{"id":28305,"date":"2023-04-21T16:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/21\/how-angel-city-san-diego-took-different-paths-to-nwsl-success-in-socal-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T16:00:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T16:00:44","slug":"how-angel-city-san-diego-took-different-paths-to-nwsl-success-in-socal-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/21\/how-angel-city-san-diego-took-different-paths-to-nwsl-success-in-socal-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Angel City, San Diego, took different paths to NWSL success in SoCal \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div id=\"mvp-post-feat-img\" class=\"left relative\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/PXL_20230326_223827557-1000x600.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"1000\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"600\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-post-feat-img--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"mvp-feat-caption\">Photo: Jeff Kassouf<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">LOS ANGELES and SAN DIEGO \u2014 A hippo and two sharks sit in the front row of the supporters\u2019 section at SnapDragon Stadium in San Diego\u2019s Mission Valley, seven miles northeast of downtown. Bubbles blow from a machine into the crisp blue sky on March 25 as the home team, Wave FC, scores three goals and wins on opening night of the 2023 National Women\u2019s Soccer League season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSince we started here, we wanted fun stuff,\u201d Dai Tran, the person inside the hippo costume, tells <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Equalizer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> before the game. Supporters are gathered around a tent in a parking lot a few hundred feet from a fan festival with a live DJ, food trucks, and a VIP area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI was one of the people that came up with the bubbles. For a while, we didn\u2019t have smoke. When people score goals, [teams] usually have smoke, so we were like, \u2018OK, what\u2019s a water thing we could do?\u2019 And we were like, \u2018Oh, bubbles are fun!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A day later and 120 miles up the road, Angel City FC kicks off its season \u2014 and there is plenty of smoke. A similar fan gathering takes place ahead of the match at BMO Stadium downtown. The DJ turns up the music as a dance crew takes the stage. As Bruno Mars\u2019 \u201c24K Magic\u201d transitions to Dua Lipa\u2019s \u201cLevitating,\u201d the wind picks up, and thick, pink-and-black smoke billows from the flares in supporters\u2019 hands.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"equalizer-paywall\">\n<div class=\"paywall-block\">\n<p>\n      Access the best women\u2019s soccer coverage all year long\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n     Start your FREE, 7-day trial of The Equalizer Extra for industry-leading reporting and insight on the USWNT, NWSL and beyond.\n  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--mvp-post-tags--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--posts-nav-link--><\/p>\n<div class=\"mvp-org-wrap\" itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\">\n<div class=\"mvp-org-logo\" itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/equalizerWhite-1.png\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/equalizerWhite-1.png\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-logo--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Equalizer Soccer\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-wrap-->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/2023\/04\/21\/how-angel-city-san-diego-wave-different-paths-nwsl-success-in-fanssocal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Jeff Kassouf LOS ANGELES and SAN DIEGO \u2014 A hippo and two sharks sit in the front row of the supporters\u2019 section at SnapDragon Stadium in San Diego\u2019s Mission Valley, seven miles northeast of downtown. Bubbles blow from a machine into the crisp blue sky on March 25 as the home team, Wave FC, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}