Angel City FC Documentary Review - Episode 1

Welcome

My wife and I were invited to our first Angel City FC game against the Washington Spirit on the 13th of May, 2023. I went as an experienced sports fan of several men’s teams who was looking forward to experiencing a new (to the NWSL) team and getting in on a fandom relatively close to the ground floor. I was also looking forward to an in-person, live sporting event. The first thing I noticed was the “first day 2022” scarves worn by almost everyone I saw as we made our way to our seats and around the concessions. The vibe was full of excitement with an inviting feel and as we got into the game I never thought about the crowd again. That sounds weird, but you have to think about who or what you might run into while you’re at a game. Who is the rude fan standing in the way? Who are the drunks who make it uncomfortable for those around them or who is the fan constantly yelling at someone on the field, a drop in the bucket of noise but is the main event in your section?

That doesn’t mean the crowd didn’t have a passion. There was a woman in the second deck, one section to our right who had some choice words for some of the “offsides” calls. I had similar feelings, but I was not going to be the new guy yelling into the ear of the couple seated in front of us. The game ended in a loss, but I felt the team had won me over. It was fun the whole way. The drums, the game, the fans, and the newness of it all was something I’d not experienced as a sports fan and I’m declaring my long-term fandom of this team.

The seats we had were awesome. They were on the second level near mid-field and we had a great view of the pitch. I really enjoy watching the tactical movement on the field and there is nothing like watching a game from the angle we had. Passing lanes were clear to me, player movements and off-the-ball activity the TV cameras would normally miss was right in front of us. I watched the game looking for the advantages ACFC had over the other team. There weren’t many, unfortunately. However, ACFC played well enough to keep the game close all the way until the last couple minutes of the game when a penalty kick was called and the away team scored.

I spent part of halftime looking up the cost of season tickets and spent part of the ride home looking up single-game tickets for games we could attend the rest of the season. At one point I turned to my friend and said “Something enjoyable about watching women’s soccer is the lack of diving. I will be exponentially angrier the next World Cup or European League game when the gents start rolling around with phantom injuries. The amount of diving and bad gamesmanship I see in futbol makes the game infuriating to watch. Anyways, I’m here for the positive aspects of this game.

I’m an ACFC fan now. I’m looking forward to attending my next game. I have my jersey and a scarf. I follow the team’s YouTube page and have the live scores set up to display on my phone when ACFC plays. At the game, I found out there would be a series produced by HBO talking about how the team came into being and what the team was doing differently in a sports landscape made of entire mountain ranges of indifference. The ownership and the players are in a special position to make a difference in this landscape and this show is the first visible step to those who may not watch a game on TV or in person. I felt like I wanted to add the voice of a new fan as we go along for the ride with this new team with a new way of thinking about women’s soccer and how it fits in the jagged landscape that is sports in the States. 

Episode One Notes & Thoughts

-Building from the ground up in a different way: Early in the episode, ownership states that they want to build the team in a different way and they will be building the team from the ground up. This is the basis for my excitement. I like that we can see the team grow from the very start and I like that the team has cameras in the office for discussions and behind-the-scenes decisions. We get the opportunity to believe in the team in the front office and the team that is on the field. This is something I’ve not experienced before as a sports fan and this new experience is here for all of us to witness.

-A funny moment where early pandemic Zoom meeting etiquette is still being worked on. They are trying to have THE meeting where they officially announce their ownership and entry into the NWSL and there are people who don’t have themselves on mute. Additionally, it was nice to see this level of power player, Hollywood-type meetings have the same amount of preamble as the corporate meetings I experience in my job.

-ACFC ownership feels like they are the kind of thinkers that will make this league grow. I love that Julie has the mentality of “questioning why the rules are the way they are?” This tells me the team is going to challenge the status quo and that will become more important as we get into this episode.

-Abby Wambach tells her story about the Icon award standing next to Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning who are generational millionaires (billionaires?) while Abby is thinking about where she is going to find a job to pay her mortgage and get health insurance. We can look at this on the individual level but I think it’s useful to think about this zoomed out. Success in women’s sports does not lead to the same generational wealth as men’s sports. Let’s not pretend that ownership of teams in men’s leagues are about to hand out dollars to women’s sporting events, this needs to change from within the women’s game. That means finding the fans and advocating for the coverage that these players and teams deserve. I used to be one that had little interest in women’s sports until I realized that I may not be the target audience. I never had the right mix of interest and exposure at various points in my life that would hook me in and cause me to follow along. Now, here we are, I’m watching the documentary about the team, attended a game and plan to get season tickets next season. I hope that the exposure this type of show can bring to the NWSL will lead to future generations of women soccer players not having to share the same story Abby Wambach shared.

