With movie stars such as Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria among its promoters, Angel City FC is preparing to bring women’s football to Los Angeles (USA) with a new team that has already raised many expectations before entering the field.
Next Saturday, Angel City kicks off the Challenge Cup, the Women’s National Football League tournament that serves as a precursor to the NWSL regular season, which begins the last weekend of April.
Los Angeles will kick off the Challenge Cup against San Diego Wave FC, another new team that debuted this year with Alex Morgan in their ranks.
Angel City will play the Challenge Cup at California State University’s Titam Stadium in Fullerton (California, USA).
But his debut at Bank of California, the brand-new venue in the heart of Los Angeles that he will partner with LAFC, won’t come until his first game of the regular season, which takes place on April 29 against the North Carolina Courage.
founding group
In July 2020, the Angel City adventure, led by Natalie Portman, the small founding group, began.
“When I saw my son adoring players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan in the same way as Leo Messi or Karim Benzema, I realized that supporting mathematics can bring about rapid cultural change,” Portman told the British newspaper on Friday.
The Academy Award winner for Black Swan (2010) was thus referring to the sexist scandal over pay inequality among US national team players, which was resolved last February by the NFL’s all-will-get commitment. Same salary and $24 million for the woman in compensation.
Several colleagues from Hollywood and the entertainment world have signed up as owners of the team, such as Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Chastain, Sophia Bush, Becky J, Uzo Aduba and Gabrielle Union.
Among this group, it is remarkable that there is an overwhelming majority of women, something that Longoria highlighted in an interview with Efe in June 2021 when he said that what Angel City is doing is “revolutionary”.
“It’s like stepping behind the camera to be a director. To get good opportunities and change things (for women), we need to sit on corporate boards,” defended the Latin character.
The team revealed this week that it has already sold nearly 15,000 tickets for the 2022 season (Bank of California’s 22,000-capacity stadium).
The magnitude of football
Aside from servings and preparations, it is now the turn of the Angel City players to bring all of their expectations onto the field of play.
“It’s amazing, overwhelming, just exciting. I don’t think there is a team in the league that has the kind of overwhelming support we have,” Angel City coach Freya Komp said on Thursday.
“I think this will definitely energize the players. There is a sense of excitement to go and play in front of such a big crowd.”
Angel City lands in a city like Los Angeles, which in the men’s division has two highly-acclaimed soccer teams such as LA Galaxy’s Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez (five-time NFL Cup winner) and the newer but growing LAFC of Carlos Villa . (me)
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