By Christine Espinoza
In their second at home game, Angel City showed that they are a force to be reckoned with; however, OL Reign’s goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce was the person that kept Angel City from its first Challenge Cup victory.
Angel City began to test Tullis-Joyce almost immediately when both Tyler Lussi and Savannah McCaskill fired two shots on target within the first ten minutes. Angel City had better possession of the game until the 12th minute when Reign’s Rose Lavelle broke across the field and slid a ball to Veronica Latsko who scored the first goal of the game against Angel City.
Unfortunately, Reign’s second goal would come just five minutes after the first when Alana Cook delivered a header against goalkeeper DiDi Haracic. Angel City continued to press Reign’s defense including a breathtaking shot from Christen Press at the 20th which Tullis-Joyce rushed to get out of the way.
Bad luck struck Angel City again when McCaskill, who had an awkward tumble with Reign’s Latsko received a red card and was ejected from the game. While at first glance, it seemed as if it was a very hard call, replays showed that McCaskill’s cleats were on Latsko’s shin. While it seemed unintentional, the referee called it by the book, leaving Angel city with ten players for the rest of game. This move saw Jun Endo and Lussi defend more and give Reign slightly more possession into the end of the first half.
The substitution that made the difference in Angel City’s game after halftime was Simone Charley who made her debut and a stunning first impression when she came in for Endo and a created many great opportunities for the team.
The first opportunity came within the first couple of minutes of in the second half. Unfortunately, Reign also continued their attack and scored again at the 50th minute when Angelina raced past Angel City defenders and got the third goal for Reign.
Angel City’s goal came when Jasmyne Spencer ran and got past a Reign player almost to the corner, passed the ball to Charley who took two defenders out of their positions then quickly passed it to Lussi who made a clinical finish past Tullis-Joyce.
Charley attempted again at the 70th minute and 80th minute. Her addition to the game was so critical and should be noted as a promising game changer in future games as she contributed significantly to Angel City tripling their shots from 4 before halftime to 16 at the end of the game.
Although Angel City lost this game, they showed many possibilities to explore in just their second game, especially in a player like Simone Charley.
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