Angel City knocks off Tigres in a friendly

Stefany Ferrer Van Ginkel has played for Tigres, but now calls Angel City Football Club home.

Wednesday, as the teams kicked off their two-year partnership, Van Ginkel earned her first start and helped ACFC pull off a 1-0 win at The Banc of California Stadium in front 12,258.

“It felt really good,” Van Ginkel said of playing against her former team. “To be honest, it felt like a practice on the field. When you're playing, you're not thinking about who you're playing against.”

Savannah McCaskill scored the winning goal late in the game. She entered the game in the second half and in the 79th minute she got her left foot onto a cross from Tyler Lussi and got the ball by Tigres goalkeeper for the only goal of the game.

The goal of the partnership off the field is to promote the development of women's soccer and raise the profile of both clubs in the other's country. This game should certainly help with Angel City being an expansion club and the Mexican League being in just its fifth year of existence.

“These independent partnerships will take the game to the next level,” Tigres coach Carmelina Moscato said. “People will want to be part of it and I think these two teams make a lot of sense.

“It was a special moment and unique to come here to L.A. and play. We prepared for this like it was a league match.”

THE SCORE

ACFC 1, TIGRES UANL 0 Up next: ACFC vs. Chicago, Sunday, 5 p.m., CBSSN

Tigres currently sits in third place in the Liga MX standings after six games. In Mexico, each club has both a men's and women's team playing in the both the Apertura and Clasura tournaments.

Angel City thought it had got on the scoreboard in the 36th minute. Van Ginkel connected with Hope Breslin, but Breslin was ruled offside.

With a congested schedule coming up, the game afforded ACFC coach Freya Coombe a chance to heavily rotate players.

Brittany Isenhour made her first appearance in goal, defender Allyson Swaby and midfielder Katie Cousins both made their first starts, as did Van Ginkel.

Coombe made wholesale changes in the second half, bringing on more a firstteam look with Ali Riley, Tyler Lussi, Dani Weatherholt, Jun Endo, McCaskill and Cari Roccaro entering the game.

“We knew we would have a lot of squad rotation and it gave an opportunity for a lot of players that haven't played of played limited minutes,” Coombe said. “It was a great opportunity for us to do that.

“Allyson played a great ball out to Tyler that led to the goal and she looked very comfortable with the Tigres front line. Stefany came in to play against her former teammates and it was a great opportunity for her.”

Next season, Tigres will host Angel City.