Losses can be hard to take for any team in any sport, and then there some losses that can really be frustrating for the losing side.
That had to be what Angel City FC was feeling after Saturday night’s match against the Washington Spirit. Having played a Spirit squad that was undefeated and in third place coming into the match, Angel City battled Washington toe-to-toe, stride-for-stride, and looked in position to at the very least come out of the match with a point, which coming against one of the top teams in the league would have felt like a win.
However, a key decision swung the result to the visitors, as the decision by referee JC Griggs to award Washington the penalty enabled the Spirit to leave BMO Stadium with all three points. That decision will almost surely be felt in the Pacific Northwest, as Washington’s win in Los Angeles combined with Portland’s loss in Houston enabled the Spirit to leapfrog the Portland Thorns and OL Reign for first place, though the Reign will have the opportunity to nullify this current situation, as they play the North Carolina Courage on Sunday.
“When I watched it back on the big screen, it looked like it hit the side of her,” Angel City midfielder Dani Weatherholt said. “Super unfortunate for another VAR called to not go our way, but I think it is what it is at this point.”
It started as the match was heading to stoppage time. Washington’s Marissa Sheva sent a ball back towards the penalty area, the ball deflected off Angel City’s M.A. Vignolia, who was trying to block the cross, the deflection did go up towards Vignolia’s hand area, and Griggs saw enough to blow the whistle and sent the Spirit to the penalty spot. Griggs did delay the penalty as VAR did check the play, the replays showed the ball initially hit off Vignolia’s hip and go upwards towards her left hand, but it also showed Vignolia pulling said hand back upward in order to avoid the ball going off her hand. However, that was not enough for VAR to overturn the call, and Washington got to stay at the spot. Vignolia’s protest got her a yellow card, then Keeper Didi Haracic got a yellow card as well for what Griggs deemed to be stall tactics. Nevertheless, it was Ashley Hatch who stepped up to the spot and she converted, sending the penalty into the upper right net to give the Spirit a lead it never relinquished.
“We all know that M.A. had a great game,” Angel City defender Paige Nielsen said. “A lot of our backline had an amazing game, as well as a lot of our teammates. She knows that mistakes happen and we use these opportunities to grow.”
So controversial was the decision by Griggs that it did warrant a statement afterwards.
“Although the ball struck the body of the defender first, there was a secondary motion of the arm. This movement of the arm was at/above the shoulder making the body unnaturally bigger blocking the path of the ball. A penalty kick was awarded for handball.”
The decision and ensuing penalty overshadowed what had been a grinding evenly-played match between the two sides. Both teams created chances throughout the match and managed at times to get into each other’s penalty area, but both teams also get settled in defensively and managed to make key stops, get key deflections and blocked shots and and result ultimately reached stalemate status.
“We needed to do more in order to put pressure and have more shots on target in order to win the game,” Angel City head coach Freya Coombe said. “However, I definitely don’t think that we should have lost the game. We defended really well. We were resolute, compact, organized defensively, and limited them to chances.”
Angel City heads out on the road for its next two matches, starting on Saturday against the Courage.
