On April 17 Alexander Straus was named Head Coach of Angel City. Now that his final season with Bayern Munich has come to an end and he’ll be arriving in Los Angeles soon, I want to talk about the hire a little bit and look ahead to what we might be able to expect.

Straus has been with Bayern Munich for the past three seasons and the team has seen consistent success under his tenure winning three Frauen Bundesliga titles, as well as the 2024 DFB Supercup Frauen. Prior to his time at Bayern he played a role as either a Head Coach or Assistant Coach while bringing teams like Nest-Sotra and Sandviken (later SK Brann) to their first promotions, league titles, and cup finals. He also has experience with development and working with young players due to his role at Strømsgodset as head of youth development and experience working with the U23 and U19 women’s Norwegian National Teams.

His resume seems to be a good fit for Angel City. First of all, he’s won a lot of things throughout his coaching career. He has experience at various levels in different leagues. This implies that Angel City really does want to be serious about the sporting side. Besides that, I think it’s significant that he’s taken teams to a lot of their firsts. This pattern along with his success at Bayern hopefully suggests consistency. Angel City has faced a lot of challenges in their first couple of seasons. They have always felt like a team that has a lot of talent but struggled to establish an identity. Injury to key players and coaching turnover haven’t helped. However, over the past couple of seasons the club has signed a bunch of young players (the Thompsons, Fuller, King) that they seem to see as their core players for the next three years. It feels like Straus could be the right hire to bring all of the pieces together into a cohesive picture.

I can’t speak to Bayern’s style of play as the Frauen Bundesliga isn’t always easy to watch on the west coast of the US. Luckily, Sporting Director Mark Parson talks a lot. Who knows if he’s supposed to say so much, but he’s clearly passionate and the public benefits from his enthusiasm. I’m going to try to make some assumptions about what the Norwegian might bring based on what Parsons has said in interviews and press conferences since taking over Angel City’s sporting side.

In an interview with Expected Own Goals in March Parsons discussed the direction he wants to take Angel City on the pitch, as well as his search for a Head Coach. Parsons waxes poetic about the need to establish a culture and identity that feels authentic to the community and spirit of Los Angeles. That’s a great place to start. He also talks about how it’s important for people coming into the club to be a genuine good fit into not just the culture but the game model of Angel City. I think this is also a good sign. I think in the club’s first couple of seasons it felt like former General Manager Angela Hucles would sometimes just sign players that had a big, flashy name, was a Southern California native, or had good fan reception while on relief contracts regardless of position or true quality. This has left the team in a position where it is still trying to get past this period of prior poor roster construction.

So what is said game model? Parsons hit several points in discussing the style of play he would like to see out of Angel City:

Interim Head Coach Sam Laity has put some of the building blocks to achieve this in place. Prior to Savy King’s medical event, the team has been more progressive than in 2024 and they have a fairly aggressive press. These things could be cleaned up but I think that Straus will be tasked with getting the attack into even better areas and addressing the defensive disorganization.

Angel City President Julie Uhrman and Parsons did a press conference (discussed on Full Time by The Athletic) to announce and talk about Straus’s hiring. It sounds like it was a pretty extensive process. Parsons talked about why Straus was the right man for this job by reiterating a lot of the points he discussed on Expected Own Goals. He called Straus the right man for the job because:

Parsons implied during his interview with Expected Own Goals that he was willing to find the perfect fit for Angel City, not just an almost perfect fit. Based on the prior discussion of Straus’s resume and his characterization by Parsons, he seems like the right fit for the club right now.

The newly minted Head Coach will join the team officially on June 1. This should hopefully inject some energy into the environment and things will undoubtedly change over the rest of the season. However, he’ll only have been with the team for a week by the time Angel City plays the Chicago Stars on June 7, so I’m not expecting drastic changes by then. Additionally, many of the players will be at international camps when he arrives. Honestly, I wouldn’t even be that surprised if Laity still coaches the next game, similar to how Adrián González coached one more game after Jonatan Giráldez’s arrival at the Washington Spirit last year. Of course I can be pleasantly surprised if he does take the reins but I am mentally preparing myself for the alternative.

I think big changes can’t really be expected until after the longer international break in the summer. To be frank, true overhaul will likely not be seen until after the 2025 season when Straus is in charge for a full offseason. Does that mean I think this season is a wash? No. However, I am willing to be somewhat patient in terms of seeing the vision line up with reality. Sporting sides across the league keep talking about the “thee year plan,” including Angel City Sporting Director Mark Parsons. This half season is likely going to be a time where Straus implements his principles, adjusts to the NWSL, and assesses what needs to be taken care of in the offseason to move forward. As far as I know, Straus isn’t bringing any staff with him from Bayern Munich. We have 12 players whose contracts end after the 2025 season. A good handful of those players are from the poor roster construction era led by Angela Hucles. I expect a decent amount of personnel change this upcoming offseason. Regardless of how Angel City finishes this season, I think that the picture for the long-term vision will become more clear in 2026. Let’s see if Straus and the three year plan can bear fruit.