-Eniola Aluko gets hired as the Sporting Director.

-The discussion turns to butts in seats and the goals of the team for how many people they want to attend games. LAFC, the men’s MLS team, tells the ACFC ownership group that they don’t think they will get 8 thousand people to attend. The concern was that too few people in the crowd will feel like attendees are not part of a party. Spoiler…..By the end of the show series, it’s revealed that ACFC has 14k season ticket holders.

-Love that the ownership group met with the fanbase to tell them their efforts paid off and they would have a team in LA. As a fan of MLB, NFL, NHL teams, ownership feels like they are far away from talking to me. This move creates a lot of trust that the owners are listening, and this is exemplified in the hiring of Head Coach Freya Coombe. When the fans hear rumors that a man was to be hired as the head coach, the fans speak up and are heard.

-The expansion draft happens and some of the fans are brought in to announce the draft picks. This is a really nice touch and a concrete example of the team giving the fans a moment that is written into the stone of ACFC’s history

The No-Trade Policy

-No Trade Policy: Two sides to this concept. When I first heard the policy spoken, I thought it was a terrible policy. Cut to the next scene with the players and the Sporting Director talking about what the no-trade policy means to them and the comfort it provides. I trust the players more than I trust my couch sport directing so I will wait and see how this plays out over time. Here is the question I will be asking along that way that is basically impossible to answer. Who is the first reserve player that gives 98% in practice because they know they will not be starting in the next game; knowing they will not be traded for the rest of the season? I believe all the players feel like they are building something great and have an intrinsic motivation to make ACFC great. However, who is the first player to take the first sprint off during practice? Who is the second and how much do they let off? How much does that take away from the performance on the pitch where an extra step against a defender is the difference between a clean shot and the defender being in the way? Sports are brutal. I think players should be paid as much as they can get when they can get it because there is always another player coming for your job. As familiar as I am with the roster movements in the NFL, players have to play hard and produce, or they will be replaced. When is this going to bite the team? Will it bite the team? It might never matter but the act of the team saying this to the entire room builds in an unforced restriction on the team. If the team wants to sit with a player having a bad run of 3-4 games and say “Hey, we are going to coach our way through this. Keep your head up and keep working” I’m all for that approach but building in a soft landing for the first player to give 98% leads to a second player giving 96%, and so on.

-Paige Nielsen #14 – I really like her, she gave up a well-paying corporate life to chase a dream. When I watched her play her spot on the field, she was tenacious, got her shoulder into the play, and drew an “eff you” yellow card. Her story, there is more in the show I will leave for you to find out, is easy to get behind and her play is the kind I like to root for.

-Owners Julie Uhrman, Kara Nortman, and Natalie Portman are watching the first practice. What must that have felt like? I know how I feel when I put the finishing touches on a blog post or a piece of fiction. They are witnessing the “finishing touches” of a two-year process to put a team on the field and that team is on the field. How can you not be excited for them and for the players? A lot of people have put a lot of effort to get to this point. These might be the finishing touches to an important early phase of the process but now they get to see the players help turn their vision into a sporting reality. I felt genuinely happy for them watching this moment.

The Injury Era Begins

-The show hits on this quickly but injuries have played a role in ACFC’s existence from the very beginning. This has been the unfortunate theme of the team since they started playing. Even today, the team is dealing with a roster that has some of its best players on the injured list. The injured players are the kinds of players that make the difference on offense that leads to goals. It’s a terrible feeling that the first two seasons for ACFC have featured such long injured lists. The opportunity this opens for players deeper on the roster is great but there is a reason there are starters and bench players. One or two injuries might be overcome with depth and creative play on the field. When the amount of talent has been lost for as long as it has been lost over the first two seasons, the expectations have to change or the roster needs to be added to from the outside. The question is, at least in the current season, season 2, how do you replace a notional team star? How do you replace one of your best defenders being on loan to a foreign team? More on that later.

