Gisele Thompson was 5 years old when Claire Emslie made its professional football debut. She is now playing behind Emslie on the right side of Angel City training and, if you ask Emslie, the age difference has not harmed their chemistry.
“We don't even need to speak because we have this relationship on the field,” said Emslie.
Out of the field, this is another story. They could speak all day and not understand each other.
“I don't know what she says for half the time,” said Emslie. “And I'm sure she doesn't know what I'm talking about.”
The problem is not a language. It's culture. And it is omnipresent in a team with one of the widest propagations of age in women's football.
Angel City FC, which opens its fourth NWSL season on Sunday by welcoming the San Diego wave, has five players who are not old enough to buy a drink and seven other people who respond to the age to appear in the American Senate.
Consider this Christen Press36 years old, and defender Ali Riley37 years old, played together in Stanford the year of adolescent teammates Kennedy Fuller and Casey Phair were born. And striker Sydney Leroux won a World Cup before defender Savy King completed his primary studies.
This can make moments annoying in a team in which more than half of the players are a decade or more age.
“I actually think that the difference in musical tastes, of the difference in slang is rather fun. People get closer in a way you don't really think because of age,” said goalkeeper and vice-captain Angelina Anderson, who, at 23, has become a kind of interpreter for women on both sides of the generation.
Phair, 17, who is both a world cup veteran and the youngest player on Angel City's list.
Forward Christen Press is one of the veterans of Angel City who work to supervise adolescents on the list.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
“Casey often teaches the older players the young slang,” said Anderson. Phair, who was born the day the first iPhone hit the market, is also good in technical support, she added.
And although it is welcome – “I need a lot Technological support, ”said Press – that’s not why Angel City has become a team for ages.
“You need pros seniors and you need young people to win now and win next year and win the following year,” said Mark Parsons, who is starting his first season as Angel City sports director. “You need this balance.”
Parsons had in Portland, where he won three trophies in his last season with a team that had played Christine Sinclair, 38, and Becky Sauerbrunn, 38, alongside Olivia Moultrie, 16. Age spreads like this more and more common in sport, with higher wages allowing women to play longer at the same time as adolescents jump the university or leave early to become pro.
Last year, around 5% of NWSL players were under 20 years old, athletics reporting that 13 players, including McKenna, 14, jumped from club football to the NWSL since 2024. This number is certain to increase with the abolition of the League university recovery.
Angel City's movement for young people has created a new role for players such as Press and Emslie, who are counted on young people.
“Riley Tiernan report, who is on fire right now, Julie Dufour, Alyssa Thompson, Casey Phair; they can be around the Christen press,” said Parsons. “It's great. It saves a lot of time for coaches. Lots of work occurs. “
It is a responsibility that the press adopted after having missed most of Angel City's first three seasons due to a torn anterior cruciate.
The veteran of the city of Angel, Sydney Leroux, on the left, tries to control the ball while the young teammate Alyssa Thompson, on the right, is forward.
(Images Katharine Lotze / Getty)
“For me, being able to be a resource for them gave me a value and a role that I would never have imagined that I would have. And I really appreciate it, ”she said.
“I sit next to Alyssa Thompson in the locker room and we both attack players. And we are like the livre of a career, right? She looks at everything she could accomplish and I am in a place where I did a lot of things. I have this experience and this information and what it takes to succeed at the level for more than a decade. There are many positives that are exchanged. ”
Press, a native of Los Angeles who was the first signature of Angel City, was signed in January, the day after hiring parsons. It was part of a busy winter in which the The team separated from Becki Tweedhis second manager in three seasons, and completely redid the front office under New majority owners Willow Bay and Bob Iger.
“It is absolutely Angel City 2.0,” said Parsons about a franchise that has been launched with a big fanfare and an ambition only to fight, lose more matches than he has won and conceded more goals than he has scored in three mainly disappointing seasons.
“It's the next moment, it's the next phase. It's been three years and now is time to launch a new era.”
The team will start this time on Sunday under the temporary coach Sam Main, who should stay with Angel City to a certain extent when a permanent manager is hired this summer. In the meantime, Parsons has declared that he will focus on how the team plays and not necessarily if she wins.
“I hope the result is wonderful. But I care about performance, I care about showing our identity,” he said.
“We know we have to get points. We know we're going to compete. But you need four games to taste what your team will look like. It takes eight games for know What will your team look like. I am really excited that these next eight games really understand and know where we are. »»
Claire Emslie, the top scorer of all time in Angel City, pushes to win now even if the frankness is in the middle of a reconstruction.
(Doug Benc / Associated Press)
For adolescents, players Anderson calls “young people”, the deliberate chronology seems fair. Many things have been wrong in three years and it will take a lot to repair it. But for Emslie, an Scottish international who is the leader in the goals with 16 in all competition, the time is short.
“You have to live in the moment as a player. You can never look to the future. You can't watch the next game,” she said.
“It is a long -term project in which we are now and we are just at the beginning. It will take time, so I can understand what they say. But as a player, we want to win, whatever happens.”
Hours 2025
(Whenever Pacific)
March 16 – against San Diego, 3:50 p.m.; 21 – at Portland, 7 p.m.; 30 – VS Seattle, 5 p.m.
April 12 – at Houston, 2 p.m.; 18 – vs Gotham, 7:30 p.m.; 25 – In Orlando, 5 p.m.
May: 2 – in Washington; 5 p.m.; 9 – vs utah, 7:30 p.m.; 17 – at the Bay FC, 7 p.m.; 24 – Against Louisville, 7 p.m.
June: 7 – vs Chicago, 7 p.m.; 14 – against North Carolina, 7 p.m.; 20 – in Kansas City, 5 p.m.
August 1: – in Seattle, 7:30 p.m.; 9 – in San Diego, 7 p.m.; 15 – at UTAH, 7 p.m.; 21 – Vs. Orlando, 7:30 p.m.
September: 1 – vs bay fc, 6 p.m.; 7 – in Gotham, 2 p.m.; 13 – in North Carolina, 9:30 am; 18 – Against Washington, 7:30 p.m.; 27 – in Louisville, 4:30 p.m.
October: 6 – Against Kansas City, 7:30 p.m.; 12 – against Houston, 2 p.m.; 19 – VS Portland, 2 p.m.
November 2: 2 – in Chicago, TBD
