Match Recap: OL Reign Soar Past Angel City with Three Goals
OL Reign (1-0-1) defeated Angel City FC (0-1-1) in the first ever meeting between the two teams. With this win, the Reign has moved into first place in the West Division of the NWSL Challenge Cup after two matches.
At the start of the match, OL Reign was forced to absorb pressure from Angel City, as the team elected to press high up the field. It took the Reign a few minutes to adjust to the pressure, but when they did, the team began to string together one touch passes to break the pressure and built into the attacking third.
It wasn’t long before OL Reign scored the opening goal of the match. A quick and clean build up play spurred by midfielder Jess Fishlock and forward Bethany Balcer opened up space for midfielder Rose Lavelle to play forward Veronica Latsko in to finish the ball and open her account with the Reign.
Just five minutes later, OL Reign doubled their lead. After taking a short corner kick, the Reign controlled possession of the ball and midfielder Angelina served a cross into the box. OL Reign center back Alana Cook got her head on the end of it, which was enough to beat Angel City’s defense and goalkeeper to put the Reign up 2-0 just 17 minutes into the match.
On the other end of the field, Angel City found several great scoring opportunities, but OL Reign goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce made many superb saves to maintain the lead for OL Reign. The young goalkeeper cemented herself as a standout player of the match early on thanks to her stellar performance in the net.
In the 31st minute of the match, Angel City midfielder Savannah McCaskill was issued a red card and sent off the field for a challenge on Latsko. Latsko was able to continue playing after the incident and Angel City was down to 10 players for the remainder of the match. Though both teams desperately searched, neither found another goal before the end of the half and the Reign went into halftime up 2-0.
After halftime, OL Reign came out strong, scoring in the 50th minute of the match. Lavelle played a ball into Latsko, who put the ball through to the back post where Angelina slid in to finish the opportunity and score her first OL Reign goal.
As the game went on, the momentum shifted in favor of Angel City and OL Reign found themselves on the back foot, defending attacking opportunities from Angel City. The home team found a goal back in the 67th minute, when midfielder Jasmyne Spencer and forward Simone Charley combined to find forward Tyler Lussi in the middle of the box.
The Reign spent the end of the game defending but proved to be strong and maintained the lead through the final 25 minutes of the match and earned their first win of the 2022 Challenge Cup.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
· With this win, OL Reign has moved into first place in the West Division of the NWSL Challenge Cup standings
· Veronica Latsko, Alana Cook and Angelina all scored their first goals for OL Reign
· Veronica Latsko and Angelina both earned a goal and assist this match
· The Reign are now unbeaten in five straight road games (across all competitions). This is the team’s first time doing this since doing so over an eight-game span in 2014
UP NEXT: OL Reign will travel to Portland to face Portland Thorns FC on Saturday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m. PT at Providence Park as the squad hunts for its second Challenge Cup win.
MATCH SUMMARY
2022 NWSL Challenge Cup
OL Reign (1-0-1, 4 points) 3-1 Angel City FC (0-1-1, 1 point)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 26, 2022, 1:00 p.m. PT
Location: Titan Stadium, Fullerton, California
Weather: 75, Sunny
Scoring Summary:
RGN: Latsko – 12’, Cook –17’, Angelina – 50’
LA: Lussi – 67’
Discipline
RGN: Barnes (Caution – 90+1’)
LA: McCaskill (Red Card – 31’)
Lineups
RGN: GK Tullis-Joyce, D Barnes ©, D Hiatt, D Cook, D Huerta, M Fishlock, M Quinn (Stanton 85’), M Angelina (Athens 68’), F Latsko (Watt 60’), F Balcer (López 85’), F Lavelle (King 60’)
Unused substitutes: GK Dickey, D Miramontez, D McClernon, M Van der Jagt
Total Shots: 13 (Balcer – 7)
Shots on Goal: 8 (Balcer – 3)
Fouls: 11 (Quinn – 3)
Offsides: 4
Corner Kicks: 3
Saves: 6 (Tullis-Joyce – 6)
LA: GK Haracic, D Riley ©, D Hammond, D Gilles, M Spencer (Swaby 81’), M McCaskill, M Roccaro (Nabet 76’), M Weatherholt, F Press (Ferrer Van Ginkel 88’), F Lussi (Breslin 76’), F Endo (Charley 46’)
Unused substitutes: GK Isenhour, GK Perez
Total Shots: 16 (Charley – 6)
Shots on Goal: 7 (Charley, Lussi – 2)
Fouls: 8 (Riley – 2)
Offsides: 1 (Lussi – 1)
Corner Kicks: 6
Saves: 5 (Haracic – 5)
Budweiser Player of the Match: Phallon Tullis-Joyce
Officials
Referee: Ekaterina Koroleva
Assistant Referees: Eduardo Jeff, Brian Marshall