News Every Day | 25 September 2022, 00:01

Angel City FC grateful going into final home game

Angel City Football Club’s home debut in the NWSL Challenge Cup proved that the club had the attention of soccer fans.

The announced attendance was 6,307 on that March 19 evening, but by halftime, the 10,000-seat Titan Stadium was near capacity.

That carried over nearly a month later at the regular-season debut as 22,000 filled Banc of California Stadium.

That will likely be the case again in Sunday’s regular-season home finale as the Angel City hosts Racing Louisville FC.

Angel City has recorded three sellouts so far and is averaging 18,000-plus per home game.

“I would describe it as an honor,” Angel City coach Freya Coombe said of the first season. “To be a part of this process, it has been unbelievable in terms of the opportunity and how the team feels about what we’re doing as a club. The ups and downs, the emotional … it’s been an emotional roller coaster, going back to some of our results in the Challenge Cup to now.

“The appetite for the players to keep getting better, to keep driving the standard. It’s been a roller coaster, but a big privilege to be a part of. It feels like such a journey and it’s not just the numbers, it’s the quality of the fan engagement and the quality of the fan experience and how we all interact on game day. I’ve never seen anything like that in this league. It’s brilliant to a part of.”

After spending the month of September on the road, Angel City circled these last two home games as critically important to their playoff goals.

Angel City (8-7-5, 29 points) kept those hopes alive with the win over the Washington Spirit on Wednesday and will need another win to do the same Sunday. Angel City enters the week one point behind the Chicago Red Stars for the sixth and final playoff spot and one point ahead of the North Carolina Courage.

An Angel City loss and a win by Chicago, which is playing Portland, would mean the end to Angel City’s playoff hopes.

If Angel City wins, that would set up a big meeting with Chicago in next week’s regular-season finale.

“It was just great to be back home in front of our fans,” forward Simone Charley said. “They always bring the energy for us and it was really exciting to be able to feed off of that and get a win (Wednesday).”

Five of Angel City’s eight wins have come at home and, with Racing Louisville FC already eliminated, a chance for a sixth is there.

“There’s definitely no underestimating any opponent in this league,” Coombe said. “We’ve seen how competitive the league is, we know that on any day, any opponent can take points off any team. We know how important it is for us to not only do our job, but also to maintain this standard and level of performance that we’ve been achieving in the last few games.

“We necessarily haven’t always had the result, but I think our last few games, we’ve been really good in possession, really good defensively. We’ve got a job to do, so we’re focusing on ourselves and focusing on the job we have to do and that’s going to be the important mentality we have going into the weekend.”