-Angela Hucles Mangano – love her, I love the way she reports no-nonsense and doesn’t sugarcoat what she saw. The larger issue is the sad nature of what women’s soccer is up against. Trying to find training space is an issue. The discussion we see sets in stone the height of the mountain that needs to be scaled in order to get this team up and running. The business side is in good hands. That fact is made abundantly clear during the first half of the show. The players on the roster are what wins games and generate long-term buzz for the team and the NWSL. The players need facilities for training and recovery. That is something I have always taken for granted as a fan in the world of men’s Sports.

-The team is able to get a deal with another Los Angeles-based team to use their training facility, but they don’t get to be on the field until the afternoon. I’m not going to spoil the situation for those who intend to watch, but I live near the area where ACFC trains and it easily hits triple-digit temperatures during the summer, and the season runs from March to October. All the hot months are covered. Yes, these are professional athletes, but the heat doesn’t care, recovery takes just a little bit longer and the season feels a little bit longer. It ends up being a home-field disadvantage.

-Players get a percentage of ticket sales. F**king love it. The audience is told that players will receive part of the gate in their compensation. This makes me feel good about rooting for this team. Most of the other professional teams I root for have owners I would rather forget. For one reason or another, I can’t name one reason why I feel good about rooting for the increased valuation of a team. I want my childhood teams to win but the people and organizations who own the teams I’ve rooted for since before I knew about the selfish motivations of those wealthy enough to own professional teams in men’s North American sports leagues are not on my list of things I think about when the Dolphins score a touchdown or the Blue Jays hit a home run. What the ACFC ownership group is doing is setting an example of what good ownership looks like. They are giving me a reason to feel good about what they are trying to accomplish for the benefit of the community, the players, and the fans.

-Love that “Kit” was defined in text on-screen for those who might not be familiar. It’s a nice touch that removes part of the barrier to entry.

-The Kit Deal: I love that the management group stood up for what they believed was the value of the front-of-kit deal and got the eight-figure deal. Here is my question as Julie is talking about it. The value certainly looks like it is driven by the names of the ownership group and not necessarily the names on the field. How long can the value be held at this level if the team doesn’t perform? Having been to a game, feeling the vibe, and watching the team with the injury-depleted roster, I believe the results will come. However, at the time of this filming, the team had not played a game and they were playing with a roster that was locked in for the season. Is the team making their transition from “name value” to “wins on the pitch value” more challenging than it needs to be?

Sexual Coercion, In-Game Protest, and Collective Bargaining

-The episode gets into the Athletic and its investigation into sexual coercion, emotional abuse, and the league’s response to emails speaking up for player safety and anti-harassment. The league commissioner brushes off two players asking for their story to be heard. The segment gets into the lack of collective bargaining and all the benefits that come with having the player’s voices heard. We are shown examples of the players meeting at mid-field as the game clock is running and the fans raising signs of support. Thankfully the segment ends with the news that the new commissioner is going to sign a collective bargaining agreement. ACFC and the ownership group have brought a new mentality to the league and shown there is a way to think about how this league should be structured and how the league looks at the players and how the teams look at the communities around the stadiums. What makes me feel empty is the residue of those in power being poor stewards of what power does to other people. At what point do we start to look at those in power with the understanding that they need to prove they have “our” best interests in mind? In this case, it is the players and the new commissioner is going to sign a CBA. This moment in the show serves as a moment for the audience to think about those who have power and how they steward that power.

The Preseason Games Begin

-The first pre-season game is upon us and I love the camera being there for a discussion between the coach and forward Jun Endo. They discuss strategies in the game but there is a moment when the coach asks how Endo is doing on a personal level. It’s a small moment but a moment where the player feels like they are being heard. Endo talks about the nuance of communication with her teammates considering there a language barrier. One of the joys of sports is that gestures and certain words are universal. I hope Endo is able to find a connection with her teammates off the pitch as time goes by. I love that the coach is setting the baseline for checking in on the players in more ways than strategy and stats.

