Yesterday Angel City posted on Instagram that they’ve made five new signings and they will be announcing them throughout the rest of the week. 

I have been procrastinating this postmortem of the 2025 season for a while now, but now that it’s officially 2026 I know I just need to get it out there and be done with it. I was originally going to structure my 2025 season postmortem similarly to my midseason check in. However, as the second half of the season unfolded, I realized that wouldn’t really be possible.

There were so many changes throughout the back half of the season that it’s hard to really know what to take from last season. I mean it was just one season? It feels like Angel City lived multiple lives throughout 2025. There was the Laity era. Before and after Savy King’s medical event. The Straus takeover. Before and after the international break. The post-Alyssa Thompson era. Ali Riley and Christen Press’s retirements. That article. Where is Sydney? Various levels of overlapping. It was an emotional rollercoaster to say the least.

Angel City finished the season 11th in the table with a record of 7-6-13. Interim Head Coach Sam Laity and permanent Head Coach Alex Straus had records of 4-2-4 over 10 matches and 3-4-9 over 16 matches, respectively. They earned the same amount of points compared to the 2024 season without the points deduction.

On the final match day of the season Angel City’s starting XI looked like this:

Compare that to their first starting XI:

Only four of the players who started on the last day of the season also started the first game of the season. Only nine of the players that dressed on the last day of the season were even on the active roster on opening day. This is why I have felt a bit stumped on how to assess the team’s 2025 season when there are only a handful of players who were actually on the team for the whole year and also logged significant minutes. 

When Alanna Kennedy, Katie Zelem, Julie Dufour, and Alyssa Thompson departed after the international break this summer, it was pretty clear that Sporting Director Mark Parsons and Head Coach Alex Straus were tearing apart the plane and rebuilding it in the middle of a playoff push. Preseason was basically happening in real time as roster numbers seemingly swelled, suddenly plummeted, and then slowly trickled back in all while competitive games with stakes were being played.

The approach to 2025 probably made the players’ jobs more challenging. However, a changing of the guard from the club’s previous sporting direction was necessary. The results this season and the loss of Alyssa Thompson did not go over well with the fanbase and did not exactly inspire confidence, but I think starting fresh and establishing an actual stable foundation for the players is worthwhile. Angel City has not had a consistent Front Office or Head Coach in its entire existence. I’m not trying to excuse Straus and Parsons, but the Angel City they inherited was a mess and their objective from the start has been to launch a multi-season project to turn the on-field product around. Right now the club is in a place for its most experienced sporting side yet to have a full offseason, pre-season, and regular season together. Do I wish things had played out differently in 2025? Yes. However, the team seemingly has a headstart going into 2026, likely having already experienced the most drastic of the growing pains. Hopefully.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge how scary and traumatic witnessing King’s collapse likely was for the team. It was upsetting to witness from the stands, so I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be her teammate, friend, co-worker, peer. Especially in the moment when there were so many unknowns. Of course, all of the players are high level professionals, but on a human level, that isn’t something you just get over in a couple of weeks. Eight games came and went between the incident and Angel City’s next win. On top of the emotional weight of King’s medical event, the team was also managing coaching, personnel, tactical, and cultural changes as well as outside noise and drama, while a score to the tune of devastating wildfires and ICE raids played in the background. That’s not to say other teams did not have challenges throughout the season, but I want to just say on a person-to-person level, I empathize with these players who are trying their best to grow and improve in the face of adversity on the pitch, within the organization, and in the world at large.

With all of that said, what I want to do for this postmortem is try and pick out what can be learned from Angel City’s 2025 season and look toward 2026.

Laity vs. Straus

I think one of the central questions swirling around 2025 is whether Angel City was actually better under Interim Coach Sam Laity. After 10 matches each this is how each coach looked in some key team statistics:

Just from the numbers it would seem like Laity was, indeed, the better manager during 2025. However, it’s important to remember that Laity mostly worked with a consistent starting XI with the element of surprise when it came to new players or playing style. By the time Straus took over there was already plenty of tape on rookie star Riley Tiernan, Savy King had recently left the squad due to her medical emergency and subsequent cardiac rehabilitation, injuries were starting to plague the squad, and the landslide of departures was underway. So there’s some nuance to it.

