Angel City Football Club missed a good chance to pick up ground in the playoff chase with last week’s loss against the Seattle Reign.
Saturday, Angel City has another chance against a team near or beneath them in the NWSL standings.
Angel City visits Racing Louisville FC, who sits two places and two points back in the race for a playoff spot.
“Especially as you look at our schedule, a lot of the teams are in a similar position as us,” Angel City coach Becki Tweed said. “Every game is a six-point game and that’s something as a staff we have to be really mindful of. Yes, we have to pick up points, but by picking up points, we’re obviously limiting teams around us from picking up points.
“We’re at that stage of the season where the teams we are playing are in similiar-ish positions to us and those are the games that are really important and count as those six-point games.”
There are seven games remaining in the NWSL regular season. Five points separate seventh-place Bay FC, with 24 points, and 11th-place Racing Louisville (4-8-7, 19 points).
“The beauty of the team this year is with that core group, who has experienced that adversity from the beginning,” defender Jasmyne Spencer said. “Now, there’s a little bit more sophistication, for lack of a better word, in that.”
“We’ve been here before and we know we can do it now. We have a stronger sense of belief in what goals we want to accomplish in making the playoffs.”
Angel City (6-10-3) has enjoyed success against Racing Louisville, posting a 2-2-1 record. In the brief series, Angel City has scored 10 goals.
In June, Kennedy Fuller, Rocky Rodriguez and Sydney Leroux scored for Angel City in the 3-2 win at BMO Stadium.
“They have a lot of players that are very dangerous,” Racing Louisville defender Abby Erceg said of Angel City. “They have a lot of game-winners. You’ve seen Sydney Leroux come through in the past three games, coming through big for their team.
“They have players in their team who can undo a very good performance for us, so we need to make sure we stay switched on for 90 minutes because if you switch off against players like that, they’re dangerous. They have that reputation for a reason. We just have to stay focused. I think we can put in a good performance.”
Angel City’s last performance was an uneven one. The game ended in a 3-2 loss against the Reign. Angel City scored four goals, but two were taken off the scoreboard due to video reviews.
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“The last 15-20 minutes, there was still this unwavering belief that we were going to win the game,” Tweed said. “There was still this drive and desire to continue to compete and I think that’s going to serve us really well the last few games of the season.
“Obviously, disappointed (in the loss), but again, when it’s in our control, it’s easy for us to walk away and look at it and make improvements and I think that’s the mentality the team has had this week.”
ANGEL CITY FC at RACING LOUISVILLE FC
When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Lynn Family Stadium, Louisville, Kentucky
How to watch: ION