LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Actress Jennifer Garner and author Glennon Doyle will lead fans in the “Three Clap” before Sunday’s Angel City Football Club-NJ/NY Gotham FC National Women’s Soccer League game at Banc of California Stadium.


What You Need To Know

  • According to team president and founder Julie Uhrman, the cheer was originated by U.S. women’s national team midfielder Julie Foudy

  • Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman led the “Three Clap” on May 21 before a 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Current

  • The game ball will be delivered by the all-female Highlight Pro Skydiving Team, which is focused on highlighting women’s rights initiatives

  • The 5 p.m. game against Gotham FC will be streamed by Paramount+

According to team president and founder Julie Uhrman, the cheer was originated by U.S. women’s national team midfielder Julie Foudy during one of the three Olympics she competed in.

“She was working out every morning and she started with a three clap,” Uhrman said in a video posted on the team’s Instagram account. “Given that she is an owner and investor in Angel City Football Club we loved it and have decided to work with her to make it our own.”

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman led the “Three Clap” on May 21 before a 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Current. Portman is one of the team’s founders. Garner and Doyle are part of the team’s ownership group, as is Doyle’s wife, retired U.S. women’s national soccer team star Abby Wambach.

Garner and Doyle are the official “Soccer Moms” for ACFC, pledging in a light-hearted video posted on Instagram to do similar tasks performed by mothers for youth soccer teams, such as provide slices of fruit at halftime. (Garner is shown in the video slicing a grapefruit instead of a customary orange, “because we’re in Los Angeles and we innovate,” she said.)

“We are working with our players and supporters to ... recognize the recent senseless acts of gun violence by wearing orange, the nationally recognized color of gun violence prevention,” a team spokeswoman told City News Service on Friday. A moment of silence will also be held.

The game ball will be delivered by the all-female Highlight Pro Skydiving Team, which is focused on highlighting women’s rights initiatives.

A crowd similar to the 18,514 for the May 21 game is expected, the spokeswoman said.

The 5 p.m. game will be streamed by Paramount+.

ACFC enters Sunday’s play second in the NWSL standings with nine points on a 3-1-0 record, trailing only fellow expansion team San Diego Wave FC, which has played one more game, and has 12 points on a 4-1-0 record.

NJ/NY Gotham FC (1-2-0) is 10th in the 12-team league with three points. NJ/NY Gotham FC and the North Carolina Courage have played a league-low three games. A game scheduled for May 14 between the two teams was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols.

ACFC reserve goalkeeper Brittany Isenhour is in the COVID-19 protocol and will miss the game. She has not played in the regular season and did not play in the NWSL Challenge Cup.

Midfielder Dani Weatherholt is questionable because of an injured left ankle. Weatherholt has started all 10 ACFC regular-season games and NWSL Challenge Cup games.

NJ/NY Gotham FC has been shut out in back-to-back games and has been held scoreless for 229 consecutive minutes. The team’s roster includes three former UCLA standouts — midfielders McCall Zerboni and Delanie Sheehan and defender Caprice Dydasco — and defender Mandy Freeman, a former USC standout.

ACFC forward Christen Press and NJ/NY Gotham FC midfielder Kristie Mewis were teammates on the U.S. team that won a bronze medal at last year’s delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

ACFC coach Freya Coombe coached NJ/NY Gotham FC to a 10-12-11 record in all competitions from 2019-21. ACFC goalkeeper DiDi Haračić played for NJ/NY Gotham FC from 2019-21.