back my fitness and then dealt with a couple more tweaks to it.”
“The biggest thing for me was just to stay as in the moment as possible, as much as I want to be out in that field. I learned that my role for that beginning or majority of the season was to be everyone else’s cheerleader. I needed that to kind of gain my confidence back for when I get back on the field and take it day by day.”
“It was tough because I always had high expectations for myself, especially for this season. The journey has been long but we have six games left, and I’m ready to hit the ground running for the rest of it.”
ACFC Head Coach Becki Tweed
On the club’s mindset…