The polls have closed and the results are in!
With just a few days left in 2022, it’s officially that time where we close the book on the inaugural season for Angel City FC and get into preparations for the 2023 season. Before we do that though, there is still one more bit of business to handle. The results for the 2022 season awards as voted on by you!
Huge congrats to our Iron Woman Megan Reid!
Megan played every minute of the 2022 NWSL regular season #WeAreAngelCity pic.twitter.com/tU9mA9Va0g— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) October 3, 2022
2022 Breakout Player of the Year
One of the more fun things about sports are when you have players who nobody heard about the year prior, suddenly becoming a player everyone knows about. This year, Megan Reid was that player. Someone who was literally minutes from hanging up her boots as she couldn’t find a home in professional soccer, only to get the call from expansion side Angel City FC. A major injury in defense opened the door for Reid, and the rest as they say, is history. Reid played every second of the 2022 season, was one of the team’s best defenders, and even played her way into a new contract for 2023. Quiet as it’s kept, if 2023 is any improvement on the 2022 campaign, we could be looking at an early favorite for the Defender of the Year nomination.
2022 Defender of the Year
Full disclosure, this one was one of the more surprising results we’ve had for the 2022 edition of these polls. Not so much who you all felt was deserving of the honor, but the result itself. Megan Reid takes home another honor as 2022 Defender of the Year with a whopping 86% of the votes. Hard to argue against the defender who played every moment of the season, but it once again speaks to just how quiet her greatness was. That will be one of the biggest changes in 2023, because there is no doubt the league has taken notice and should be showing Reid a lot more attention and respect for the new year.
En route and in style @tyler_lussi#AngelCityFC pic.twitter.com/SYIsTgWvYR
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) August 26, 2022
2022 MVP
Sleeves might be bullshit, but Tyler Lussi’s play in 2022 was far from it. As if playing incredibly well in one position isn’t enough, Lussi went ahead and showed us all she could do it all when she stepped in to help cover holes in defense. Not only did she do a job, she made a case for being one of the better defenders on the team in 2022. We will almost undoubtedly see Lussi return to a more attacking role for 2023 as the team gets healthier, but having a player as talented and versatile as Lussi is never a bad thing. With 50% of the votes, Lussi just edged out Savannah McCaskill, who had a fantastic season as well, for the MVP honors in 2022. Who knows, maybe she adds midfield maestro to the resume in 2023?
That’s that then. The book on the year 2022, and Angel City FC’s inaugural season comes to a close. The team are now focused on year two as they look to build on this incredible foundation they have set up for themselves. This is a team that brought the hype, brought the spectacle to NWSL, and hopefully soon, can bring some hardware to Los Angeles.
We here at Angels On Parade would like to thank all of you for reading, and for your support. We wish you all a very happy New Year, we can’t to do it all again in 2023!!