-“That Wasn’t Acceptable” The pre-season gets through 4 games and the team has 0 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses. Losing sucks, the players are injured and frustrated as are the people in charge (frustrated, not injured). We see a moment on the field where the Sporting Director (Eni), Head Coach (Freya), Goalie Coach (Daniel), one of the owners (Julie), and another woman whom I’m not familiar with. Eni calls the start to the preseason unacceptable; an “in the trenches moment”, then concludes the thought with the question “What we gonna do?” A significant portion of the show to this point has been about injuries. We know 4 of the team’s defenders are down and we know the roster was constructed with the idea of being a tough defensive team to play against. As a fan, if the person responsible for the construction of the roster is asking what the team is going to do, I would be livid. The Sporting Director is the one who is supposed to have the answers. Sometimes, the answer is, “The talent depleted by injury is more than the talent available on the market.” That is a fact about sports at this level. Entire seasons are lost for players and teams due to the volume and/or severity of injuries. I don’t want the Sporting Director asking what to do, I want them to search for solutions, and ask questions to understand the problem. Frustration is fine, it can motivate and push the team to be better. Being mad and showing anger for the sake of showing displeasure with the results does nothing. Freya continues the exchange by explaining the team’s defense doesn’t match up against the other team’s offense. This isn’t a surprise as the show has told us how many defenders are out of the lineup right now. Freya continues that they try the same tactic, but they don’t “have the forwards that can compete.”

Quick sidebar: As mentioned in the introduction, I went to a game recently and it was immediately clear three areas that hold back the team. Forward speed, passing quality, and team size. These were diagnosable issues from the stands and the Head Coach has seen the same thing in their preseason games. New teams don’t get the best players in the expansion draft, and these are the kinds of talent gaps that need to be worked around or filled in over the course of time. This is why the “no-trade” policy is a terrible policy to make public. Players need to get coaching and do the training to be better than their opponents. When the talent gap is too big, the team will lose games until the gap is closed.

Freya goes on to explain that the forwards don’t have the size to win headers or a free ball. Eni suggests putting the ball in behind the defense. This turns out to have been the instruction from the head coach. The on-field passing I saw suggests the team doesn’t have the level of speed and crisp passing to make that happen on a regular enough basis to be a threat to the other team’s defense. The situation diffuses when it’s clear there is an instruction that players should be trying to get the ball behind the defense in certain situations. This whole exchange tells me that Eni is in a job that doesn’t match her leadership style. She needs to be closer to the players and that means being a coach. Not just the Head Coach but the coach who also manages the roster. I wonder how many times she watched the team and thinks to herself, “I could go out there right now and play better.” I don’t doubt there are things she could bring to the field as a player that would make the team more dangerous, but that isn’t what she is there to do.

The lesson I would take from this is that these are not the questions I would want my leadership group to ask. I want them to identify the problems and figure out the solutions. In this case, the problems are identified, and the person in charge of managing/upgrading the roster seems to hope that dropping f-bombs and being outwardly mad will make the roster issues go away. It doesn’t work that way. Eni closes the segment with a sitting interview and says, “You don’t want to develop a habit of losing more than three games in a row.” I agree with the sentiment, but when you consider the realities of an expansion roster, throw in all the injuries, and add the increased difficulty of the team’s first season; The front office's expectations are not in line with the realistic time horizon of success. I get it, conservative thinking and playing just well enough not to lose isn’t the way to build a winning culture. I just don’t think there should be moments on the field where decision-makers are bringing that much frustration to a situation more suited for solution identification rather than “madding to be mad”.

The episode ends with a montage of the team in practice and Vanessa Gilles speaks up during a water break. She “scolds” the rest of the team for not talking to each other (presumably during the water break) about what they should be doing and not doing during certain plays in practice. The team must learn how to be a team for one another. Meanwhile, it feels like the front office is in “hope mode” that the players will perform, and they have already hamstrung themselves by setting a static roster or going back on their word. I like the fact that we see the coaching staff looking at the game tape. They are looking for ways to play better, as the coaching staff should be doing. Building a culture takes time and this sequence shows that the different ropes are being pulled in the same general direction; it’s the culture that will weave those ropes together and get them pulled in the same direction with exponential power gains. As Daniel says at the very end of the episode, the team and the culture need to be built up brick by brick, no matter the circumstances.

What’s exciting about this team and this series is we will get to see the struggle and the team overcome those struggles along the way. The victories will be sweeter while the losses will feel unbalanced and unfair. That is the nature of Sport, but this is the first time we will get to see a brand-new team go from an idea to what I hope is a league champion.

CHR;)