Angel City signed Alyssa Thompson’s sister, Gisele, in November and then chilled. Savannah McCaskill headed south to the Wavé, Scarlett Camberos left to Bay FC, Dani Weatherholt went to the Courage, and Simone Charley is now with Orlando.

Then, as one would expect from an L.A.-based club, ACFC flung the door open with a fashionably late massive deal to land the People’s Choice for ROTY, Messiah Bright. It’s exactly the kind of move they needed, and was completed thanks to good work from Orlando to acquiesce to a player’s request.

Let’s look at why this move is so important to L.A.

Don’t let the six regular season goals fool you. Despite the incessant criticism of the NWSL as a transitional league, it’s one of the hardest leagues in which to consistently score. With just one year as a pro there can’t be much proof of consistency from Bright just yet, but the manner in which she created and took shots is promising.

et’s use StatsBomb data to look at the only two strikers of a similar profile who scored more goals that last season (Ashley Hatch, 9; Alex Morgan, 7). Keep in mind that Hatch scored five (5!) penalties, and Morgan two, so we’re gonna ignore those and look at open play.

Both Hatch and Morgan played over 20 90’s whereas Bright hit 16.8 in her first season with Orlando. The Pride were implementing a new system, Bright was adjusting to a new , and the Pride struggled to keep hold of games throughout the season. Still, Bright’s radar shows she was excellent at carrying the ball forward with her dribble, good at pressing, and averaged over 2.5 shots per 90.

Digging deeper into the shooting statistics reveals that just 23% of Messiah Bright’s shots from open play were on target. That variance is quite a lot lower than Hatch (37%) and Morgan (44%).

Despite the low percentage of shots on target, Bright’s total open play xG per shot of .114 isn’t far from Hatch (.15), and is close to Morgan’s (.12). But where Bright stands out is in the percentage of her shots on target that become goals – HALF!

Typically a low shots on goal percentage and high conversion rate would suggest a bit of a goal poacher who feasts on tap-ins – with Bright this isn’t true. Not only did one of her six goals come from outside of the box, she’s scored from a set piece, an open play cross, a through ball, and from her own dribble.

However, it does mean that Bright likely needs to be more patient and selective about when she shoots. It also means that service is important, as is the case with most strikers. But Bright is versatile enough to score from any service from set piece to through ball, and her ability on the dribble means she can be a threat to create her own shot if she’s left with a defender to beat instead of several.

The biggest improvement Bright can make is lessening low xG shots in her game. With her ability to turn shots on target into goals, more patience and discernment in her shot selection would see her increase her scoring output.

Orlando listened to their 2023 draft pick’s request for a trade and reached a deal with Angel City to let her head to Los Angeles for $130k. After yet another offseason of players being traded without communication and against their will, we stan a player-first trade.

Messiah Bright will almost assuredly improve on her six goal ouput from her rookie season. She now knows what to expect, and will have talented wide players capable of delivering quality service.

But remember how I said patience and discernment from Bright would help improve her goalscoring? Becki Tweed and Angel City can help too, and they should. Orlando had a lot of moving parts last season as they tried to settle into a cohesive team with an identity, and while Bright played a part, an MVP-caliber season from Adriana .

If Tweed’s system can get ACFC’s new star striker into positions to consistently put shots on target, Bright’s ability to turn good chances into great chances will do the rest. Of her six regular season goals, Messiah’s decision making and shot placement increased the quality of each chance by an average of .276 per goal.

xG → PSxG
.04 → .15
.66 → .99
.12 → .14
.25 → .48
.32 → .57
.39 → .93

Morgan posted a .576 across her five non-penalty goals, but Hatch tallied a much lower variance of .095 across her four non-penalty goals. Assuming standard progression, Bright has a lot of tools to build on that make her a truly exciting central striker.

Massive move for Angel City and Messiah Bright that may have just come at the right moment for both. Angel City needed someone to just put the ball in the back of the dang net, and Bright will have the opportunity to cement herself as a star striker by doing just that.

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