Over the winter break, Louisville’s soccer team had a special visit from U.S. Women’s National Team player and recent Angel City tradee, Savannah King. Much like a couple of her new teammates, King is a local to the valley, having gone to elementary school down the street at Calabash and attending A. E. Wright for middle school, then graduating from Agoura High school. Other players on the squad such as Lily Nabet and the Thompson sisters, attended Chaminade and Harvard Westlake respectively. With so many local connections, there's no reason to not support this team, so here's more background on the team as we begin this new season.
First up we’ll start with our players that have left the club. Forwards Messiah Bright and Jasmyn Spencer, goalkeeper DiDi Haracic, defender Madison Curry, and midfielders Meggie Dougherty-Howard, Katie Johnson and Rocky Rodriguez have all been traded to various teams throughout the league. With their four collective goals throughout the years, the Angel City fanbase can only thank them for their contributions to the team.
Not only did the players change, but so has the organization itself. After a 7 win, 6 draw, and 13 loss season, head coach Becki Tweed stepped down and was recently replaced by former coach of the Seattle Reign, Sam Laity. The ownership of the team also changed with neighbor, dean of USC’s Anneberg school Willow Bay, and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger becoming the new controlling owners of the club and its board of directors.
Now onto the additions the team made in between the seasons. ACFC received multiple national players, including forward Julie Dufour of France, forward Maithé López of Columbia and midfielder Alanna Kennedy of Australia, and one rookie Macey Hodge of Mississippi State who was named SEC midfielder of the year last season.
Angel City recently partook in the Coachella Valley Invitational which featured the debut of many of its recent additions, including defenders Savy King and Miyabi Moriya. They played in two matches, beating the Portland Thorns during the first game 2 to 1 and ending in a 1 to 1 draw against the Seattle Reign. All in all the tournament was an amazing way to ease back into the NWSL.
During February, national teams from all over the world competed in the SheBelieves cup. Multiple of Angel City’s players were called up for their countries, including Alyssa Thompson, Gisele Thompson and Savy King for the U.S. women’s national team, Alanna Kennedy for the Australian national team, and Miyabi Moriya for the Japanese national team. In the final between the U.S. and Japan, Japan came out on top with a score of 2 to 1.
Even if you’ve never been to a game or know nothing about soccer, I highly recommend coming out to a game at BMO to support your local team full of local people! Their upcoming game on March 30th at 5 p.m. - where they will host the Seattle Reign will be their Women’s History Night at BMO Stadium -is sure to be a great match.