NWSL 2022: How Angel City’s attacking realism helped them beat Washington Spirit – tactical analysis

Angel City were able to beat the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup finalist, Washington Spirit, in a match that ended 0-1 for the team that is playing their first-ever NWSL season. In fact, Angel City started their debut season strongly with two wins against both NWSL Challenge Cup finalists, North Carolina Courage and Washington Spirit, while losing to Orlando Pride at home. It is certainly a promising start for Angel City but this shouldn’t be sufficient for them as the team needs to remain consistent in terms of performances throughout the season in order to gain the fruit of their work.

The team is now holding the 2^nd spot in the standings with six points out of a possible nine, which is a very good result so far. On the other side, after a long and a bit tiring NWSL Challenge Cup journey, Washington Spirit started the NWSL season with a loss against Angel City and they are yet to play their next fixtures as they finished late from the NWSL Challenge Cup compared to the other teams due to play the final. Washington Spirit are now in a delicate situation and they should know how to get out of it quickly in order to not let the players’ confidence in their abilities decrease, which would affect the team’s upcoming performances and results.

In reality, Washington Spirit played well during the final and were not an easy team to beat. Therefore, the players shouldn’t let the disappointment of these two consecutive losses affect their determination to win. This psychological aspect is very important especially in such situations and it is the work of the coaching staff to keep the players’ morale high and ensure that the players remain 100% motivated as the season has just begun.

In this tactical analysis article, we will be focusing on the key aspects that led to Angel City’s win by exploring the team’s overall performance and tactics while at the same time analysing Washington Spirit’s mistakes and the reasons that led to their loss at the Audi Field.

Line-ups

Washington Spirit started this game relying on the 4-2-3-1 formation with Aubrey Bledsoe as a goalkeeper, Morgan Elizabeth Goff, Emily Sonnett, Sam Staab and Camryn Biegalski in defence, Taylor Aylmer and Julia Roddar as central midfielders, Trinity Rodman and Anna Heilferty on the wings and Dorian Bailey as an advanced playmaker in support of the striker, Ashley Hatch.

On the other side, Angel City opted for the 4-3-3 formation including Bosnia’s goalkeeper Dijana Haračić, Jasmyne Spencer, Megan Reid, Vanessa Gilles and Tyler Lussi in defence. The midfield was made up of Dani Weatherholt, former Racing Louisville player Savannah McCaskill and Cari Roccaro while both Japan international Jun Endo and former Manchester United Women forward Christen Press played on both wings in support of the striker, Simone Charley.

Angel City’s performance

The match started in a balanced way with occasions being made from both teams, especially during the first half. Angel City exploited Washington Spirit’s recurrent defensive issues, especially in the build-up and when being subject to counterattacks in the best possible way. In fact, Angel City used a lot of players to press high on Washington Spirit’s defenders when they are in the build-up phase. This obliged Washington Spirit to commit passing mistakes in their own half as the players were often surrounded by Angel City players and went for the bad passing decisions. In fact, Angel City made 53 interceptions and 27 clearances in this match and won 70,51% of the defensive duels. These numbers indicate that Angel City were not only solid when defending in their own half but also in Washington Spirit’s half. It is true that Angel City did not exploit all of their interceptions/clearances in an efficient way in attack, yet, they were able to score the one goal that gave them the advantage over their opponent.

In the following picture, you can notice how many Angel City players were advancing to block all possible passing lanes and oblige Washington Spirit players to either go for long passes, pass to a marked teammate or fall into the trap of overthinking and indecision which would eventually lead to making a wrong or an inaccurate pass, which is exactly what happened here.