This is reflected further in each coach’s rolling non-penalty xG differential for the season. If you’re wondering what to make out of the following visualizations, red is bad, blue is good.

Both had highs and lows, but Straus’s highs weren’t as high. Even though Straus said that they wouldn’t be fully reinventing the wheel in 2025, as high profile departure after high profile departure came and went, it was clear the rebuild was already underway. They seemed to establish a bit more defensive structure and organization, but the goals seemed to dry up. Things started to look progressively better as Nealy Martin and Hina Sugita joined the squad and provided stability to the midfield that had been missing for a long time, however, by then the team was basically out of playoffs and the season was pretty much over.

In terms of chance creation, I think that Straus maybe had the edge. He ultimately had more games than Laity, but some of the goals scored under Laity were pretty low quality chances. Not that they weren’t bangers, but they were not likely to be repeated. Perhaps another contributing factor to Straus’s poor offensive showing, even by the end of the season.

Here are shot maps, goals scored, and good/great chances (>0.15 xG) created under both Laity and Straus:

The team seemingly created and scored more high quality chances under Straus. The squad could have stood to score more of their good (>0.15) and great (>0.33) chances under both coaches, but what I want to point out is that the repeatability of the goals scored under Straus is easier to build a foundation upon.

Defensively, both coaches struggled. Teams could always count on dismantling the defense in transition. The left side always felt a bit vulnerable whether it was Evelyn Shores or MA Vignola playing as the left outside back. It seemed as though once Sara Doorsoun was a mainstay in the starting XI, she managed to make a mistake that cost the team a goal each game. Despite Straus establishing a defensive structure, it was clear that the squad never quite got the hang of it.

Combined with some misfortune (the tiny red dots from distance) Straus’s defense also allowed quite a few great chances. It’s possible that some of these goals were allowed when the squad was at its lowest point numbers wise, but still. Some kinks clearly need to be worked out and some reinforcements need to come in. Straus still has plenty of work to do but I feel cautiously optimistic about what he and Sporting Director Mark Parsons are building. Besides the loss of Alyssa Thompson, the moves Parsons has made have been pretty good. Missteps like Doorsoun have been managed quickly to ensure that players coming in are really who they’re looking for.

The Offseason

As of the time of this writing, Angel City has 18 players signed for 2026 and a bunch of money and cap space to play with thanks to the Alyssa Thompson trade, a good handful of players leaving in free agency, and the retirements of Christen Press and Ali Riley. One international spot is currently open due to Sara Doorsoun returning to Eintracht Frankfurt.

On Tuesday November 25th Sydney Leroux made an Instagram post addressing her prolonged absence due to struggles with disordered eating. Above all else, I hope that Sydney is taking care of herself and that she and her family have the support around her that is necessary to heal and recover. As of November 11th, she was still listed as a forward on Angel City’s end-of-season roster, so she seems to still be with the club. If it is her goal, I hope she can return to the pitch at some point.

At this point, the biggest areas of need feel like peak age forwards and quality depth pieces in the midfield and defensive line. Hina Sugita was on my offseason wishlist and I think it’s important that the club is bringing in more players who have won NWSL championships in the past like Nealy Martin. I think if a peak age, high quality attacking midfielder was available or willing to come to Angel City (like an Ashley Sanchez or Croix Bethune), it could unlock the attack. I really like both Kennedy Fuller and Maiara Niehues, however, they both can face issues with fitness or maintaining quality performance over multiple games. I think as they continue to grow up and develop this will improve, but in the meantime I don’t think it would be completely wasteful to have someone else in the mix for them to learn from.

The Three Year Plan

For better or worse, the true next phase for this club starts now and it still might look rough in 2026. Angel City already looks pretty different compared to what it was at the beginning of 2025. It will only continue to change heading into next season. It will still take time for the group to gel and really develop their identity. The good part is that players that are sticking around have been exposed to Straus’s coaching and style of play. They should know who they want to become in the next couple of years. Incoming players will be coming in knowing and fitting the vision in some way, shape, or form. I think the 18 players on the roster right now are a fairly good foundation from which true next steps can be taken. Hopefully Straus has taken some time to step back and reflect this offseason, and approaches 2026 with fire in his belly after being (hopefully?) seriously humbled in 2025. Let us hope that Angel City will go through a tangible evolution into and throughout 2026.

**Images courtesy of Angel City