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.

what she does

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.