Tag: Angel City FC

Christen Press leaves Angel City FC game with knee injury

The prognosis is unclear after Press appeared to twist her knee

Christen Press was forced out of Angel City FC’s game Saturday night against Racing Louisville with an apparent knee injury.

Press twisted her knee and, after receiving some treatment on the field, was helped off the field by a team trainer and teammate Megan Reid. Angel City ended up substituting her shortly thereafter, bringing in Clarisse Le Bihan in the 66th minute.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Angel City head coach Freya Coombe said the prognosis was uncertain. “I haven’t had that update,” said Coombe. “I need to go in with (our medical team) and see how she’s doing.”

Midfielder Savannah McCaskill added that as a team, Angel City are “hoping and praying that she’s going to be okay, and (the injury) is nothing major.”

The injury comes at a crucial moment for both Press and the U.S. women’s national team. Press was named to the USWNT’s preliminary roster for the CONCACAF W Championship earlier this week, and Vlatko Andonovski is poised to announce the roster for this month’s national team camp, which leads right into the tournament.

The W Championship, which serves as qualifying for both the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics, runs from July 4-18 in Mexico.

Press’ contract with Manchester United ended in June 2021, and after Louisville traded her NWSL rights to Angel City two months later, she was effectively without a club to play for until Angel City’s expansion season began this year.

Press didn’t receive call-ups for the USWNT during that spell, but as a regular 90-minute player with Angel City this year, she figured to be back in the picture for Andonovski, and has been consistently at the heart of most of the LA-based club’s goals in NWSL. In Saturday’s 3-2 win over Louisville, Press scored one before setting up another for McCaskill, who would go on to net the game-winner with a stoppage-time penalty kick.

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Angel City FC, Tigres announce friendlies, two-year partnership

ACFC and Tigres are thinking big.

Angel City FC and Tigres announced a cross-border partnership today, with the clubs planning friendlies in Los Angeles later this year, and in Monterrey in 2023.

Both clubs billed the partnership as the first of its kind, with Angel City saying that the clubs “will host community impact events during each visit” in a press release. Tigres described the partnership as being part of its Amazonas Por Más program, which the club describes as “a series of initiatives to empower women within football in the sports, commercial and social pillars.”

Angel City will host Tigres on August 10 at Banc of California Stadium, while the 2023 friendly at Estadio Universitario will have a date and time announced in the future.

“Angel City has always set our sights toward becoming part of the international soccer community to collaborate with and shine a light on the power of women’s soccer and women’s sports overall,” said Angel City president and co-founder Julie Uhrman. “This partnership with Tigres is an important milestone in our club’s history and we are excited to engage with our fans and community as well as in Mexico and beyond.”

“For us, it is an honor to make this alliance with Angel City FC, a young, motivated franchise with which we have found similar objectives in taking women’s football to another level,” added Tigres president Mauricio Culebro. “We want to turn Tigres Femenil into one of the most renowned teams at an international level, and this type of partnership allows us to get closer to that goal.”

For Angel City, the appeal of such a partnership is clear. The team views itself as a global brand, for one, and partnering with a Mexican club likely won’t hurt its standing from a soccer perspective in Los Angeles and throughout the United States.

Tigres, meanwhile, has had its eyes north of the border for some time. They’ve played multiple friendlies with the Houston Dash, and also completed a transfer that sent Mexico winger María Sánchez to Houston this past winter. They also made headlines by managing to sign U.S. youth international Mia Fishel, who opted to move abroad rather than go to the Orlando Pride, who selected the UCLA star in the first round of the NWSL College Draft.

More recently, Tigres and Angel City linked up for a transfer, with midfielder Stefany Ferrer van Ginkel moving from Liga MX Femenil to NWSL in January.

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