SAN DIEGO — In interim head coach Becki Tweed’s first match of the season, Angel City Football Club defeated San Diego Wave FC 2-1 on Saturday on the road. It was the team’s first match win since May 7.

Defender M.A. Vignola scored the game-winning goal in the 88th minute to give Angel City the win.

Angel City recorded 13 shots with 5 being on goal. Though San Diego had 58.1% of the possessions in the match, Angel City limited the Wave to just 8 total shots.

“It’s a great moment and something I need to be really present in and process,” Tweed said. “We needed this as a group, we needed to come together and we needed these 3 points more than anything.”

San Diego came into Saturday’s match as the No. 1 team in the league with 20 points and a record of 6-3-2.

Angel City made a coaching change earlier this week, firing previous head coach Freya Coombe on Thursday and promoting Tweed to interim head coach.

The club struggled to find a clean shot in the first half, recording just 2 total shots and none on goal.

Early in the second half, San Diego defensive midfielder Kristen McNabb scored on a left-footed shot from just outside the penalty box to put Wave FC up 1-0 in the 57th minute.

Angel City responded when Paige Nielsen scored her first goal of the season on an assist from Clarisse Le Bihan in the 69th minute.

In the 88th minute, Vignola found a lane near the left side of the box and fired a shot that went under San Diego goalie Kailen Sheridan’s right arm and into the left corner of the goal.

Vignola said was relieved when the shot went in.

“(All I was thinking was) low and hard, better finish this,” Vignola said. “I saw it in the back of the net and I was like ‘Oh yeah it was good.’ ”

Nielsen said winning this game was important because of the rivalry with San Diego as well as where Angel City is in the standings compared to San Diego Wave FC.

“We needed that one. We knew the momentum it would take our entire team to grind a game out and that’s what we did today,” Nielsen said. “It was a team performance. We did the dirty things right.”

Angel City will play its next two games at home, starting with the Houston Dash on June 25. They will face San Diego again on June 28 as a part of the UKG NSW Challenge Cup.

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